Chelsea 4 - 0 Portsmouth: Flurry of late goals help Chelsea oust Portsmouth

The west Londoners never looked in any danger as they netted four times in the second period.

Many wrote off Michael Appleton’s Pompey side before the match, but they came close to breaking the deadlock after 29 seconds, with Dave Kitson finding space to fire across goal.

Chelsea only had a Fernando Torres attempt to show for their first-half exertions. Florent Malouda, who looked bright in the opening exchanges, fired in a left-wing cross that was met by the Spain international, although Stephen Henderson managed to parry wide the goalbound effort.

But three minutes into the second half, Chelsea took the lead. With Pompey appealing for a handball against Ashley Cole, Malouda darted down the left flank and pulled back for Juan Mata to convert from six yards.

Portsmouth pushed forward in response, with captain Liam Lawrence curling a 20-yard free-kick agonisingly wide in the 50th minute, before three chances went begging during a penalty-box melee three minutes later.

Marko Futacs saw a low effort stopped by the legs of Cech, before Ward’s header was cleared off the line by Terry and then Petr Cech stopped Futacs’ second attempt.

Portsmouth poured forward in search of the equaliser, which would have come in the 53rd minute but for last-ditch defending by Cech and John Terry.

However, that was as close as the npower Championship side came as Chelsea’s superior class took over.

The south-coast side did continued to press forward, but Chelsea’s victory was confirmed when Ramires tapped home from close range in the 85th minute. Two minutes later, he netted his second, latching on to a Torres ball before superbly flicking past Henderson.

And Portsmouth’s collapse was completed in stoppage time as Frank Lampard found space in the box to fire home the fourth for Andre Villas-Boas’ men.