Winning start to life after AVB

The King is dead, long live the king. That was how Ken Bates, Chelsea’s controversial former chairman, greeted the arrival of Ruud Gullit as manager when Glenn Hoddle left to take over the England team nearly 15 years ago.

Whether the replacement of Andre Villas-Boas by Roberto Di Matteo will be considered a royal succession remains to be seen, but the Italian’s first game in charge was a royal success as Chelsea progressed to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a hard-fought FA Cup replay over Birmingham.

Di Matteo said afterwards: “Everybody was involved tonight, even those guys on the bench. This is the only way we can reach our targets. We have two months left until the end of the season and we have to help each other if we are to achieve what we set out to do.