14/05/2000  Chelsea 4 Derby 0

Chelsea chairman Ken Bates wrapped his arm around Gianluca 
Vialli in a public show of support for his manager.

Bates believes Vialli has not received the respect he 
deserves for a campaign which may well have fallen short on 
Premiership and European fronts but has still given the Blues 
an FA Cup final to savour at Wembley next Saturday.

The chairman accompanied the Italian coach and his players 
on a sunlit lap of honour after a second-half demolition of 
Derby County brought down the curtain on another season of "so 
nearly" glory at Stamford Bridge.

Now there is a nearly a week for Vialli to implement his 
final plan designed to capture the major trophy he insists 
will be prove it has been a successful season after all for 
his multi-national millionaires.

But surely Aston Villa will put up much more of a fight at 
Wembley than injury-decimated Derby achieved. Jim Smith's 
team, pieced together from the remains of a tough, 
relegation-dodging season, rightly felt hard done by when 
referee Jeff Winter failed to award them a 25th minute penalty 
when the scoresheet was still blank.

But by that time they should have been thankful that the 
game was still alive as a realistic contest.

Gianfranco Zola, Gus Poyet, Roberto di Matteo and Tore 
Andre Flo eventually emerged triumphant from a myriad of 
wasted Chelsea chances to finally bury Derby in a one-sided 
second half.

And as Vialli, Bates and their men embarked on the 
traditional lap of honour at the end there were only minor 
worries to cloud the Wembley horizon.

Spanish right back Albert Ferrer, back after missing five 
games with an ankle injury, last only 30 minutes before he had 
to hobble off and colossal French centre-back Marcel Desailly 
was also withdrawn in the second half with a similar 
complaint.

Vialli had also left out Liberian striker George Weah who 
has been suffering a back strain while Dutch keeper Ed de Goey 
missed his first Premiership match of the season, spending 
what would have been his 59th appearance this term on the 
bench.

But in the end, Chelsea had just enough fire-power to 
record only their second win in seven matches, a bitterly 
disappointing run-in to a campaign of so much rich 
promise.

But with powerful Uruguayan Poyet registering his 18th goal 
of the season with an unstoppable header in the 54th minute 
after Zola's neat finish punished Jacob Laursen's error less 
than two minutes after the break, there was still plenty to 
cheer for 35,000 sun-drenched Stamford Bridge fans.

Di Matteo fired in a Dennis Wise pass to make it 3-0 with 
nearly 20 minutes left and with Derby players already looking 
ahead to a summer on Europe's beaches with Premiership 
survival already assured, Flo extravagantly flicked in a 
stoppage-time fourth to make sure he stayed one ahead of 
prolific 18-goal midfielder Poyet in the Chelsea top-scoring 
stakes.

It might not have been such a sunshine stroll had Winter 
given Derby the penalty they were convinced they should have 
had in the 25th minute.

Referee Winter was way behind the play but perfectly in 
line with the incident when Celestine Babayaro wrestled Dean 
Sturridge to the ground inside the area. The Rams could barely 
believe it when the Cleveland official waved play on.

But really they should have been grateful they were not 
trailing by a hatful of goals by then.

Zola, twice one-on-one with keeper Mart Poom before 
completely mistiming an unmarked eight-yard header, wasted 
three golden chances to put Chelsea in comfortable command 
within the first 20 minutes. Then Flo and di Matteo both 
struck the same post.

Derby, without the injured Daryl Powell, Horacio Carbonari 
and Branko Strupar as well as suspended Stefan Schnoor also 
went into the game without the unpredictable genius of Georgi 
Kinkladze.

Manager Jim Smith employed two centre-forwards - Deon 
Burton and Dean Sturridge - as wide men either side of 
youngster Malcolm Christie but it was not until the 23rd 
minute that Carlo Cudicini, making his Premiership debut, was 
seriously tested.

Lars Bohinen hit a stinging drive from 25 yards after a 
corner was only half-cleared, but it flew straight at the 
Italian goalkeeper.

Chelsea's chance-spurning became almost habitual, though 
with even the normally lethal Poyet missing twice from 
promising positions.

But it all came right after the break, with Zola 
capitalizing on Laursen's failure to clear Poyet's cross to 
slide the ball home within two minutes of the resumption, and 
then Poyet powering in to land a thumping header from Zola's 
corner seven minutes later after Poom saved brilliantly from 
Flo.

Di Matteo clinically finished when Dennis Wise delivered a 
perfect through ball and right at the death Flo cheekily 
heel-flicked the fourth past Poom from a cut-back by Ferrer's 
impressive replacement, Dutchman Mario Melchiot.