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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.