Chelsea salvaged a point in the most unlikely of circumstances as José Bosingwa’s shot deflected off Neil Taylor and beyond Michel Vorm in the second minute of stoppage time to spare André Villas-Boas another defeat.

The visitors were down to 10 men at the time, with Ashley Cole sent off after he lunged at Nathan Dyer to pick up a second yellow card. There were only four minutes of normal time remaining when Cole was dismissed but seeing out the game proved beyond Brendan Rodgers’s side.

On a day when Chelsea announced losses of £67.7m, there was a certain irony attached to the sight of a winger they let go for £500,000 only 18 months ago scoring the goal that put Swansea ahead and threatened for long periods to inflict the London club’s sixth Premier League defeat of the season. Scott Sinclair’s controlled volley, shortly before half-time, provided Swansea with a thoroughly deserved lead.

Having spent much of the first half on the back foot, Chelsea improved in the second period but were unable to turn pressure into clear chances on a night when Fernando Torres once again toiled up front. This match was a year to the day since Chelsea broke the British transfer record by paying Liverpool £50m for Torres yet there is no sign that the striker is ready to come out of hibernation. He has now failed to score for Chelsea in his last 17 appearances.

This looked like being an awkward evening for Chelsea from the outset. Swansea quickly imposed their easy-on-the-eye passing, moving the ball with precision and taking control of proceedings. By the midway point of the first half, the statistics showed that Rodgers’s side had enjoyed 63% of possession. Their work rate without the ball was every bit as impressive, as they pressed Chelsea in numbers and forced the visitors to make mistakes.

A wonderful chance for Swansea to take the lead arrived in the 16th minute, when a Chelsea defence missing the injured John Terry was left exposed by Angel Rangel’s lofted through ball, which caused Petr Cech to dash outside his area to clear. Gylfi Sigurdsson sashayed around Cech but the midfielder’s shot was blocked by Branislav Ivanovic. Danny Graham pounced on the rebound but David Luiz managed to clear off the line and when Joe Allen became the third Swansea player to try his luck in a matter of seconds, Cech was back in position to save.

Chelsea’s good fortune proved shortlived. Five minutes before the break, the impressive Sigurdsson whipped in a free-kick from the right and Bosingwa’s poor defensive header was dispatched by Sinclair with some style. The ball was behind the winger when he swung his left boot, his sweet connection lifting it over Cech and into the top corner of the net. A muted, almost apologetic, celebration followed out of respect to his former club and their travelling supporters, who had been forced to look on with frustration for much of the opening 45 minutes. Daniel Sturridge snatched at an early opportunitye but otherwise Chelsea offered little and might easily have finished the first half down to 10 men. Instead Andre Marriner, the referee, deemed Florent Malouda’s reckless challenge on Leon Britton worthy of no more than a yellow card.

Chelsea played with much more purpose in the second half, the visitors turning the tables on Swansea by pinning them back and dictating the tempo of the game. Yet chances remained at a premium as Swansea sat deep and Chelsea struggled to penetrate. Michael Essien, on for Oriol Romeu, thundered a right-footed volley from 25 yards inches over and Sturridge stabbed wide from much closer in. Cole’s red card seemed to spell the end for Chelsea but Bosingwa’s late run and deflected strike brought parity.

Premier League 2011-12Swansea CityChelseaPremier LeagueStuart James
guardian.co.uk

André Villas-Boas has been charged with revitalising an anxious side, but this was a flashback to a Chelsea of the recent past

Normal service has been resumed. In the end Chelsea surveyed this group from its pinnacle, pointing to a perfect home record without a goal shipped en route as evidence that this had all been a breeze after all. The tension that had built up over a fortnight, since Bayer Leverkusen dispatched André Villas-Boas’s side in stoppage time at the BayArena, merely melted away, the anxiety that gripped prior to kick-off a deception. There was even a prickly reaction from the manager in his post-match assessment of which José Mourinho would have been proud. This all felt like old times.

