There was no rest for the successful as having knocked Liverpool out of Europe, Guus Hiddink and his men were straight into preparations for a Saturday FA Cup semi-final, and a London derby one at that. It was Chelsea's 50^th game of the season.

Arsenal themselves had played Champions League midweek and Arsène Wengerappeared to be wary enough of Chelsea to play a five-man midfield and leave Andriy Arshavin on the bench. For Chelsea, Ivanovic played instead of hamstrung Bosingwa, the same injury having again struck Deco in training. It would end his season.

Many eyes were on Cech after the previous two games and although he got his hand to Fabregas's 17^th minute deflected shot after Gibbs had escaped Anelka and crossed, he could not prevent Arsenal taking the lead.

But it was Fabianski in the Gunners' goal, in for injured Alumina, who would carry the big question mark by the final whistle.

The ever more influential Malouda equalised by threading a right-foot shot through the legs of Eboué and inside the near post.

Then Anelka struck a post and a good second-half penalty shout was turned down before Drogba did it again, brilliantly bursting on to a long ball and swerving past Fabianski before smashing home. Who played the pass? Who else but Lampard? It was the Ivorian's eighth goal against Arsenal and put Chelsea into our ninth FA Cup Final.

'Today I think it was highly deserved,' said Hiddink post-match. 'We started a little bit sloppy, but for tactical reasons they made some changes in their line-up so we had to adapt ourselves to that situation and we did it after 1-0 and got hold of our midfield.

Arsenal counterpart Wenger offered a view on Chelsea's match-winner.

''He scores in the big games. I still feel today we made it a little bit easier for him but he never stops, he is always focused, and look at the number of goals he scores in the big games. I can only say he is a great player. He dives sometimes a little bit too much, but he is a winner.'

Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea at Wembley on 18-04-2009
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole; Ballack, Essien, Lampard; Anelka (Kalou 81), Drogba, Malouda.
Goals Malouda 32, Drogba 83
Booked Ivanovic 37, Ballack 43, Drogba 85
Arsenal (4-5-1): Fabianski; Eboué, Touré, Silvestre, Gibbs; Walcott, Fàbregas, Denilson (Nasri 85), Diaby, Van Persie (Arshavin 75); Adebayor (Bendtner 82).
Goals Walcott 17
Booked Denilson 72

The season marched on at a breakneck pace with a midweek league visit by Everton. Given the lead up, it was perhaps no surprise that the intensity in what had suddenly become a Cup Final rehearsal dropped. The result, a repeat of the one at Goodison before Christmas, all but cut the final thread by which Chelsea title hopes were hanging. The deficit following it was six points with five to play. Man United had six to play.

The line-up against Everton was unchanged from the semi-final with Lampard playing his 50^th Chelsea game of the season.

Cech saved well from Tim Cahill in the first-half, and Tim Howard needed a diving stop to keep out a 35-yard Terry left-foot piledriver.

With four minutes of stoppage time being played, Drogba with a trademark move, chest controlled and turned to smash a volley onto the crossbar from an angle.

Chelsea 0-0 Everton at Stamford Bridge on 22-04-2009
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry (c), A Cole; Ballack, Essien (Mikel 60); Anelka (Kalou 60), Lampard, Malouda (Di Santo 75); Drogba.
Everton (4-4-1-1): Howard; Jacobsen (Jagielka 86), Yobo, Lescott, Baines; Osman (Rodwell 88), Neville (c), Castillo, Pienaar; Cahill; Jo (Saha 90+2).

After the game Hiddink reported that Carvalho's hamstring was playing up once more following some reserve action and he was unlikely to feature in Barcelona. It was quickly becoming apparent he wouldn't feature in the season's story again.

However there was better news of José Bosingwa who the day after the match returned to full training for the first time since the international break at the end of March.

Prior to the start of the massive Champions League semi it was east v west London derby time with Gianfranco Zola inviting us into his new home.

Hiddink used the opportunity to test his preferred stand-in left-back for Barcelona, Bosingwa, and rested Alex. That meant Branislav Ivanovic in the middle so a chance for Michael Mancienne at right-back. He impressed while Bosingwa was not given what you would call a thorough examination. Drogba and Essien were also rested.

West Ham had been in decent form but even if Chelsea did already have one foot in Catalonia, we had enough left in London for a deserved win.

