Chelsea produced a professional performance at the Riverside Stadium to secure a 2-0 win and end Middlesbrough’s impressive FA Cup run at the quarter-final stage.
Championship side Boro had been one of the stories of the competition this season, having already eliminated Manchester United and Tottenham on their way to the last eight, and more than 30,000 home fans were hoping to see the world and European champions added to that list.
But Chelsea had other ideas and came flying out of the blocks, despite having less than 700 of their own supporters at the game after the club were prevented from selling any more tickets as part of the sanctions placed on owner Roman Abramovich.
Whatever comes next for Chelsea, whether they ever manage to be the same trophy winning machine again, they are certainly making the most of Roman Abramovich’s legacy.
That era is officially over, the Russian putting the club up for sale just days before he was disqualified from being a director by the Premier League because of his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But this is still his expensive, meticulously constructed team, packed with world class players from front to back. Since Abramovich was ostracised and Chelsea’s ban from making any money, they have won four games out of four. They have not lost a 90 minute game since a narrow 1-0 loss to Manchester City on January 15th.
For all the attempts in recent days to repaint themselves as a bunch of plucky scrappers, defying the cruel restrictions imposed on them by government sanctions, it remains one of the best squads in the world, led by one of the game’s elite managers in Thomas Tuchel.
They are not underdogs by any stretch of the imagination and this impressively efficient win over Middlesbrough means Chelsea are now in the semi finals of the FA Cup, as well as the quarter finals of the Champions League. They only lost the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool on penalties.
They are a brilliant knockout team, the reigning World and European club champions and their supporters should enjoy them while they can. A club that loses around £900,000-a-week is unlikely to find new owners willing to cover such extravagant losses moving forward. Cutbacks will almost certainly be made. For now, that can wait because this group of players are showing no sign of being distracted.
Chelsea had already sold just under 700 tickets for travelling supporters – who once again sung Abramovich’s name – before sanctions prevented more being distributed and were comfortably drowned out by a raucous home crowd.
Yet, the men in blue were in no mood to be subdued by a hostile atmosphere. These players are used to playing in environments like this and the gulf in class between the third best team in England and the eighth best in the Championship – according to their respective league tables – was obvious.
Boro had their moments in the first half and had Matt Crooks’ first time cross been more accurate, Folarin Balogun would have had a wonderful chance to give the Teessiders the lead.
With Marcus Tavernier shining, Chris Wilder’s side did not try to sit back and contain their illustrious visitors.
That proved to be their undoing as Chelsea took the lead with a devastating counter attack. As soon as Mason Mount had the space down the right to get his head up and pick out Romelu Lukaku, Boro were in trouble and the Belgium international was left with a tap in after darting across Dael Fry inside the six yard box.
For all the issues that have followed Lukaku this season, all the friction in his relationship with his manager and apparent unhappiness in London and his return to English football in general, this was the 28-year-old’s 12th goal of a supposedly bad first campaign in west London.
Boro refused to lie down and accept their fate and should have equalised when Tavernier’s corner bounced across the face of goal but Balogun could not direct his header on target. It was a bad miss and Chelsea were utterly brutal in the way they punished it.
On their next attack, the lead was doubled when Hakim Ziyech picked up the ball on the right, cut inside Neil Taylor and whipped a shot inside the far past. It was another devastating counter attack and there was still an hour left to play.
Lukaku thought he had scored a third only for Anfernee Dijksteel to clear the ball off the line. Boro can be proud of their performance and, having knocked out both Manchester United and Tottenham, this has been a fabulous FA Cup run with some magical memories made.
The second half against Chelsea will not be one of them. The London side were happy to manage the game and Boro could not really make a dent on their defence, let alone pierce through it. Their only real chances fell to Duncan Watmore, who fired over and Josh Coburn, who was denied by Edouard Mendy.
The home fans carried on signing throughout. Promotion is now the aim, an unthinkable target when Wilder took over at the start of November.