It's time for Roman to hail master

"It's difficult to kill me," Ranieri smiled again. The dead man, he noted, was still walking although he didn't mention how the dead man had even been prompted to shed a tear or two of joy. He's right though. It is difficult to kill off someone who even Wenger reckons now has an 80 per cent chance of reaching the final. Not only that, noted the Arsenal boss, but Chelsea were still "on their way up", unbeaten in nine games. He's sure they will pounce on any more failings.

Ranieri's Chelsea are still a work in progress but surely that progress has now been impressive enough to make Abramovich and Peter Kenyon think again. If his dismissal is a done deal, then it makes no sense.

Paying £7million in severance to a man who has built so promisingly during a chaotic period of restructuring for the club promises to be a false economy. There is absolutely no guarantee that any replacement would be able to inspire the sort of confidence in his players which last night's hero Wayne Bridge talked of.

Bridge described him as a man well liked by the whole team, who had their support whenever he took stick and whose emotional commitment to Chelsea had rubbed off on everyone.

"You never know what's going to happen but maybe this result will persuade the board that he should stay," mused the winning goalscorer.

It ought to because these 90 minutes were the best testimony to his quality as a coach. His tinkering with teams has often been criticised as excessive yet at the business end of the season, only now may we be seeing the real fitness benefits stemming from constant squad rotation.

For a rare change, he fielded an unchanged team but one which after the Tottenham game still appeared much less jaded than Wenger's. He had always wanted them fresh "for the crunch", he said.

Scott Parker, the one Chelsea man who seemed a bit weary after his recent workaholic endeavours, was swiftly removed at the interval after they had been skinned so often down the right flank which he had been working. There may have been a few sighs when he was replaced by the more lightweight Jesper Gronkjaer, not everyone's idea of a big match performer, yet it proved the masterstroke.

Gronkjaer gave Chelsea new width and enterprise and kept Ashley Cole in check. His threat so changed the game's momentum that after the equaliser, Arsenal simply seemed deflated and lost while Ranieri's late double introduction of Joe Cole and Hernan Crespo seemed perfectly timed to help set up the killer blow.

In truth, Ranieri didn't put a foot wrong but then he hasn't done so in Europe all season. "I feel sorry for him in way and think most people do," was Bridge's take on his manager's dilemma. That's true enough but the great thing about him is that he never appears to feel sorry for himself.

"I have players with fantastic character. They never give up, I like that," said Ranieri whose side are at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday. It's also what football likes about a man whose own resilience perhaps does reflect that of the two teams he has created at Stamford Bridge - the one which earned this Champions League spot last season and the exotic new model which has now made it to the last four. What they both have in common is John Terry-Frank Lampard spine, again so reassuringly excellent last night.

In his moment of triumph, Ranieri reckoned he had enjoyed "30 seconds of delirious." So what about Abramovich? "Oh, he was mad. Like me," smiled the Italian. What, mad enough to still get rid of him? It is still not too late for a change of heart . . .