Chelsea’s players had as much of a job in shaking off Scunthorpe this afternoon as they did separating Oscar and Diego Costa in training on Thursday as they progressed, rather unconvincingly, through to the fourth round of the FA Cup.
It looked a question of how many Chelsea might rack up against the League One outfit when Diego Costa diverted in a teasing cross from Ivanovic with his less favoured left foot early on. But it took until just before the 70th minute for Chelsea to make the game safe, Ruben Loftus Cheek slamming in his first goal for the club on his FA Cup bow.
The scoreline was a bit harsh on a progressive Scunthorpe side coached by Mark Robins, who has more than a bit of history in the competition. They huffed and puffed and caused Chelsea one or two anxious moments, rattling the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Willian and Branislav Ivanovic with their in-your-face approach and cracking the frame of the goal through Jordan Clarke, but they never really looked like causing the type of seismic upset Bradford City did at Stamford Bridge at the fourth-round stage of last season’s competition.
Chelsea reached the fifth round after beating Scunthorpe, under Jose Mourinho, at the same third-round stage of the 2005 competition – and they will have high hopes of going further this time round under the guidance of Guus Hiddink who is yet to lose since being parachuted in to solve the crisis at the Bridge.
The Dutchman seems to be getting a tune out of Costa and he scored for the third straight game to open the scoring. There was some debate over whether the Brazilian’s 12th-minute strike was an own goal but you try telling the prickly Costa this wasn’t his goal. It looked like the floodgates might open at that point.
Fabregas, who ran the show in the first half, saw a rising driving tipped over by Luke Daniels, Pedro’s half volley on the angle was brilliantly tipped wide by the outstretched hand of Daniels and then Oscar almost found the top right-hand corner with a curling right-footed shot after a neat exchange with Costa.
But Chelsea then either took their foot off the gas or Scunthorpe shook off their early big-stage nerves. It was probably a bit of both but the upshot was that Iron were not prepared to lie down. Despite enjoying only 28 per cent of the possession, they fashioned four first-half attempts on goal to Chelsea’s six and won the same number of corners as the home side.
From one, Gary Cahill bravely prevented a goal-bound effort from Stephen Dawson from reaching Asmir Begovic by blocking the shot with his upper body after a spot of pinball in the Chelsea penalty area. Cahill was then grateful for the recovery powers and pace of Kurt Zouma to cut out the danger after Luke Williams, the former England Under-20 midfielder who caught the eye, pick-pocketed him and charged menacingly towards goal.
Hiddink sent on Loftus Cheek for Oscar at the break and the England youth midfielder’s first involvement was to leave his mark on Neil Bishop with a heavy tackle that could have cost him more than just a free-kick. The home side were also a touch fortunate the referee Craig Pawson did not award a penalty for a foul by Ramires on Kevin van Veen. You’ve certainly seen them given.
Any sense of injustice the visitors had was compounded when, soon after, a neat move down the left, involving Willian and Cesar Azpilicueta, resulted in Loftus Cheek cleverly finding space to ram a left-footed drive into the bottom corner. Roman Abramovich, the owner, could barely contain his delight, not that Chelsea were beating a League One side 2-0 but that there are signs Hiddink is keen on blooding the raft of promising youngsters the club has.
