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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately 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 tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.