The key action was in the second half although Mikel had cleared off the line after a scramble before the break.

The game turned in our favour on 54 minutes when Lampard, with superb close control, picked his way to the left-hand bye-line and chipped over a cross. Flicked on towards the far post by a stretching Rob Green, Salomon Kalou was there to take one touch and then find the top corner from six yards out.

Hero turned briefly to villain when the Ivorian pulled back an opponent in the box but Cech capped a good game and a good response to his dodgy couple of games with a diving penalty stop from Mark Noble.

Chelsea held firm to make it four consecutive wins at Upton Park.

West Ham 0-1 Chelsea at Boleyn Ground on 25-04-2009
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Mancienne (Ballack 82), Ivanovic, Terry (c), Bosingwa (A Cole 57); Belletti, Mikel, Lampard; Kalou (Essien 72), Anelka, Malouda.
Scorer Kalou 54.
West Ham (4-4-2): Green; Neill (c), Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga; Boa Morte (Savio 72), Dyer (Sears 60), Noble, Stanislas; Di Michele (Kovac 60), Tristan.
Booked Stanislas 71.

'I fancy Chelsea very much. It will be a tough match but if they play as a unit, stay compact and play with humility they will have a big chance,' was Zola's observations on his former club's chances against Barcelona.

And stay compact is what Chelsea did. Mikel retained his place alongside Ballack deep in midfield with Essien playing wide on the right (as he had at Juventus) in front of Ivanovic. Ahead of Bosingwa to assisting in the policing of Lionel Messi on the Chelsea left was Malouda.

Barcelona sprung a surprise by leaving captain Carles Puyol, who was one booking from a suspension, on the bench. Rafael Marquez came into central defence.

The defending that followed from Chelsea was resolute, bordering on the heroic at times. It was Thierry Henry on the Barça left that proved more threatening than Messi but in the end, Chelsea could claim for just as many good chances created.

Cech was called upon to make just three difficult saves from their six shots on-target.

On 38 minutes Chelsea could well have grabbed a goal. Bosingwa's ball initially seemed to have little menace but Drogba was onto it as Marquez underhit a back pass with the defence square. His shot from inside the area was too close to Valdez but our striker grabbed the rebound and as he tried to lift the ball over the keeper, a gloved hand clawed the ball to safety.

The second-half began with Drogba's floated free-kick being met cleanly by Ballack, but the header was frustratingly too high. Then suddenly Barça suffered big misfortune when Marquez collapsed with no-one near. It was a season-ending injury. Puyol was the natural replacement.

On 68 minutes came a real big escape. Eto'o turned an over-committed Alex and ran beyond Terry. Alex raced back but the Cameroonian cut inside, only for Cech to superbly block the shot.

There was a big home shout for a penalty claim for pulling by Bosingwa on Henry before Puyol was booked. Barcelona were suddenly two centre-backs and a captain down for the second leg.

It was substitute Bojan who wasted the best opening of the game, heading off target from right in front of the Chelsea goal as the Blues became the first team to stop Barcelona scoring on home turf all season.

Barcelona 0-0 Chelsea at Camp Nou on 28-04-2009
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry (c), Bosingwa; Ballack (90+4), Mikel; Essien, Lampard (Belletti 70), Malouda; Drogba.
Booked Alex 24, Ballack 28.
Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdés; Alves, Marquez (Puyol 50), Piqué, Abidal; Xavi (c), Touré, Iniesta; Messi, Eto'o (Bojan 81), Henry (Helb 86).
Booked Touré 36, Puyol 73.

'They had a lot of possession and a few chances as well but we stayed tight at the back,' analysed Terry who had been immense once again.

'It is going to be a completely different game [in the second-leg] and we'll cause them a few problems like we did a few years ago.'

From Barcelona came moaning galore: about Chelsea challenges that they, but no-one else it seemed, believed were beyond the pale; and about tactics that had been about winning a very difficult tie more than putting on a spectacle.

In his column after the game, Giles Smith was on the defensive too.

'I wanted to see Chelsea close this game down so hard that it looked like a branch of Woolworth's,' he wrote. 'I wanted to see creativity stopped - particularly creativity in the form of Lionel Messi, but not just him. I wanted to see our back four dig in so deep that it would take the Nou Camp groundstaff at least five months to back-fill the trenches.

'Entertainment? On this occasion, entertainment could go hang, as far as I was concerned.

To be continued…