CHELSEA...5 WOLVES...2: If the Chelsea supporters were celebrating after this match, their smiles are broader still this morning. That they did not want Sven-Goran Eriksson to take charge was made abundantly clear during the jubilant final minutes.
Yesterday, as the Swede affirmed his commitment to the England job, that wish came true.
But the fans' pleas came with a second clause. They would also like Claudio Ranieri to remain as manager next season, an outcome which may be slightly more probable this morning than it was a week ago but which appeared far from likely as the Italian disappeared silently on Saturday, apparently untouched by his team's triumph, and fled to Italy for a few days' rest.
Second in the Premiership, unbeaten in seven and after four successive league victories Chelsea should have swaggered off the pitch at the final whistle with the confidence of potential champions.
Yet for all their success tension continues to crackle round Stamford Bridge: Ranieri slipped down the tunnel without so much as a smile, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink grew irritable as he was denied the match ball - the referee Graham Barber hiding it behind his back like a teasing schoolboy - while Celestine Babayaro and the visiting captain Paul Ince had to be pulled apart.
In the tunnel, players of both sides continued to argue, a bizarre end to an amicable match which had featured just two bookings. Ranieri avoided the press other than to confirm, in a written statement, that he is "focusing on trying to do my best for Chelsea". Players rushed, heads bowed, towards the exit. "The situation here has been hyped up a bit," Hasselbaink said. "There is unity among our players and we just keep on going, trying to do what we have to do."
On Saturday they were successful, but only just. Hasselbaink's 15-minute hat-trick disguised a team performance which was often unimpressive and might have ended in defeat. Chelsea may have done the double over Wolves with a 10-2 aggregate scoreline, but while in September Jones's side were indisputably outclassed, here they caught a glimpse of glory only to be blinded by its beauty.
When Mario Melchiot scored in the fourth minute Chelsea's lead was surprising only in the speed of its arrival. But once Babayaro and John Terry combined to gift Henri Camara an equaliser the visitors assumed a certain amount of command.
Too many of Ranieri's signings failed to sparkle. Joe Cole provided the pass that set up Melchiot but little else, while the man who looked like Hernan Crespo struggled throughout.
When Jody Craddock headed Wolves into the lead from Mark Kennedy's corner it was not undeserved.
But the visitors got greedy. As Camara hared forward in the 70th minute, team-mates raced upfield to offer assistance. When the Senegalese forward lost the ball Chelsea sliced through their opponents and Frank Lampard thumped home from 25 yards.
Then came Hasselbaink's quite divine intervention. First he accepted a lucky bounce off Craddock before biffing the ball past Paul Jones from the edge of the area, then he evaded Lee Naylor to slip in a second, and finally he ran on to Lampard's pass in stoppage time to slam in a third.
Hasselbaink has now scored 102 Premiership goals in 200 appearances, a remarkable record for someone who has frequently appeared as substitute of late, but as he nears the end of his career the Dutchman knows that he will never be remembered among the game's greats.
At 32 years of age, his path to international success, always blocked by the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy, now seems permanently barred. He will know that however much is achieved at domestic level the finest reputations are found on a higher stage. Eriksson, it now appears, knows it too. For Ranieri, however, any reputation beyond that of fall-guy for a glory-grabbing regime would be a start.
