Essien drags Blues out of mediocrity

WHEN Michael Essien smiles, and he smiles a lot, it feels like an extra floodlight has just been switched on.

The Ghanaian is blessed with the sort of luminous grin that makes dentists go weak at the knees and his absence over the last six months has left Chelsea fumbling in the gloom,

There are many reasons why Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Stamford Bridge tenure proved such an unmitigated disaster but the Brazilian might well point to the moment in early September when scans at a London hospital revealed a rupture to Essien’s anterior knee ligament as central to sealing his fate.

Essien made his full return in Turin’s Stadio Olimpico last night, and, if Scolari was watching, he will have done so through a latticework of fingers, tormented by thoughts of how his reign might have been remembered had he remained fit.

Essien dragged Chelsea out of the mire of mediocrity last night, his goal, plundered in the dying seconds of the first half, wrestling the tie — which had been slipping away from Guus Hiddink’s side — out of Juventus’ hands at a stroke. Without it, Alessandro Del Piero’s late penalty might well have been fatal.

The goal was typical Essien. Not so much for the strike, bundled messily over the line from a matter of inches, but in the moments just before.

First there was the run which took Essien deep into enemy territory, a furious, lung-bursting charge which blended indefatigable stamina with utter, overwhelming desire.

Then there was the bravery. A player only just returning from a potentially career-threatening injury might have been forgiven for not throwing himself into a maelstrom of bodies after Frank Lampard’s shot had cannoned off the underside of the crossbar, but not Essien.

Instead, he flung himself at the prone body of Gianluigi Buffon and tossed Chelsea their lifeline.

By the time he was finally withdrawn, midway through the second half, the tie was over.

How the ‘Little Bison’, as he is known in his native country, has been missed in west London. Chelsea remain a team that is far too ponderous far too often, but Essien provides the all-important pinch of panache.

It is not simply his energy which sets him apart. Many footballers can provide simple hard yards, but few do it as efficiently or effectively.

At his best, opponents would be forgiven for thinking they were being assailed by dopplegangers. Juventus certainly appeared befuddled by the notion that the same man could, in the sixth minute, produce a sweetly-timed interception on Pavel Nedved just as the Czech was about to cross, and then set up a blistering counter-attack moments later.

Essien is not superhuman, however, and he could last only 65 minutes before giving way to Juliano Belletti, but his work was done.

Now for the real challenges. There is another Champions League quarter-final still to come, an FA Cup semi-final meeting with, potentially, Arsenal and, of course, the chance — however remote — of catching Manchester United in the Premier League title race.

Chelsea’s season is still teetering on the brink, but Hiddink, always renowned as a lucky manager, will appreciate his good fortune in being able to summon his smiling assassin. Scolari, for one, will envy him that luxury.