Ranieri in Blue Heaven
Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea came of age at Highbury last night, striding purposefully through the sternest test of their character to claim a Champions League semi-final spot at the expense of an Arsenal side that ultimately lost its nerve.
How stern was the test? Chelsea hadn't claimed a victory over Arsenal in 17 attempts, and retired at halftime nursing the body blow of a 45th minute lead goal for the home side.
Undeterred, they defied Arsenal to finish them off in a spectacular second half display of bravery, brazenly opening themselves up to the knockout punch as they surged forward in pursuit of salvation.
Arsenal's virtual capitulation it was nothing short of that is another day's story. Once their keeper Jens Lehmann handed Frank Lampard a precious equaliser six minutes after the interval, the belief and the energy drained from almost every red shirt. Chelsea sensed their moment, and, one sensed with a degree of empathy for their beleaguered manager, went after it with a vengeance.
Lampard's 52nd minute equaliser would have been enough to take the game into extra time, but as the second period progressed, it became baldly evident that the visitors knew the momentum had turned and that their long time nemesis was there for the taking.
It was a re-shoot of that moment in the fifth incarnation of Rocky, when the small town brawler draws blood from the imposing, indestructible Russian. Chelsea were forcing the reappraisal of history with every passing minute.
Six minutes from time, the Blues thought they had delivered the definitive punch, but Eidur Gudjohnsen's shot from 12 yards was spectacularly cleared off the line by Ashley Cole's right leg.
With the FA Cup semi-final defeat by Manchester United casting a disproportionately large cloud over Arsenal's demeanour, it was starkly evident that the last five minutes of the match would be critical to a season on the precipice.
Arsene Wenger withdrew the subdued Thierry Henry for the last ten minutes, a questionable gamble no matter how poorly the French man was performing. (Henry, it transpired, damaged a hamstring and is doubtful for Friday's Premiership clash with Liverpool).
It seemed to galvanise Chelsea into a final offensive surge Ranieri threw on Joe Cole and Hernan Crespo and eventually they cracked their Arsenal hoodoo with the most important strike of Claudio Ranieiri's time at the club.
Fittingly, it was a marauding full back who began and finished the move Wayne Bridge's offensive influence had been growing, but the assured manner with which he finished Gudjohnsen's return pass in the 88th minute said much about his side's composure in the second half.
Theories will abound why an Arsenal side which had the whip hand in the first half could surrender so tamely after the break.
Ranieri introduced Jesper Gronkjaer for the second period, sacrificing the more combative qualities of Scott Parker. While the Dane carried an offensive threat, he was a symptom, not a cause, of the transformation.
In truth, Lampard's equaliser changed everything, and exposed Arsenal's brittle underbelly. Fatigue is undoubtedly a concern at this point for Arsene Wenger, but that cannot explain the untimely loss of form of Henry and Pires, two of Arsenal's most creative weapons.
As they laboured Henry getting no change out of Gallas, Terry and even Melchiot when he drifted wide Chelsea's Makelele and Lampard began to take advantage of their striker's willing work ethic.
Once they equalised, Chelsea were bristling with intent, brimming with confidence.
Lampard fired wide after an Edu mistake, and the sight of the masterful John Terry striding forward in the vain hope that a Gronkjaer cross might reach him spoke volumes for the belief coursing through the visitors.
Though Patrick Vieira toiled admirably, and Reyes always looked purposeful, Arsenal, a side crowned by some commentators before a coronation, had clearly run out of ideas. Reyes and Toure had long range efforts capably handed by Ambrosio, but at no stage did the home side test the nerve of Chelsea's third choice keeper.
It has long been one of Arsenal's failings that they consider bodies in the box to be beneath their cultured ways.
Therefore it was something of a shock when Henry got his head to a Lauren centre in first half added time to set up the impish Reyes for the lead goal.
Though it was an appropriate end to a half in which Henry and Pires had decent chances, one must not forget that Damien Duff had slalomed through the home defence to poke a chance inches wide in the 22nd minute.
Of course, the half time deficit changed little Chelsea needed to score whatever the permutation, and if anything, Arsenal's lead only re-enforced Ranieiri's determination to go for broke.
What this bravura display will do for their pursuit of Arsenal in the Premiership, no-one knows. The four point advantage that Arsenal still have is useless if they are as impotent under duress as they appeared in last night's second half.
Whatever physical symptoms of fatigue they are carrying will be accentuated by rapidly vanishing self belief. And the lost opportunities of last season will haunt Arsene Wenger now.
Chelsea? When they returned in victory to the Highbury dressing room last night to discover that Real Madrid were also out of their way, they must have felt that everything is now possible.
They entertain Middlessbrough at the weekend in the Premiership, by which time Arsenal will have entertained a resurgent Liverpool in a noon Good Friday date.
Arsenal for the treble? What about a Chelsea double? Little wonder Claudio's on cloud nine.
Lehmann, Lauren, Campbell, Toure, Cole, Ljungberg, Edu, Vieira, Pires, Henry (Bergkamp 81), Reyes.
Ambrosio, Melchiot, Terry, Gallas, Bridge, Parker (Gronkjaer 46), Lampard, Makelele, Duff (Cole 82), Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink (Crespo 82).
Markus Merk (Germany).
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