Tottenham 0 Chelsea 1 (Drogba, 43 mins) WHAT A GOAL! Tottenham have totally dominated these last 10 minutes or so, but then John Terry thumps a long ball from defence, Drogba controls it with his back to goal and William Gallas right behind him, flicks it onto his left foot and then absolutely thunders a shot into the top corner. Out of nothing, that was, and totally great. Van der Vaart curls in a cross with his left foot, from the right wing. It's perfect for Adebayor, who inexplicably fails to get anything on it, and the ball bounces onto the far post and away. 38 mins: A cross from the right wing seems destined to reach Kalou on the left, only for Kyle Walker to slide in to touch the ball off his toes. Again, excellent defending. "If Walker is the least aptly named player, I'd suggest Lampard is the most aptly named," writes Matt Dony. He lamps the ball, 'ard. Often. I'm pretty sure I'd manage to score a few goals if I had as many potshots as Lamps. 36 mins: GOAL-LINE CLEARANCE The ball works its way from left to right, where Lennon crosses to Van der Vaart, whose effort beats Cech but hits the knee of John Terry on the line. 35 mins: Lennon has the ball on the left-hand side of Chelsea's penalty area. He could have gone over Luiz's leg, and could have gone down as Luiz put an arm across his chest to restrain him, but didn't, and then messed up his cross. If Spurs had Ashley Young in their team they'd have a penalty there. Adebayor has the ball, 30-odd yards from goal, and Van der Vaart runs in behind him, totally unmarked. A half-decent pass there would have created a great chance. Didn't happen. 31 mins: Kalou crosses the ball from the left, and King once again beats Drogba to the ball to clear it for a corner. 29 mins: Kyle Walker has just been labelled "the least aptly-named player in the Premier League," because he does a lot of running. Surely there are more aptly-named players than that. Er, Luke Young? Walker gives the ball away to Kalou, who carries the ball towards the penalty area and then slides a lovely ball into Mata, bursting into the box. It looks a certain goal, but the ball is clearly just an inch too far ahead of the Spaniard, who pokes it straight to Cudicini. 25 mins: Lovely corner kick from Van der Vaart, which looks likely to set up a goal or even fly in all by itself when it is smarly headed away, apparently by Kalou. "What do you make of those pundits that claim winning or going on a long run in a cup can be used as a springboard in the League?" asks Junaid Gill. I think there's nothing to it, considering Liverpool and the Carling Cup as an example. Roundabout way of asking if winning or losing today will have an effect on Chelsea or Tottenham in the League. I'm not sure that one Cup match can have much of an effect, but I don't see how having this and two matches against Barcelona in the next few weeks can possibly be good news for Chelsea's top four chances. 23 mins: Adebayor picks up the ball on the half-way line and Spurs look to set up a break. He passes the ball straight into John Terry's legs, and the chance is gone. 21 mins: "Dear Chelsea 'fans'," writes Nick Smith. If you can't fill your own half of the ground for a cup semi in a venue in your own city, then please don't boo a minute's silence for 96 fans of a club that can. Actually it was someone else's city, in Liverpool's case, but I take your point. 19 mins: Scott Parker bursts into the penalty area and goes down as two defenders turn him into a Chelsea sandwich. Nothing doing. 18 mins: Bale really stretches his legs for the first time. He absolutely hares past Bosingwa and is well on his way to doing the same to David Luiz when he sadly runs out of pitch. 17 mins: Didier Drogba brings down Aaron Lennon in a totally insignificant area and get the game's first booking. "You say that Tottenham and Chelsea would garner 14 and 12 Scrabble points respectively," point-of-informations Brad McMillan, "but if played on a standard board, both are sufficiently long that they couldn't be played without landing on at least one bonus square. Just thought I'd point that out. Cheers Brad. 15 mins: Spurs race down the other end, where Van der Vaart works the ball onto his left foot 20 yards out and skies his shot high over the bar. 14 mins: Cole gets down the left, and his ball is very well cleared by King, somehow getting in front of Drogba. The ball bounces back to Cole, whose pull-back rolls across the penalty area to a Spurs player. 11 mins: A lovely Modric pass releases Bale down the left, Lennon collects his overhit cross on the right side of the penalty area, and his attempt to set up Van der Vaart is deflected back to the keeper. 9 mins: Chelsea have started considerably better, without doing much of interest in or around Tottenham's penalty area as yet. Drogba smacks a 40-yard free-kick over the bar. "Nothing to do with anything," writes Ryan Dunne, "but (former Glorious Glasgow Rangers captain) Davie Weir's selection of his ideal dinner party guests, featured in today's Sun, is truly one of the most entertainingly off-beat selections I've read. The guests are: Sherlock Holmes, Jock Stein, Beyonce and ... Lee McCulloch ('I considered Frank Sinatra, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill and many others of that ilk. In the end I've gone for my old Rangers team pal Lee McCulloch') " That is a fine line-up. 6 mins: Those actually at Wembley report that it was a group of Chelsea fans who failed to respect the minute's silence in memory of the Hillsborough dead. Bizarre, really. What were they thinking? On second thoughts, don't answer that. 4 mins: The traditional slightly slow start, as the players nervously play themselves into the game. Meanwhile, a Scrabble-related query from Joe. Why wouldnt Chelsea be allowed? It's seven letters, and it's a verb. Chelsea: to buy success despite having no history. Joe appears to be a Spurs fan. 2 min: For me, the presence of both Lennon and Bale on the pitch is absolutely key. If they stay on their wings - in other words, if Bale hasn't been told to do mess about more centrally - I think Spurs have every chance of winning this. Chelsea get us started! 