FA Cup: Portsmouth Write Chelsea's History

The most appropriate phrase to describe Chelsea's historic FA Cup achievement at Wembley would be the oxymoronic sentence, "the Blues eventually cruised to a fortuitous victory."

It's instantly baffling; after all, how can one cruise to a lucky win?

Well, the simple matter of fact is, 2009/10 Premier League champions Chelsea were always dominant, they were in 'cruise control' so to speak.

Just like Atletico Madrid against Fulham in the Europa League final, in the FA Cup on Saturday, the best team eventually won.

But it wasn't all plain sailing, and Portsmouth epitomised the magic, romance and idiosyncrasies of arguably the world's greatest domestic cup competition with their fighting spirit, strong team dynamics and occasional flashes of brilliance.

They should've taken the lead through that penalty-kick from Kevin Prince Boateng, and had Boateng not deleteriously missed, it could be argued Portsmouth could've proceeded to claim perhaps the greatest footballing coup of all-time.

After all, Pompey had several more chances to score, and would've equalised had either Aruna Dindane or John Utaka got on the end of one or two of the exquisite crosses fizzed into the penalty area by Algeria's finest, Nadir Belhadj.

And even more surprising, Frank Lampard cracked under the FA Cup and Wembley Stadium pressure when he slashed his penalty-kick into a water bottle and not the back of David James' net.

So therefore Pompey, the relegated Premier League side lancinated by the corosive tentacles of the global recession side-effects and the consequences of administration, helped Chelsea write FA Cup history at the home of English football. 

The Stamford Bridge club obviously were the driving force behind their own, fantastic victory, through their domineering play, tactical genius and overall better quality and fitness.

However, they tested the frame of the goals far more than they would've liked, and needed lucky breaks from Portsmouth's inadequacies in order to eventually reach the hard-fought but ultimately well-deserved finish line.

And when the epitome of high-pressued serenity himself, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, concedes that "of course I was worried", one can perhaps get the idea of how important Portsmouth's helping hand was to the Blues.

Ancelotti went onto say, "If Portsmouth went 1-0 up it would have been more difficult, but (Petr) Cech saved the penalty and then (Didier) Drogba scored. After that it was easier."

Enough said on that one.

Portsmouth manager Avram Grant, the Israeli whose turbulent past and trouble from his father's Holocaust horrors were highlighted in ITV's pre-match coverage, was rightfully proud of his team's achievements, despite their potential to have done better perhaps.

He said, "I must say, it is a sad and very proud day. We played against a team top of the league and we forced them to waste time in the last 10 minutes."

It was indeed a sad day for Portsmouth, who could easily have been celebrating success had their attempts at glory not failed and thus opened the pathway for Chelsea to score.

But of course, despite writing Chelsea's history for them somewhat, the south coast club can be proud of their FA Cup performance on a less than phenomenal Wembley pitch.

And in any case, the whole world probably wants to know Avram Grant's verdict on the penalty miss by one of his most reliable, charismatic and all-around fundamentally important players.

"[Portsmouth] could have won. Next time I will take the penalty!", the former Chelsea boss himself concluded.