Roberto Di Matteo saved his bigger guns for Chelsea's Premier League game against Stoke but still came out on top
This has been another season wrecked by in-fighting and managerial upheaval at Chelsea, but some lessons are clearly being learned. Before pinning up his first team-sheet for the club on Tuesday night, Roberto Di Matteo took Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba to one side and explained precisely why they would start this contest on the bench.
The Italian's selection owed nothing to politics. Neither had it been dictated from above. "It had nothing to do with bravery, either," said the interim first-team coach. Rather, the pair were being kept for the "games that really matter" in the weeks ahead. "They were all on board," Di Matteo said. "They know the targets we have to achieve." After the murmurings of complaint at a perceived lack of communication from above, a timely bout of diplomacy has broken out.
The 2-0 victory at Birmingham City was a small step forward after weeks of regression, and was achieved against opponents whose resources had been stretched in the 47th game of their campaign, but Chelsea will be heartened by a hint of closure. Victories tend to unite, and there have been too few to celebrate in recent months. Those 3,220 visiting supporters crammed into the away end sought evidence of commitment and strength from those selected and, in the end, they could draw encouragement at glimpses of both. Far more onerous tasks await in the week ahead, but Chelsea have wrested back a sense of momentum.
The away support's frequent chants that Roman Abramovich can "sack who he wants" suggested there is little sympathy lingering for André Villas-Boas. The Portuguese had omitted Lampard and John Terry for the visit of Bayer Leverkusen back in September, and had sought to explain to the pair his reasons only for those omitted to be baffled at their non-involvement. It is a reflection of the toils since, and perhaps the dressing down delivered by the owner after wielding the axe on Sunday, that they can accept there has been a shift in priorities since.
It will be easier for the senior players to accept being "rested" now that Chelsea have given up their flirtation with long-term planning and reverted to familiar short-termism. Villas-Boas's sacking had been born of the real threat to this club's prospects of reaching the Champions League next season, the lack of an acceptable Guus Hiddink-style fire fighter having prompted the hierarchy to turn to an in-house stand-in. Yet Di Matteo has entered the final four months of his own employment – his contract expires at the end of June – with his brief to have a crack at Napoli next week but, above all else, finish in the top four.
It was that reality that dictated the team selection on Tuesday night, the priority very much Stoke City's visit to Stamford Bridge on Saturday in the Premier League and not passage into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. There was no Michael Essien or Daniel Sturridge in the starting line-up either, with Ashley Cole injured and absent, though apparently fit enough to feature against Tony Pulis's team.
If Villas-Boas had been making a statement by leaving out experienced campaigners in Naples last month, this was more a reflection of the reliance upon those same seniors to come. "We have targets because we have to play Champions League next season," admitted Di Matteo, echoing the owner's demands. "We don't like where we are in the table, and it'll be very tough to achieve what we want to achieve. But we have a duty to try. It's vital for us to finish fourth."
Should he succeed his status among the support will soar yet further. The 41-year-old, flanked by his assistant Eddie Newton, had not taken charge of a game since his West Bromwich Albion team were dismantled 3-0 at Manchester City in February last year but looked the part here. There was a tweak to a 4-2-3-1 system from the start, an improvement after a pedestrian first half – albeit as Birmingham tired – and relief to be felt in victory.
Juan Mata had already prodded the visitors ahead when Raul Meireles battered a second, prompting Di Matteo to embrace Drogba in celebration. The goalscorer, one of Villas-Boas's men, chose not to react quite so gleefully, briefly exposing the wounds of a traumatic week yet again. Stoke lie in wait, awkward opponents who will be eager to exploit nerves. Napoli, 3-1 up from the first leg, will be threatening on the counter next Wednesday. But this, at least, is a start.