BLUES STALWARTS SEE OFF STOKE

FRANK LAMPARD and John Terry got the goals as Chelsea cruised past Stoke to reach the last four of the FA Cup.

Tony Pulis' Potters showed real fire to get to this stage of the competition in dumping fancied Arsenal and Manchester City out en route to Stamford Bridge but they went out with a whimper in this toughest of assignments.

Despite excellent vocal backing from their travelling fans, who were dreaming of a rare trip to Wembley, it is the favourites to lift the trophy who progress comfortably to their 19th FA Cup semi-final.

Lampard netted with a trademark deflected effort while Terry's header also flicked off a defender on its way past Thomas Sorensen as the Londoners got back to winning ways.

It is difficult to be too harsh on Stoke but perhaps the awful Aaron Ramsey incident last weekend has taken something out of them.

Of course, they missed Ryan Shawcross at the back through suspension as a result but their usual whole-hearted approach barely raised above a flicker and they really had no answer once Lampard broke the deadlock.

City's passing wasn't up to scratch. Tuncay was particularly frustrating while Ricardo Fuller didn't look in the mood. It was left to long throw-ins from Rory Delap to provide any sniff of threat to the potential weak link Hilario in the Chelsea goal.

Mamady Sidibe headed over early on from the usual source and another of Delap's hurled missiles led to the best chance of the game for the visitors when Dean Whitehead's goalbound shot was hacked away by John Obi Mikel.

Nicolas Anelka tried in vain to end a mini-drought as he forced a save out of Sorensen before dragging a great chance wide after slack play by Whitehead inside his own box.

A bad touch by Tuncay allowed the outstanding Alex to make a brilliant saving tackle but the pressure started to build at the other end with Whitehead needing to deflect a Didier Drogba attempt wide.

A goal duly arrived on 35 minutes with Terry laying the ball invitingly into the path of England colleague Lampard, whose powerful shot deflected off Abdoulaye Faye to beat a flummoxed Sorensen.

The man who got the winner in last year's final clearly has designs on keeping the trophy.

Sorensen made saves from a Lampard free-kick and Drogba snap-shot before the interval and it was clear Stoke needed to up their game to keep their Wembley dreams alive.

Instead, Chelsea showed their quality by taking a firm grip on the game.

Lampard blazed wastefully over the bar after a long throw-in of their own by Branislav Ivanovic. The full-back got it wrong later on when encroaching onto the pitch and conceding a foul throw but it was a good retort to the Delap tactic.

TERRY: Decisive goal

Drogba and Anelka were keen to get on the scoresheet and both had decent efforts on goal before a real period of pressure yielded the killer second goal.

Andy Wilkinson did superbly to block headers from Anelka and Alex in consecutive attacks but, from the next corner, Terry attacked it with the most conviction and his effort deflected yet again off the Stoke full-back and, this time, it flew past Sorensen and nestled in the net.

Terry showed his joy and his muscles as he took another major step towards proving he's over all the negative off-the-field publicity of late.

The goal strangled all life out of Stoke and even their boisterous fans, who resorted to trying to taunt Terry as the match petered out.

Lampard worked Sorensen from distance and Faye missed with two token headers from set-plays as the visitors tried almost half-heartedly to find a route back into the game.

In truth, it should've been worse for Pulis' side as Salomon Kalou wasted a one-on-one chance with Sorensen and Lampard failed to take advantage of one breakaway. Anelka also supplied a poor finish to a Lampard through ball as he lacked his customary coolness in front of goal.

Fuller tricked his way through to force a late stop out of Hilario and Terry picked up the game's only yellow card for tugging back the Jamaican.

Perhaps that says it all as Stoke's run ended, all too predictably against a team that is going to be very difficult to stop retaining the trophy.

Being physical and getting into people's faces is what has brought success for Pulis and his team but they failed to hustle Chelsea out of their elegant stride and paid the price.