Chelsea enjoying the best ‘crisis’ in the history of football

This was supposed to be a terrible season for Chelsea.

Our players were past it, we couldn’t defend (or attack) and yet more managerial upheaval illustrated what disarray we were in – and always would be.

Didn’t look that way on Sunday evening, did it?

Didn’t look that way when Didier Drogba turned William Gallas inside out and belted home his seventh goal in semis or finals at Wembley.

Didn’t look that way when Frank Lampard fired a free-kick into the top corner.

Didn’t look that way when Florent Malouda put us 5-1 up in an FA Cup semi-final against our fiercest London rivals.

5-1. In an FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham. And this is a team in crisis?

Growing up in the 1980s I used to watch teams like Coventry, Wimbledon, Oxford and Luton win major trophies and just wish that one day my beloved Chelsea team might get to a cup final.

Now we have our fourth FA Cup final in six years to look forward to – our eighth in two decades. Not to mention a Champions League semi against Barcelona.

I reckon about 99% of the clubs in the league would happily swap places with us right now.

Supporting Chelsea has been incredible over the past 15 years or so. And if it looked like it was beginning to go sour a couple of months ago, that moment seems to have at least been postponed for a while.

Under Roberto Di Matteo we have our shape back, our desire back, we play with a bit more pace and we’re winning games.

Every Chelsea fan should be thankful for what we’ve had over the past few years – and we should all be grateful to him for what he’s done for us as a player and now as a manager.

First and foremost, the 5-1 win over Spurs gets us into the FA Cup final against Liverpool. But what else does it do?

Hopefully it boosts the players’ confidence even more and damages that of a Tottenham team who’ve been in freefall for weeks.

Can we yet finish above them and get another crack at the Champions League next year? This game, despite being in a different competition, can’t have hurt our chances.

And while the sight of Juan Mata scoring a goal that probably didn’t cross the line or Malouda coming off the bench to score against an already-beaten team won’t have Barcelona quaking in their boots, nobody can tell me that eyebrows won’t have been raised in Catalonia when the final score from Wembley filtered through.

So this win should help on several fronts. And if it doesn’t and we finish fifth or sixth and lose to Barcelona but win the FA Cup, that wouldn’t be the worst of seasons would it?

I’d have taken it two months ago and I’d definitely have taken it as a 10-year-old.

And I’ll cherish the memory of beating Tottenham 5-1 at Wembley for many years to come.

James Clarke is the author of Moody Blues: Following the second-best team in Europe

Follow James on Twitter