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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly 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 perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

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

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

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Good

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.