This team has been undergoing a metamorphosis since Villas-Boas was appointed in the summer, and that transformation can now be maintained within rather than without the Champions League. Valencia had represented a considerable challenge but while they pinged possession around neatly enough, they were blunted and buried. Villas-Boas has been charged with revitalising his side, and shaping a bright future, but this was a flashback to a Chelsea of the recent past; resilient at the back with Petr Cech outstanding; dynamic through the centre where Ramires was irrepressible; ruthless in attack with Didier Drogba a battering ram to shatter the opposition’s resistance.

There was reassurance to be had in it all. Villas-Boas spoke in the aftermath of tweaking his “strategy”, if not his “philosophy” which continues to revolve around “human values”, by sitting deeper and springing through the Spanish on the break. That is what Chelsea used to do best, all strength and pace, even if the willingness to surrender the ball to their visitors was at odds with the Portuguese’s mantra of being “proactive” and imposing themselves on opponents. One Spanish journalist asked whether that was a “treason” to his underlying beliefs, a question Villas-Boas greeted with incredulity.

Regardless, his ability to remind stalwarts of their qualities when it really mattered was worthy of praise. Drogba was a man possessed, back to the barnstorming best that had propelled this team to the Double under Carlo Ancelotti, with his the performance of a man seeking new terms as his contract runs down towards expiry. Cech, denying David Albelda early on and whatever Valencia flung at him thereafter, had forgotten the uncharacteristically shaky displays in defeat to Arsenal and Liverpool. Chelsea needed his assuredness. They had never previously failed to qualify from the group stage of this competition and the fears that this might be the year they would suffer that ignominy had been very real. The pre-match anxiety had proved as much though, by the end, the locals were chorusing “Carefree” as if mocking their earlier apprehension. This team can move on with confidence pepped.

The repercussions of progress into the knockout stage are more than merely financial. The television monies that will flood, as usual, into the coffers as the Londoners venture further into the latter stages are significant but not critical at a club overseen by a billionaire oligarch. This was about prestige – it would have damaged reputations to have slipped meekly into the Europa League – but, more significantly, it offers the management proper breathing space. Reaching the last 16 despite the stuttering form of late, which had seen three of the previous four home games lost, has contrived to offer Villas-Boas’s regime legitimacy.

His approach had been bold but undeniably risky over recent weeks. Fernando Torres, a British record £50m signing, has been relegated to squad-player status where most assumed the manager’s brief was to encourage the Spaniard to improve. The decision to accept transfer requests from Nicolas Anelka and Alex, ageing but experienced players, ahead of a cluttered December fixture list and then cast them to the fringes at Cobham – they are training at the academy – ahead of anticipated moves next month could be interpreted as the manager delivering a message. The pair’s professionalism may have been publicly praised, but dissenting voices will not be tolerated.

The willingness to gamble was maintained here with Frank Lampard, a player with 20 Champions League goals in 81 appearances and the kind of talisman upon which this club has so often relied, omitted from the start. Had that strategy not come off then the backlash might have been vicious, offering those who doubt the manager’s credentials evidence of his folly. In victory, the selection felt more like a stroke of genius. Ramires’s energy granted Chelsea ferocious bite on the break, with Oriol Romeu so comfortable in possession and Raul Meireles tidy and efficient in a side seeking to sit deep. Lampard, at 33, was still described as “one of the best midfielders in the world” by Villas-Boas, but might have to get used to sitting out future significant games.

There can be no protesting while results are positive, and this was a third 3-0 success in four matches. Villas-Boas had already received the private backing of Roman Abramovich during the recent traumatic spell, but now he can contemplate the work to come from a true position of power. Elimination would have been humiliating. As it is, Manchester City visit here on Monday in a fixture which had appeared daunting at kick-off but, now, feels more like an opportunity to eat into the leaders’ advantage at the top. Crisis allayed.

ChelseaChampions League 2011-12Champions LeagueAndré Villas-Boasguardian.co.uk