Wigan Athletic 1 Chelsea 2:Avram Grant said Chelsea deserved more respect. Wigan gave them too much. Steve Bruce said "the players will not need any extra motivation". They showed none. Thus did Chelsea move with authority into the fifth round.
Only the pitch caused inconvenience. Bruce might have brought it from Birmingham. It was rough enough to be a leveller. "It should improve when the rugby comes," he said wryly. But Wigan were rougher and unready.
Chelsea do deserve respect - for doing a professional job match after match with class, resilience and - lately - a long absentee list. This was their 22nd win in 29 games, with two lost, since Grant presented the other extreme to Jose Mourinho on the charisma spectrum.
It was also their 17th successive victorious domestic cup tie; they won both trophies last year and have reached next month's League Cup final against Spurs.
"Every game is a game," said Grant, touching ecstasy. "We want to win and we want to be in the next round."
They are easier to respect without some of their famous names too: John Terry's macho bullying, Frank Lampard's post-goal kissing ritual, Michael Ballack's ref-kidding dives, not to mention Ashley Cole, dumped by Grant as well as wife Cheryl, beyond the bench as well as the pale as disclosed on Saturday's tabloid front pages. In yesterday's the pop star reprieved him. If Grant, who denied the official "unavailable" line, does the same, Wednesday at home to Reading may reveal the upshot of the left-back's visit to the hairdresser.
Meanwhile his namesake Joe was showing the maturity that might be expected of all England players in the professional regime starting under Fabio Capello. In a team working with a will not to allow access to the obvious excuse, Cole's poise in possession and pride in performance stood out. In a 4-1-4-1 set-up he played wide right, with Shaun Wright-Phillips in the middle. His meeting of higher minds with Nicolas Anelka promises riches.
He might have scored inside a minute, when Steve Sidwell's diagonal pass picked him out beyond Titus Bramble, but he fired wide.
Bramble moments will soon enter a dictionary. On Saturday he was not alone in switching off and mostly was so determined not to be caught napping that, forsaking control, he whacked every ball on sight.
"The players have been buzzing all week in training," said Bruce, "and I know that, when they cross that white line, they will be ready physically and mentally."
How wrong he was. Their brains had buzzed off. There was no vitality. Chelsea played the ball around in defence, defusing an initial charge if there had been one.
A sharper mind than Marcus Bent's would have made more of Emile Heskey's through-ball. Slackness let down Ryan Taylor after half-time. Juliano Belletti raked a ball down the middle and Anelka's straining toe beat Chris Kirkland for his first Chelsea goal.
"For me it's bread-and-butter stuff," said Bruce. "We gave the ball away badly on halfway but it should be meat and drink for a centre-back rather than trying to play offside. We talked about it for three days that he can't get between you, and lo and behold he does. But you can understand why he's gone for the money he has."
The £15 million striker described Chelsea as "like another world" after Bolton, "where I was fighting for the relegation". Shortly he was fighting "against" the possession with Kevin Kilbane before selflessly crossing for Wright-Phillips.
Antoine Sibierski, too late off the bench, was too late with the game's best goal ("my best in England"), spinning with his back to goal to score with a dipping volley.
Wigan had gone with a whimper. Grant, most of whose father's family were murdered in the Holocaust, was entitled to go with underplayed celebration.