6.01pm: The silence does not seem to be entirely well respected. When the referee blows his whistle to bring the "silence" to the end, the respectful majority boo heartily. 6.00pm: Before kick-off, a minute's silence in memory of the 96 who died at Hillsborough in 1989, with Livorno's Piermario Morosini also mentioned. 5.58pm: Talking about the controversial kick-off time on ITV1, Roy Keane just said the main thing was to "focus on the game." On first hearing, though, it sounded very much like he wanted us to "fook Sunday game." 5.55pm: The players are in the tunnel. Action imminent. 5.42pm: Didier Drogba starts for Chelsea in preference to Fernando Torres. Tottenham's Ledley King passes his traditional fitness test, while Carlo Cudicini - who has started every FA Cup tie - keeps his place in goal. 5.40pm: Here are the teams! Tottenham: Cudicini, Walker, Gallas, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Modric, Parker, Bale, Adebayor, Van der Vaart. Subs: Friedel, Giovani, Defoe, Rose, Livermore, Sandro, Nelsen. Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Luiz, Cole, Ramires, Lampard, Mikel, Kalou, Drogba, Mata. Subs: Turnbull, Essien, Torres, Malouda, Meireles, Sturridge, Cahill. Chelsea's Ashley Cole arrives at Wembley Stadium for their FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham. Photograph: Michael Regan/The FA via Getty Images 5.37pm: We must get a result today - so there'll be extra time and penalties if required. We've already spotted signs that the players are expecting this to go the distance: to judge by Ashley Cole's choice of luggage he expects to be at Wembley for at least a couple of days. 5.30pm: Hello world! It's only the FA Cup semi-final! Some pre-match pointers: Tottenham have won 50% of their 18 previous semi-finals, and Chelsea have won 52.6% of the 19 they have played! Tottenham have won 50% of their previous Cup ties against Chelsea, and so have Chelsea! Tottenham have won 50% of the two points the teams have shared in the league this season, and so have Chelsea (0-0 and 1-1, since you ask)! So, it's looking like a draw then. If you want a pre-match pointer which separates the teams, there's always this: "Tottenham" would score you 14 points in a game of Scrabble, whereas Chelsea would net you just 12. Though to be fair neither would be allowed. Early arrivals were treated to Dom Fifield's piece on Roberto Di Matteo. And I don't see why you can't still read it, if you're so inclined. Late Thursday morning in Cobham and Chelsea's training ground is all a hubbub. Players are returning from a welcome few days off, the procession of snazzy sports cars and pristine four-wheel drives purring into the car park interrupted only by Ross Turnbull free-wheeling in on a bicycle. Uefa's doping team loiter in reception, urine sample bottles presumably at the ready, while a group of wide-eyed corporate guests spill out unhelpfully from the media theatre. And yet, as he saunters through the palaver, the former midfielder turned interim first-team coach cum caretaker manager hardly bats an eyelid. It takes a lot to fluster Roberto Di Matteo, which, at present, is just as well. The Italian is almost six weeks into an unexpected stint in charge of the club he served as a player for six years, his elevation necessitated by the abrupt dismissal of André Villas-Boas, and, every day, he confronts challenges that might reduce others to gibbering wrecks. Occupying his mind late last week was the case for his defence as he waited on news of Ashley Cole's ankle, Ryan Bertrand's calf, John Terry's ribs and Branislav Ivanovic's ultimately doomed appeal against a violent conduct charge. Nagging away was the schedule into which Chelsea are about to plunge: Tottenham Hotspur in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday night, Arsenal at the Emirates and Barcelona home and away, all in a frantic 10-day period. Others might consider the calendar as terrifying as it is unforgiving, though the stand-in merely smiles and describes the clutter ahead as "quite a unique little period." Yet Di Matteo is not impervious to the pressure. There is a theory, often aired, that he had little to lose once Roman Abramovich deemed this campaign to have veered out of Villas-Boas's control. Chelsea were, by the Italian's own admission, playing catch-up in the Premier League and, even as he transferred his clipboards from the crammed coaches' office into the managerial suite, were well adrift of Napoli in their Champions League last-16 tie. Logic suggested the 41-year-old could work without fear of the sack, a privilege denied each permanent incumbent since Guus Hiddink's spell as the oligarch's Red Adair in 2009, though Di Matteo disagrees. "I feel responsible," he says, having taken his customary moment to weigh up a response. That's the way my personality is. I have a responsibility, and all of us need to finish the season successfully: the management, the players, the club, everybody. So it's not a no-lose situation. Not in any way. More...