Avram Grant must have feared being fed to the sharks in the nearby aquarium after sitting through 36 scoreless minutes, but to his intense relief, Chelsea’s misfiring players finally showed that they, too, possess teeth after all. Scott Sinclair, Salomon Kalou and Steve Sidwell all scored their first goals of the season before the Ivory Coast striker added another to bring a satisfactory end to one of the most turbulent weeks in the club’s history.

After scoring one goal in their previous four matches, any evidence of a cutting edge is to be welcomed by Chelsea, although it would be wrong to assume that a comprehensive win over a team seventh bottom of the Coca-Cola Championship will cure all their ills. Hull’s aquarium is known as The Deep and Chelsea’s players will have driven past it last night well aware they have only just begun to clamber out of the huge hole the club have dug for them.

It is to the players’ credit that Chelsea’s team spirit has survived the trials and tribulations of the past seven days, though other problems remain. The uncertainty created by Grant’s failure to obtain a Uefa Pro Licence has not been resolved, the injured Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard have not been given comeback dates and the position of Andriy Shevchenko, an unused substitute last night, remains unclear. To add to the intrigue, Roman Abramovich was absent despite hiring ten bodyguards to guarantee his safety. “If he’s here, you say he picks the team and if he’s not, you say he’s unhappy,” Grant, the Chelsea manager, said. “He missed a good game.”

With a chill wind blowing in from the east, Shevchenko should have felt at home, though it was a strike partnership from warmer parts that secured the holders a place in Saturday’s fourth-round draw. Claudio Pizarro did a passable impression of Drogba by holding the ball up well and showed signs of developing a promising partnership with Kalou, who, after a frustrating start to the season, finally found his shooting boots. After seeing his team-mates score four goals for the first time since a 4-1 win over West Ham United in April, Shevchenko can hardly expect to regain his place for the West London derby against Fulham on Saturday.

Grant praised his players’ clinical finishing and neat build-up play, but Phil Brown, the Hull manager, was more taken with their togetherness and support for the manager. “The one thing I learnt from Chelsea tonight was their players believed in one another and trusted one another,” Brown said. “They proved a point and played for the manager.”

Chelsea’s energetic opening provided an early sign of their enduring spirit as they forced four corners in quick succession. If the final 20 minutes of Chelsea’s Champions League draw with Rosenborg last week had resembled an ice hockey match, as Knut Torum, the Norwegian’s side’s coach, claimed, then this was more like Pinball Wizard. Sidwell’s shot was cleared off the line by Sam Ricketts, Michael Essien’s volley was saved by Bo Myhill and the Ghana midfield player then blasted over the bar after a good run from Shaun Wright-Phillips.

After being besieged for five minutes, Hull showed good spirit themselves to turn the match into a compelling contest, with Jay-Jay Okocha linking well with his wingers, Stuart Elliott and Henrik Pedersen, though their resistance was broken as Chelsea took the lead in the 37th minute.

Juliano Belletti found Wright-Phillips in space down the right, with the England winger crossing for Scott Sinclair to score his first goal for the club on his first start of the season. The 18-year-old showed impressive composure given his inexperience, cutting in from the left to place a right-foot shot past Myhill.

With confidence restored, Chelsea dominated the second half after doubling their lead in the 48th minute, with Kalou exchanging a one-two with Pizarro before meeting his cross with a neat header. Whereas Chelsea’s second goal contained an element of poetry, their third, four minutes later, was the result of sheer power, with Sidwell almost bursting the back of the net with a right-foot shot from 25 yards. Kalou added a fourth late on and Wayne Bridge, the left back, provided more good news by making his first appearance of the season after ankle surgery, though the real tests are yet to come, as Grant admitted.

“All the goals came from combinations with passes between many players,” he said. “Our target is to score many goals and play attacking football. I want the team to play as much attacking football as they can.”

Hull City (4-4-1-1): B Myhill – S Ricketts, M Turner, W Brown, D Delaney (sub: A Dawson, 53min) – H Pedersen (sub: N Featherstone, 73), I Ashbee, D Livermore, S Elliott (sub: R Garcia, 53) – A Okocha – S McPhee. Substitutes not used: B Hughes, T Woodhead. Booked: Brown.

Chelsea (4-4-2): C Cudicini – J Belletti, T Ben Haim, J Terry, A Cole (sub: W Bridge, 65) – S Wright-Phillips (sub: J Cole, 48), M Essien (sub: C Makelele, 73), S Sidwell, S Sinclair – C Pizarro, S Kalou. Substitutes not used: Hilário, A Shevchenko.

Referee: C Foy.

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