RESULT!
Calm down, Blues fans. Nobody is suggesting your club is not already one of our game’s biggest guns. As if !
However, after this hard-fought Fifth Round victory at Championship Wolves – courtesy of second-half strikes from Pedro and Diego Costa – Antonio Conte’s men are now just three wins from lifting the FA Cup.
And all things being equal in the on-going title race, which they lead by eight points, they are set to join the very highest company.
Not many clubs have completed the League and Cup double in more than a century of trying – and even fewer have done it twice.
Only Manchester United and Arsenal have achieved the feat on more than one occasion.
Well, it would take a brave punter to bet against Conte’s Chelsea turning that exclusive duo into a trio come the end of May.
Make no mistake, while the Premier League is the priority Conte is clearly hellbent on lifting the Cup too – and joining former Chelsea boss and fellow Italian Carlo Ancelotti as the only boss to win the Double in his debut season.
If he does, then he will look back at this showdown in the Midlands as one of those pivotal days.
For, after making seven changes, his Chelsea outfit at times looked in real danger of becoming the latest victim of this year’s giantkilling acts.
Championship Wolves produced another blinder and will find it hard to believe they did not force a replay at the very least.
They hit the post, had a strong penalty appeal rejected and, for an hour, matched their illustrious opponents.
When the draw produced this tie, there was genuine excitement Lambert’s resurgent troops could cause another massive shock.
That was three weeks ago, however, and before their efforts in reaching the last 16 began to take a toll.
Wolves kicked off having lost three league games on the bounce – and no doubt some of the confidence gained from their amazing victory over Liverpool in the Fourth Round.
Not that you would have guessed it going by the booming noise around a packed stadium. Perhaps the extraordinary set of results earlier in the day had given the home supporters genuine cause for optimism.
The flip side to that, though, was Chelsea were f u l l y aware a giantkilling is never far away in the greatest competition of all. Wolves, only five points above the Championship drop zone, flew out of the traps – and nearly broke the deadlock in the sixth minute. A fine move down the right ended with the ball falling perfectly to the
feet of