FACup

As I walked away from Stamford Bridge this afternoon having watched Chelsea beat Stoke City 2-0, my mind was already racing ahead of me.

Would we get Tottenham in the semi finals or would we have to wait until the final?

I switched on Five Live, made my way home and found out that it would be the latter. A semi final against Martin O’Neill’s talented Aston Villa stands between Chelsea and back to back FA Cup finals.

As Guus Hiddink stood clasping the FA Cup on a sweltering May afternoon at Wembley he could reflect on a job very well done. When he took charge of Chelsea in February the club was in danger of going into free fall. But the Dutchman has ended his short tenure at the club in the best possible fashion, winning the club’s fifth FA Cup and their first trophy for two years.

Didier Drogba has been the scourge of Arsenal on so many occasions since he moved to Stamford Bridge from Marseille for £24 million in 2004. And so it proved again today.

The Ivorian grabbed the winner in this cup tie, knocking the ball past the shaky Lukasz Fabianski and then into the net, with just under 10 minutes left on the clock to set up a clash with either Manchester United or Everton in the final at Wembley on 30th May.

The 3-1 score line betrays what a close game this was. Chelsea may have ran out 3-1 winners over Ipswich, but for a large part of the game it looked as if a replay was on the cards.

Michael Ballack connected with Ashley Cole’s cross to give Chelsea the lead. But then Alex Bruce capitalised on some poor Chelsea defending to level the score.

Ballack scored his second from a free kick and Frank Lampard followed suit in the dying moments to ensure that Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men will be in the mix for the next round.

From the outset it appeared as if this game had all the makings of a classic FA Cup upset.

Peter Clarke produced a 90th minute equaliser for Southend to earn them a shock FA Cup Third Round replay with Chelsea.