29/12/1999 Chelsea 3 Sheffield Wednesday 0 In the final Premiership match of the Millennium, it was entirely fitting that Chelsea captain Dennis Wise, the one player who has underpinned the club's revival over the past decade, should send them into the New Year with renewed hope. For having yet again fielded an entirely overseas starting line-up, Chelsea were indebted to their two English substitutes, Wise and Jody Morris, as they strolled past the painfully weak challenge of bottom-placed Sheffield Wednesday. Much like many sets of Christmas lights, Wednesday flickered briefly into action - they dominated the opening 20 minutes - but promptly short-circuited and never again illuminated the game. Coming on as a 23rd-minute replacement for the injured Didier Deschamps, Wise immediately established a stranglehold over the central midfield area that Wednesday had previously dominated and gave his side the lead within nine minutes of his arrival. The provider of his goal was Gustavo Poyet, who was in devastating form in an advanced midfield role just behind lone striker Tore Andre Flo, who capitalised on the Uruguay international's creativity to strike the second three minutes later. That put the result beyond any reasonable doubt as Wednesday wilted and Morris duly hammered the final nail into the Wednesday coffin - and the final Premiership goal of the century - in the closing stages. That gave Chelsea their first back-to-back victories for almost two months and their faltering Premiership campaign has now been jump-started by a Christmas double-header - Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday - that other managers would have dreamed of. For apart from their bright opening spell when they should have taken the lead, Wednesday were even poorer than Southampton had been against the Blues on Boxing Day. There were massive holes in the Wednesday defence for all of Chelsea's goals, although that was probably hardly surprising given that financial pressures had forced them to sell central defender Emerson Thome to Stamford Bridge only last week. Emerson was instead shoring up the Blues' back-line and his name was chanted rather than abused by the long-suffering Wednesday fans, a handful of whom ended the match by calling for their board and chairman to seek pastures new in the year 2000. All of the confidence imbued by their first win for almost two months against Middlesbrough on Boxing Day evaporated into thin air the moment that Chelsea took the lead. However, for the first 25 minutes, striker Gilles De Bilde had been causing all manner of problems for the Chelsea defence and he forced Ed De Goey to dive full-length to tip his sweetly-struck long-range drive around the post early on. The Chelsea keeper produced a similarly acrobatic save to deny Lee Briscoe shortly afterwards as the pressure seemingly increased. And when De Bilde twice caused mayhem down the left flank, Frank Leboeuf, who was later yet again booked, had to slide in to clear before Andy Booth then headed the second chance wide. It was one-way traffic at this stage, with Chelsea's normally flawless passing game in disarray as Wednesday ran rings around them in central midfield. However, an early head injury suffered by Deschamps had hardly been helping the home side and when he was replaced by Wise, Chelsea were duly sparked into action. The first signs of life in the Chelsea attack had been spotted shortly beforehand as Pavel Srnicek brilliantly saved Poyet's header but Wise's impact was almost immediate. Dan Petrescu's searching deep cross was met by Poyet and the Uruguayan steered his knock-down straight into the path of the midfielder, who struck his close-range shot under the keeper. For all their attacking endeavour, Wednesday had yet again been caught cold at the back and they were even further behind just three minutes later. Once more Poyet was the provider, robbing Briscoe of possession near the centre-circle and then finding Flo, who had pulled wide into enough space to allow himself to switch feet and strike a fierce shot above the diving figure of Srnicek. Wim Jonk shot wastefully over the bar and Booth's elbow collided painfully with De Goey's head as Wednesday tried in vain to rally - but they could do little to stem the flow of Chelsea pressure. The Blues' pressure continued after the interval, with Poyet heading over and Roberto Di Matteo and Petrescu both shooting at Srnicek, who also saved from Wise. Booth's elbow continued to cause more havoc than either his feet or head as it collided with Leboeuf but despite the Frenchman rolling around in agony, the striker was only booked. At the other end, Wise almost took advantage of the Wednesday defence's propensity to fall asleep at the vital moment only to fail to get enough height on his attempted chip over Srnicek. The game largely petered out in the final half-hour but there was still time for Chelsea to add a third with six minutes left as Wise crossed for Poyet - yet again - to head dangerously across goal. Srnicek, who probably should have done better, could only parry the ball into the path of Morris, who chested the ball into the net from all of three yards out. At the end, the Wednesday fans gave a standing ovation to one player - the trouble was it was former defender Emerson, who threw his shirt into the crowd. The New Year holds many fears for Danny Wilson's side but while Chelsea are not yet back in the title hunt, there is finally some degree of hope for them after all - and for that, they chiefly have their inspirational captain to thank.