WELL, the party had to end sometime.
That all-singing, all-dancing advert for English football that has dominated the past week was brought back to earth with a crash last night.
And what a crash it was. Chelsea and Everton defied the goalfest of the past few days to serve up a game that was absolutely worthless.
No goals. No winner. And no entertainment.
At least Liverpool’s Premier League challenge ended with a 4-4 bang of a game against Arsenal. Chelsea opted for a whimper as they handed the title to Manchester United on a night of drab nothingness at Stamford Bridge.
The Guus Hiddink revolution was brought to a grinding halt in a match devoid of any spark.
Billed as the FA Cup Final dress rehearsal, the best this match did was to scare the hell out of anyone thinking of going to Wembley Stadium next month. OK, both sides were a bit tired after the weekend’s exertions getting themselves into the showpiece game on May 30.
Hiddink has won every league match in his charge at home but his team showed very little ambition to make this a repeat performance.
In fact, this match became something akin to torture — the longer it went on the more painful it got.
And no one was willing to surrender. The nearest anyone got to threatening the stalemate was in the final minutes.
Chelsea’s best chance of goal came from Didier Drogba in the closing moments and the striker capped a frustrating evening with a shot which almost broke the crossbar.
Other than that, there was, well, not much at all really.
It was Frank Lampard who warned against the Blues’ habit of not waking up until they were a goal down.
There was little danger of needing to react here even though his words went completely unheeded in the eighth minute when Jo was allowed to bear down on goal. Petr Cech raced from his line and blocked the Brazilian’s shot with a leg.
In reply Drogba tracked to the halfway line only to wish he had not bothered when Phil Neville hacked him down. The Toffees skipper was booked. In fact, it took 33 minutes for the first serious danger when Jo broke on the right and crossed for Tim Cahill to swivel and get a shot off.
Cech was more than up to the task of blocking the effort but the sense of malaise which was prevalent in the opening period never lifted.
Lampard was the only Chelsea player willing to have a pop from distance and it took until three minutes from time before they really threatened.
Nicolas Anelka broke directly when an Everton corner was cleared but Tim Howard anticipated his cross.
Two minutes later Jo again found himself in the kind of space strikers usually only get in training matches.
In keeping with the general standard of play he tripped and sliced an embarrassing effort wide.
At least the visitors looked more serious about the match after the break. Leighton Baines fed Leon Osman who cleverly evaded everyone on the right and pinged in a great cross.
Cahill did enough to direct the ball goalward but Cech was just as wary and made the save look easy. Chelsea slowly began to look like a team who realised there was a game and points to be won.
Michael Essien was willing to carry the ball and also the attack to Everton. He laid off wide to Anelka whose ball in was within a hair’s breadth of setting Lampard free on goal.
That flurry was just about as good as it got for the home support who had turned up with genuine hope of seeing their team power on in the league.
Hiddink effectively threw in the towel afterwards and no one was in a mood to argue.
Even the Chelsea boss recognised it is futile to pretend you are fighting on three fronts when no one else believes you.
So one down and two to go for the Chelsea and their flying Dutchman. It is all about knockouts now the marathon has been won by United.
Chelsea, though, will look on this match as an example of how to lose trophies rather than win them.
