Chelsea progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to a comfortable 4-0 victory over Norwich in their replay at Stamford Bridge tonight and it was Gianfranco Zola's goal, the third for the Blues on the night, that epitomised their superiority to their Division One opponents. Mario Stanic gave Chelsea an early lead after just 10 minutes although there was some controversy over that goal as Norwich keeper Robert Green looked to have been fouled by Frank Lampard in the build-up.
Norwich put up some stout resistance for the remainder of the first-half to keep the interval score at 1-0 but they finally folded in the 55th minute in the face of Chelsea's first real attacking move of the second-half. Green fumbled Stanic's 30-yard drive and Lampard pounced at close range to fire the ball home.
However, worse was to come for Norwich as Zola produced a moment of sheer magic to score Chelsea's third. A corner from Graham Le Saux at the near post found the Italian and with the slightest of touches, he produced a reverse, volleyed flick to beat Green from about eight yards out. Green's embarrassment was summed up with the fourth and final goal as he could only help substitute Mikael Forssell's effort into the net.
Tottenham finally exorcised the ghost of 1987 when they overcame Coventry City 2-0 at Highfield Road thanks to goals from Gustavo Poyet and Les Ferdinand. Coventry pulled off one of the biggest FA Cup shocks of all time when they defeated Spurs in the 1987 final - incidentally that was manager Glenn Hoddle's last game for the North London giants before his move to Monaco. Coventry paraded that Cup-winning side before this game got underway in the hope that it would give their players a psychological edge against their mightier opponents but it was Spurs who looked more like a Cup-winning side despite the fact that they are missing several of their top stars including Teddy Sheringham and Christian Ziege through injury and suspension.
Poyet has already scored six times in the FA Cup during his time in England and once again he showed his affection for football's most famous domestic cup competition when he fired Spurs into the lead 23 minutes into the game.
Once they had scored, Spurs began to dominate and it was only a matter of time before they would score again. Ferdinand, who almost missed this game with an ankle injury, ensured Spurs set up a home tie against Bolton Wanderers in the next round when he scored their second of the night and his 13th of the season just six minutes into the second-half.
Although Blackburn boss Graeme Souness has more pressing matters than the FA Cup at the moment with a Worthington Cup final place on the cards for his side and a fight against relegation, he will no doubt be pleased by his team's performance as they strolled into a fourth round clash with Millwall after a 3-1 win over Barnsley tonight. He made no less than eight changes to the line-up that beat Charlton 4-1 last weekend. It seemed a major gamble as Barnsley were unbeaten in their last eight matches but Souness pulled it off as goals from Corrado Grabbi, David Dunn - from the spot - and Nils-Eric Johansson put them completely in control. Although Bruce Dyer pulled one back for Barnsley late on, there was never any real chance of a comeback.
Bolton will be pleased that they came through their visit to Stockport County with their FA Cup dreams in tact but with a fourth round tie at White Hart Lane, they will hardly be optimistic about their chances as they have already suffered a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Tottenham in the quarter-finals of the Worthington Cup this season. A largely second-string Bolton team lined out tonight but they found themselves 2-0 by half-time thanks to a goal from Gudni Bergsson and an own goal from Karim Fradin.
They added two more in the second-half with the introduction of star striker Michael Ricketts. He set up Henrik Pedersen for the third and then scored a spectacular fourth goal himself, ensuring Jon Daly's last-minute penalty was scant consolation for the home side.
Meanwhile, in the Scottish Cup third round replays, Forfar thrashed Gala Fairydean 5-0 while Dundee also won away to Falkirk 1-0.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
