Blues Still Second Thanks to Late Didier Drogba Winner

Portsmouth 0 - 1 Chelsea

Barclays Premier League

Grind them out, scratch them out, dig them out.

But keep on winning, keep on fighting, never give in - and who knows what might happen.

Last night, to the despair of Fratton Park, Didier Drogba struck unerringly into the bottom corner of David James' net to continue Guus Hiddink's winning start and Chelsea's pursuit of the unlikely.

And it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the absent Roman Abramovich was left wondering what the season could have brought if he had ditched Luiz Felipe Scolari a month earlier.

Hiddink has not wrought miracles at Stamford Bridge, not changed that much, even essentially picked Scolari's team, although getting Drogba back onside was perhaps the most significant move of all.

What he has done, though, is make them start believing in themselves again, make them want to play for the shirt and find a way to win games they would have lost few short weeks ago.

This, unquestionably, was one of those, Paul Hart's side justifying the club's decision to hand him the reins for the rest of the season with a display of commitment and conviction that deserved better.

They would have got it too, had it not been for Petr Cech, another of those who fell out with Scolari.

Cech's displays in the last days of the Brazilian's reign led to a whispering campaign suggesting the Czech had lost his aura of impregnability.

But the keeper, like Drogba and the rest, has been rejuvenated by Hiddink's gentle touch and harder training regime.

And if there was any doubt on that score, it must have been ended with two moments in which Cech saved his side to create the platform for Drogba's late heroics.

The first came just before the half hour, after Chelsea's dominance, orchestrated by Frank Lampard, had brought them precisely zero reward.

Loose play on the edge of their own box allowed Sean Davis room for a screaming strike which had the home fans already celebrating before Cech flung himself to his right to turn the ball up and over the bar.

Then just before the hour, the keeper was equally, and perhaps even more crucially agile as he thwarted David Nugent when the former England man turned John Terry from Peter Crouch's flick and let fly from 16 yards.

Advertisement - article continues below »

Click Here Welcome to the World's Largest Gaming Card Superstore!

On such moments can matches, even seasons change, although Nico Krancjar, found by Crouch when Sol Campbell's defensive hoof caught all 10 Chelsea outfield players in the Portsmouth half, glided another opening wide.

At that stage Chelsea might have been happy with a point.

Yes, they had created the best openings in the first half, with Drogba inches away from converting Ashley Cole's driven cross, before being blocked by James after racing onto a Lampard through-ball.

James, too, struck lucky when he fumbled a cross by Florent Malouda and Lampard's shot, bailed out by a back-line led by Campbell and Sylvain Distin.

But while Michael Ballack and then Alex went close before the break and Drogba headed over from substitute Ricardo Quaresma after the interval, Portsmouth had looked the more likely to reap the benefits of their sunshine break in Dubai as Chelsea looked like a side playing their third game in eight days.

Enter Drogba. A week ago, his goal against Juventus had given Cheksea the precious advantage to take to Turin.

Last night, when Jose Bosingwa's cross flicked off Campbell's knee and into Drogba's path 12 yards out, the ball was only ever going to finish up in one place.

Drogba ran to celebrate in front of Hiddink and at the end, after withstanding a late siege which saw James take residence in the other box, the Chelsea players' clenched fists were a statement of intent.

The odds still, vastly, favour United. But it is not all over yet.

( Martin Lipton / Mirror )