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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key 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 very good situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.