Chelsea 2 CSKA Moscow 0
The Champions League continues to be a showcase for Chelsea's resourcefulness. CSKA Moscow were eager and accomplished but were still quelled by a side that depended on aerial expertise to score and fine reactions from Petr Cech to protect itself.
With a perfect record of nine points in Group H, a place for Chelsea in the knock-out stage is virtually assured. That work has been completed in an unsettling period.
If nothing else, the present difficulties let Chelsea pose as a disadvantaged club. Even if the public will still withhold their tears, Jose Mourinho is a manager of slender means in one area now that Didier Drogba is injured and Adrian Mutu's career is populated by drug counsellors and officials who will sit in judgment on him.
For the time being, Mourinho has no decision to make when picking a partnership in attack. There was not even a spare forward on the bench, with Mateja Kezman and Eidur Gudjohnsen in the starting line-up. Chelsea could console themselves with the knowledge that a buccaneering attitude had never been part of the plan in any case.
There has been an emphasis on set-pieces and aerial strength this season. Porto had been blitzed in such situations in the previous Champions League game here and those means gave Chelsea control by the close of the first half now. John Terry not only scored but was also a persistent threat.
After nine minutes, Frank Lampard hit a deep corner and, with the goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev distracting his own defence with a foolish attempt to intercept, Gudjohnsen was able to put a downwards header back across the target for the Chelsea captain to nod into the net.
This occasion sometimes looked like a frolic for Terry, and he was close again when smashing a Damien Duff cross marginally high and heading another Lampard delivery wide. Terry, though, was eventually to find his starring role usurped by one of the men who are supposed to be the specialist finishers.
Lampard was brought down on the right after 45 minutes and Duff bent an inswinging free-kick on to the head of Gudjohnsen, who hit the net for the first time since the opening weekend of the season.
Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, has presented CSKA with the most lucrative sponsorship deal in world football and he might have winced at the sight of the good use being made of that £10 million annual sum. The visitors were far more effective than the advance news had suggested.
Chelsea's preference for William Gallas over Ricardo Carvalho at centre-back could, in theory, have been rendered academic by the implausibility of the Russian champions applying enough pressure to splinter the Chelsea back four. CSKA had not scored in any of the four previous away matches they have played in this tournament in their history.
The present is no easier on the eye for the club. The strikers Ivica Olic was injured, while Jiri Jarosek and Rolan Gusev, two significant performers, were also missing.
CHELSEA:Cech, Bridge, Terry, Gallas, Paulo Ferreira, Lampard, Duff (Cole 76), Smertin (Parker 84), Makelele, Kezman (Tiago 62), Gudjohnsen. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Johnson, Ricardo Carvalho, Geremi. Booked: Kezman. Goals: Terry 9, Gudjohnsen 45.
CSKA MOSCOW:Akinfeev, Semberas, Semak (Krasic 71), Berezoutski, Ignashevich, Carvalho (Laizans 24), Vagner Love (Dadu 60), Odiah, Zhirkov, Aldonin, Rahimic. Subs Not Used: Mandrykin, Ferreira, Kirichenko, Shershun.
Referee:Lubos Michel (Slovakia).