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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.