Chelsea - 1 Blackburn Rovers - 2 FA cup silver will never be a substitute for Champions League gold. Though Chelsea would be tickled pink to win the cup, a failure to finish in the top four of the Premiership would surely find Stamford Bridge's finances turning from red to puce.
Chelsea remain fourth, which would be enough to win them a place in next season's Champions League qualifiers. Yet Saturday's defeat by Blackburn Rovers has exposed Claudio Ranieri's team to the burgeoning European ambitions of Everton and Charlton, not to mention the possibility of a Liverpool revival.
Blackburn won with late sucker punches from Dwight Yorke and David Dunn, compared to which Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's last-minute rocket of a free-kick was a distress flare from a stricken vessel. Essentially, however, Rovers' victory was a triumph of composed, disciplined defending and outstanding goalkeeping from a Yankee at the court of Ken Bates.
Brad Friedel's acute sense of timing and angle continues to frustrate the most reliable strikers. As early as the 12th minute Chelsea were reminded of what they would be up against when a passing movement involving Frank Lampard, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink ended with Friedel blocking Gudjohnsen's point-blank shot. Later he foiled Hasselbaink in similar fashion.
Friedel enjoyed solid support from his defenders, especially Henning Berg, and there was a moment in the second half when Chelsea saw a fusillade of shots hit bodies in the goalmouth before Hasselbaink wafted the ball over.
Chelsea's chances of breaking the opposition down were not helped by the delayed 300th appearance for the club of Gianfranco Zola, who sat out the first half with a fragile hamstring. Losing Graeme Le Saux to an early strain did not help either.
Zola replaced Jesper Gronkjaer for the second half but by then Blackburn were not only defending with increased confidence but beginning to believe they could surprise Chelsea's under-worked defence. Certainly Souness's eventual introduction of three new attackers - Yorke, Keith Gillespie and Egil Ostenstad - enhanced this possibility.
Until Rovers went ahead, the principal threat to Chelsea's goal had come from their own defenders, Celestine Babayaro deflecting a shot from Andy Cole uncomfortably close to the far post in the first half and William Gallas skimming the bar when he intercepted a cross from Ostenstad four minutes from the end.
Following Dunn's corner Yorke slipped in front of Gallas to head Blackburn in front. Then, as Chelsea threw more men forward, Dunn gathered Yorke's pass from near the left-hand corner flag to drive a shot through Carlo Cudicini's dive and leave Hasselbaink to his irrelevant postscript.
"It was, I think, our worst match of the season," Ranieri said. "I am angry. Everybody is angry. Now it's important to forget everything and look forward. That's my philosophy."
CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Terry, Le Saux (Babayaro 18), Stanic (Zenden 65), Morris, Lampard, Gronkjaer (Zola 45), Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink. Subs Not Used: Evans, De Lucas. Booked: Stanic, Gallas. Goals: Hasselbaink 90.
BLACKBURN ROVERS: Friedel, Neill, Short, Berg, Johansson (Gillespie 62), Dunn, Tugay, Flitcroft, Gresko, Cole (Ostenstad 83), Grabbi (Yorke 57). Subs Not Used: Kelly, Taylor. Booked: Gresko. Goals: Yorke 86, Dunn 90.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
