CHELSEA 4 – PORTSMOUTH 0: JUST BEING FRANK
IT WAS an afterthought to the afternoon, a bookend to the game. But Frank Lampard’slate goal will have served to remind Andre Villas-Boas that he still has a role to play atChelsea.
It was a simple turn and typically well-placed shot into the corner of the net that wrong-footed Portsmouth goalkeeper Stephen Henderson in the third minute of injury time for his 180th goal for the club – like so many he has scored over the years.
The game was already won and Chelsea were firmly in the hat for the fourth round – where they will face MK Dons or QPR – but it was also Lampard’s 10th goal of the season.
In a difficult campaign, when he is quite clearly being phased out by a manager who has been given the task by owner Roman Abramovich of rebuilding this team, for a midfielder that is not a bad record.
It makes Lampard, 33, the joint top scorer at the club this season.
Lampard is unhappy about becoming a bit-part player, but has not been told that he is free to go. And he is not about to head out of the door to join former manager Carlo Ancelotti at Paris St-Germain. But a departure at the end of the season is highly likely if he continues to be snubbed for the big games.
Lampard was not the star of this mundane win over an ordinary Portsmouth side. That was Ramires, with two smartly-taken goals.
Considering this is one of only two competitions that Chelsea have a realistic chance of winning, it was a good job that Brazilian Ramires was on form, because this performance hardly marked Chelsea down as raging favourites.
Assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo said: “We have always said the FA Cup is a competition that we would like to win. This was one step towards that target.
“All round it was a good performance. Portsmouth made it hard for us early on and we found it hard to break them down.”
Chelsea were almost caught cold after just 30 seconds. Dave Kitson broke through, but shot just wide.
The last time these teams met in a competitive game was in the 2010 final, the year Chelsea did the Double and Pompey went down. How times have changed.
Fernando Torres forced a fine save from Henderson with a glancing header, but it was turgid stuff.
But then three minutes into the second half, Florent Malouda dribbled to the by-line and pulled the ball back for Juan Mata to stab home.
Chelsea then relaxed – probably a bit too much.
David Luiz gave the ball away, but Petr Cech managed to stop Kitson’s point-blank shot.
In the chaos that followed, John Terry had to head the ball off the line from Joel Ward and Cech recovered to grab David Norris’s shot.
It was Ramires’ sheer pace which in the end did for Pompey.
He started the move five minutes from time which ended with Torres nodding the ball down for him to score from six yards for the second goal to quell any nerves. Two minutes later Ramires left the Pompey defence trailing as he raced through the middle and coolly slid the ball home.
Then came Lampard’s cameo.
