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Labels: Amateurs, another, Chambery, French, produce, Reuters, shock

Put the morgue and the morticians on stand-by. Chelsea played Russian Roulette – and lost.

The inquest into their first FA Cup defeat for nearly three years will trigger a bloodbath.

Retribution is inevitable, and will respect no reputations.

Carlo Ancelotti already has the resigned air of a man awaiting the fatal blow.

Players who once imagined themselves as a protected species may discover they, too, have ­outlived their usefulness.

Didier Drogba is lumbering through the motions. John Terry is immobile, a ­brooding political presence who is ­losing his power base.

For peace to break out, they must win the Champions League.

That looks as likely as Roman Abramovich filing for bankruptcy.

The Chelsea owner could do worse, much worse, than investing in the enduring qualities of David Moyes.

Everton’s manager has been concussing himself by head-butting football’s glass ceiling for too long.

He deserves better than the vicious circle of false hope and financial hardship that has entrapped the people’s club.

There was something richly ironic in the golden bullet being fired by his captain Phil Neville, the pro’s pro.

He had a strength of character beyond Ashley Cole and Nicolas Anelka, whose penalty misses ­reflected the flaws in their ­nature.

Anelka’s effort was limp, a caricature of misplaced arrogance.

Cole, rattled by a clash with Johnny Heitinga as he walked from the halfway line, showed no ­composure.

As ever, in this multi-media world, the most withering instant verdict was supplied on Twitter. Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech ­Szczesny piped up: “Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s Ashley throwing Chelsea out of the Cup.”

It was Chelsea’s sixth ­consecutive penalty shoot-out defeat, and ­Ancelotti sang an increasingly ­desperate song, sotto voce.

He said: “It’s not an easy moment. We have to be able to move on very quickly from this defeat.

“Every time the team doesn’t make the result the manager is under pressure, but I have ­fantastic support from the club and my ­players.

“It could be again a very good season for us.” When he returns to Planet Earth, Ancelotti may care to consider the merits of a move to Roma, who would love to ­repatriate him to Serie A

Chelsea will not have got a dire game out of their legs, and their minds, by Tuesday, when they play in Copenhagen.

They are laboured in thought and movement, lacking in creativity and confidence.

David Luiz and Fernando Torres may sell a lot of shirts, but they are not miracle workers.

Manchester United, a week later, may bring into sharp focus the “disaster” of falling out of the top four. Despite the timeless drama of the shoot-out, this was a return to the greasy spoon after the ­gourmet dining of the Champions League.

Stodge, congealing in the grease of wasted effort, was the speciality of the house.

It was summed up by the Michael Essien shot which hit a steward on the backside. You need danger money if you are patrolling in a 10 metre arc, behind the goal.

Not that Moyes will worry. ­Reality – that he will have to make ­strategic sacrifices to rebuild his side – was swamped by relief, and the ­romance of a lustily-acclaimed ­victory.

“I just had this feeling,” Moyes said of ­insistence that ­Neville take the final penalty.

“I thought that, with his nous and experience, he would be able to ­handle the ­situation.

“If you go into football management, you work on your team, and you try to win games.

“If you’ve got money, great. If not, you do the best you can. I’ve got a great owner. I just wish he had a few bob as well.”

There are compensations. Moyes need not fear the assassin, waiting in the shadows.

Labels: another, Chelsea, Everton, MirrorFootballcouk, rocked, shock, shootout

Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League win in Milan on Tuesday night has come at the price of two new defensive injuries, with both Jonathan Woodgate and Vedran Corluka facing absences as a result of problems sustained at San Siro. Woodgate, who was returning from a long-term spell out of the side, strained his groin, while Corluka's ankle was injured by a Mathieu Flamini tackle.

Woodgate sustained his injury after coming on as a substitute for Corluka 59 minutes into Tuesday's game. It was Woodgate's first Tottenham appearance since the 9-1 home victory over Wigan Athletic in November 2009. But the 31-year-old strained his left adductor muscle in the half an hour he was on the pitch and will be assessed over the next few days. He is likely to miss the next few weeks.

Despite the recurrence of his groin problems, Woodgate was delighted to return to the Tottenham side, and saw it as a vindication of his mental strength through adversity. "It was a great feeling to get back", said the former Real Madrid player. "There is nothing worse than when you can't play football.

"Watching games is painful when you're injured but you try to spur the lads on and give them all the confidence they need. A lot of people doubted whether I'd be able to get back but you have to show determination to not let bad times get you down and you have to just keep going."

The player Woodgate replaced on Tuesday, Corluka, will also join the host of Tottenham defenders currently unavailable; Ledley King, Younes Kaboul and Alan Hutton all missed the game in Milan with injuries. The Croat was the victim of a reckless tackle from former Arsenal midfielder Flamini and expects to be out for a month. The Frenchman received a yellow card from Stéphane Lannoy for a challenge that Spurs manager Harry Redknapp said risked breaking Corluka's leg.

Corluka said that the injury was not as bad as he had initially feared. "Luckily nothing is broken", he said, "but I will still be out for at least four weeks. When I first saw my ankle, I was sure it would be at least two months, but luckily it is not so bad." The club later confirmed that he had sprained part of his ankle joint capsule, and will make a gradual return to training next week. If his return is successful he will be back in full training in a few weeks.

The Milan captain Gennaro Gattuso has escaped a charge of assault for his headbutt on Tottenham coach Joe Jordan after Tuesday's game, Uefa said yesterday. The 33-year-old midfielder has instead been charged with the lesser offence of gross unsporting conduct, which, according to Uefa's disciplinary code, carries a minimum one-match ban.

Assault, in contrast, brings a minimum three-match ban while serious assault leads to a five-match suspension. Gattuso will learn of his punishment on Monday. Regardless of the sanction, he will miss the return leg at White Hart Lane on 9 March after being booked for a tackle on Steven Pienaar on Tuesday. Gattuso later apologised for his actions. "I lost control", he admitted. "There is no excuse for what I did."

Labels: another, despite, Independent, injury, setback, upbeat, Woodgate