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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock 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 back from the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key players with that aim 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. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.