Chelsea ended another difficult week in their turbulent season on a high by reaching the FA Cup semi-finals with a 7-0 win over Port Vale that eased the pressure on Liam Rosenior.
Chelsea had failed to score a goal in over 300 minutes of play in all competitions before Saturday. But once they go the first, the floodgates opened.
Port Vale are bottom of England's third tier but had beaten Premier League Sunderland in the previous round.
Chelsea went ahead in 64 seconds when Jorrel Hato pounced on poor defending by the visitors.
A close-range strike by Joao Pedro and an own goal by Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel gave the eight-time FA Cup winners a 3-0 lead at halftime before headed goals by Tosin Adarabioyo and Andrey Santos, a fine finish by Estevao and an Alejandro Garnacho penalty wrapped up the win.
The 7-0 victory offered some relief to Chelsea coach Rosenior after four defeats in a row in all competitions and ahead of next weekend's visit of Manchester City in the Premier League.
Rosenior sent out a near full-strength XI against the League One strugglers with the notable exception of Enzo Fernandez, suspended internally over his flirtations with Real Madrid but present at Stamford Bridge to see his team book their place at Wembley.
The Chelsea boss would have heaved a sigh of relief after a win that took some pressure off him for the time being.
“It's great, it's why you come to this club, you want to win trophies, you want to be in big games and I was really happy with the players. Their attitude was top,” Rosenior told BBC Sport.
The coach said he urged his players to maintain the tempo at half time.
“I said play like it's 0-0, we have to be perfect. I thought the players were outstanding in terms of carrying that out.”
There has been a lot of negativity in and around the Chelsea team, with Marc Cucurella also left on the bench for publicly challenging the Blues' transfer policy.
Rosenior admitted it had been a challenging period.
“Football is about football on the pitch. This is a huge club with a lot of scrutiny, a lot of people writing a lot of things. We had a really difficult 10 days but the way we came through is a really good step for the run-in.”
Port Vale boss Jon Brady said he was proud of his players.
“I'm proud of the players overall. It shows how ruthless the players are at this level and it's something we can stride to. We beat a Premier League team and a Championship team in one week,” Brady told BBC Sport.
