The 'project' is back on course after a stirring comeback against Napoli to reach the Champions League quarter-finals
On a night when the rest of the world was invited to enjoy a good chuckle at the ludicrous pretensions of the men who run English football the senior players of Chelsea, the Premier League's last remaining representatives in the Champions League, made an immediate bid to restore the reputation of the country from whom, in the words of Sir Dave Richards, a "gang" of foreigners stole the game.
Snatching their destiny back from the clutches of extremely dangerous opponents in a match of fluctuating fortunes and nerve-shredding tension, they produced a performance that came close to matching the best of their European nights, particularly in the light of their recent problems. Their achievement was all the sweeter since Napoli had started the match as if it were merely a continuation of the tie's first leg, in which the Italian side had dominated opponents enjoying a far more impressive record in the competition.
Not often does a club play the two legs of a Champions League knock-out tie under different managers. Last night's success takes Roberto Di Matteo's record as caretaker manager to three wins from three matches, suggesting that the increasing weight on André Villas-Boas's young shoulders during the final weeks of his brief tenure placed a stifling burden on the players, too, and that the simple fact of a change at the top is coming as a relief.
Anything Arsenal can do, Chelsea's players must have been telling themselves, we can do better, but it took a sustained effort of will to break up the patterns with which their opponents initially threatened to wreak further havoc. The early success demanded by their captain was not forthcoming but, after repelling a number of typically swift and incisive counterattacks from Napoli's mobile front-runners, they began the job of exposing the weakness at the heart of Walter Mazzarri's defence. Once Didier Drogba had risen ahead of Hugo Campagnaro to meet Ramires' inswinging cross from the left and send a header flashing past the helpless Morgan De Sanctis just before the half-hour Chelsea scented the same sort of possibilities that Arsenal had glimpsed against another Italian club eight days earlier.
"We need to get off to a bright start," Terry had written in his programme notes. "We want to come out of the blocks fast and we will be looking for an early goal. Not to mention that we are at home this time and it will be intimidating for them, like it was for us there."
Napoli were so far from being intimidated that for a while they seemed on the brink of handing out a painful lesson in modern football to the second richest team in the world. With Marek Hamsik pulling the strings and the prodigious Christian Maggio always alert for the chance to overlap, the incursions of Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavazzi flickered with menace. After 20 minutes of outrageous brilliance, however, they paused to draw breath, allowing Chelsea to take the initiative and work their way into the contest. Drogba's goal came as a reward for the home side's persistence and two minutes after the interval Terry stepped forward to head a second from Frank Lampard's corner. With Chelsea now benefiting from their away goal, control of the tie had changed hands.
In the task of wearing down Napoli's enthusiasm and coherence, leaving them too exhausted to maintain the accuracy of their quick breaks, the return of Chelsea's old guard played an important part. Lampard and Ashley Cole were given the starting places denied them in Naples and responded with vigour while the return of Terry, kept out of the first leg by a knee injury, had a galvanising effect. A menace to the opposition at both ends of the pitch, he offered a disruptive presence at set pieces. His goal, a header from Lampard's corner to put Chelsea 2-0 up, was his 10th in 89 European appearances and it went some of the way to justifying his pre-match claim: "If we turn the tie around here tonight, this could go down as one of the great games."
When Andrea Dossena handled Branislav Ivanovic's header in the 75th minute, the error was forced by another set piece. Lampard's dead-eyed penalty and Ivanovic's 25-yard drive, coming either side of a Gokhan Inler goal which briefly reignited Napoli's optimism, emphasised the contribution that Chelsea's senior players believe they can still make to the club's future. What this means, presumably, is that the "project" to revive the squad through the infusion of young players will be put on hold while the existing team attempt to salvage a trophy or two from a difficult season. The average age of last night's four goalscorers is almost 32 and anyone taking charge of them now will be entering a dressing room in which familiar voices have reaffirmed their authority.
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