Frank Lampard is widely regarded as the complete midfielder but he was given a run for his money by an unlikely team-mate last night. Stationed unusually deep, the imperious Nicolas Anelka inspired an important win for Chelsea courtesy of a stream of sublime passes complemented by the odd tackle and a late goal.

After a deceptively bright start, Sunderland ultimately floundered in the face of Anelka’s strength and attacking vision as Carlo Ancelotti initially defensive wobbly team gained a measure of revenge for their biggest humiliation of the season.

He may not quite have made prime minister but David Miliband was tonight’unveiled’ as Sunderland’s latest board member, the former foreign secretary joining as a non-executive vice chairman. Sitting alongside Ellis Short, the Sunderland owner, and the chairman, Niall Quinn, he did not have long to wait before cheering the first goal. Despite operating out of position at left-back, Phil Bardsley has arguably been Steve Bruce’s player of the season.

Much improved, Bardsley showed off his overlapping credentials by receiving the ball on the halfway line and advancing unimpeded before finally cutting in and sidestepping Mikel John Obi with unexpected ease.

All that remained was for Bardsley to direct a dipping right foot shot beyond Petr Cech from the edge of the area. Chelsea were still evidently smarting from the autumnal 3-0 home Premier League defeat by Sunderland and swiftly won a penalty.

Were Miliband still in his old job he would have been embroiled in the Egypt crisis but instead found himself watching Bruce’s Egyptian right-winger Ahmed Elmohamady penalised for seeming to climb on top of Ashley Cole.

Lampard stepped forward to score from the spot, sending Craig Gordon the wrong way and, soon, Carlo Ancelotti’s side were ahead. Anelka was impressing at the apex of Chelsea’s midfield diamond and his astutely timed pass enabled Solomon Kalou to direct the ball into the back of the empty net with the outside of a foot after Gordon had unwisely dashed off his line.

Undaunted Sunderland tore back into Chelsea and Mikel’s foul on Elmohamady brought them a free-kick 20 yards out on the right hand side of the area. Kieran Richardson’s time on Wearside has all too often been synonymous with under-achievement but, deployed in an attacking midfield role here he looked renascent. Richardson also delivered that dead ball quite brilliantly, his low left-foot strike curving in at the near post and leaving Cech rooted to the spot.

Like Stephane Sessègnon –Sunderland’s new £7m Benin international, freshly acquired from Paris St Germain – Richardson was floating in ‘the hole’ behind Asamoah Gyan and the pair’s high energy movement frequently ruffled Ancelotti’s defence. Certainly John Terry and company had cause to be grateful that Anelka was reminding everyone that Jordan Henderson is not a holding midfielder.

With Fernando Torres and David Luiz now on the Stamford Bridge books – if absent here – the future suddenly seems shrouded for Anelka, and possibly even Didier Drogba, but it is surely not beyond the bounds of possibility that the Frenchman could be re-invented as an excitingly accomplished attacking midfielder.

Monday’s departure of the immensely gifted but not conventionally athletic Andy Reid to Blackpool offered further confirmation that Bruce is building a powerful, pacy, physically imposing side in which skill matters but strength and quick-fire acceleration are tremendously important. Once Sulley Muntari regains fitness Sunderland’s Europa League challenge will shortly be augmented by the on-loan Internazionale midfielder. It will be interesting to see precisely where Muntari fits in because, as the second half unfolded, Lampard highlighted his importance to Chelsea by repeatedly second-guessing Henderson while showing Sunderland’s prodigy precisely what being a complete midfielder entails.

Lampard might have scored again had a hallmark late dash into the box not ended with his shot being blocked by Nedum Onuoha but Chelsea were ascendant. During a particularly desperate goalmouth scramble, Steed Malbranque chested clear just as Kalou seemed set to score once more from point-blank range. With Gordon doing well to repel another Lampard strike and Michael Essien coming more into things, Sunderland were clinging on by their fingernails.

With Anelka tormenting Sunderland they lost any semblance of a grip on the game when the fall-out from a disputed corner saw Gordon parry Lampard’s shot and, courtesy of a deflection, John Terry volleyed home the rebound.

There was a moment of late tension when Richardson and Branislav Ivanovic touched foreheads and were booked in the wake of a dispute over the former’s challenge on Jose Bosingwa but Anelka could not be overshadowed and a deft finish supplied Chelsea’s fourth.

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John Terry reasserted his presence in Chelsea’s FA Cup advance past Stoke

John Terry has made his point. This tie was still on edge, the visitors mustering themselves in pursuit of an equaliser, when Chelsea’s talisman barged himself into space at Frank Lampard’s corner to thump in the goal that deflated Stoke City’s challenge. The manic goal celebrations that followed arguably offered the best insight yet into the centre-half’s thoughts at surrendering the England captaincy.

Terry peeled away from the near post, the net billowing after his header had flicked off Andy Wilkinson and beyond Thomas Sorensen, to run to the corner of the East and Matthew Harding stands pointing at the armband. By the time he wrestled himself clear of the celebratory huddle, he had rolled his left sleeve up to his shoulder while leaving the armband exposed on his biceps, his charge alone back into his own half pointedly aimed at the Stoke fans packed into the Shed.

Terry is growing used to the abuse to which he is subjected at games these days, the vitriol all born of the allegations over his private life that cost him the England captaincy last month. The visiting fans delighted in an array of chants – all following the same, predictable theme – and, when they remembered, booed Terry whenever he found himself in possession. Chelsea’s fans responded with cries of “There’s only one England captain” despite the fact that there had been three at Wembley last Wednesday night alone and none of them had been Terry.

At the current rate, and if the abuse continues for much longer, the 29-year-old is in danger of emerging from the Wayne Bridge affair, no pun intended, as an unlikely victim. It has to be hoped that, as he had stated in the aftermath of the Egypt game, a line has been drawn under the unhappy episode. His own form had suffered over the last month, the high-profile errors against Everton, Internazionale and Manchester City pointing at uncharacteristic fragility.

His display for England in midweek was made to look more assured by his central defensive partner Matthew Upson’s slip for the Egyptian goal, but he was more ruggedly impressive here. Stoke are not the aggressive long-ball team that some imply, but they boasted rugged and awkward forwards in Mamady Sidibe and Ricardo Fuller. Terry and the excellent Alex coped admirably as Rory Delap’s throw-ins ripped into the six-yard box and Henrique Hilário, a goalkeeper living on his nerves, heaved himself through the clutch of bodies in search of the ball. Terry offered reassurance in the circumstances.

The captain, raw emotion after his goal aside, will merely be content to have halted this team’s mini-slump. Chelsea had not lost three in a row since October 2002 – when Claudio Ranieri’s side lost to West Ham, Viking Stavanger and Liverpool – and their capitulation to City had been infuriating. “As players and fans we learn to lose from time to time,” wrote Terry in his programme notes. “But it doesn’t make it any easier, and especially not in the manner that we lost to Manchester City.

“It wasn’t that it brought to an end our 37-match unbeaten run. It was more the way we lost, which was not us at all. We don’t accept that kind of performance and that kind of result. We know all our fans won’t accept it, which is why we have to put things right.”

They did just that here. The holders’ grip on this trophy remains as firm as ever, and their captain’s dip in form appears to have passed.

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