THE DISMISSAL of Arjen Robben ignited this match and led to the two managers, Bryan Robson and Jose Mourinho, confronting one another on the touchline as the second half caught fire.

The Chelsea winger was sent off after 62 minutes for a challenge on Jonathan Greening that warranted no more than a yellow card. If the circumstances in which Asier Del Horno was sent off against Barcelona were debatable, Robben’s punishment was even more so, with the crowd and the West Brom players apparently influencing Mark Halsey’s reaction to a run-of-the-mill foul.

Mourinho had to be restrained when a “foul” by Greening on Didier Drogba, perceived rather than real, rightly went unpunished. Chelsea were unlucky to lose Robben, but they forfeited sympathy when Drogba’s histrionics on the pitch and Mourinho’s off it caused unnecessary problems, not least for the referee.

The incident that lit the blue touchpaper came when Robben caught Greening on the ankle. It deserved a booking, nothing more, but the crowd and the West Brom players were much more over the top than the Dutchman had been, and the referee fell into their trap.

Robson had it right. “I thought Robben was unlucky,” he said. “I wouldn’t have expected to be sent off for that when I was playing.” In what looked suspiciously like tit-for-tat mode, Drogba went down theatrically when Greening ran across him, and Mourinho went berserk at the officials.

“It was never a foul, Drogba dived trying to even things up,” Robson said. Spot on again.

It is to Chelsea’s discredit that nobody was prepared to face the press after the game. The media were not the only ones snubbed. Robson invited his opposite number into his office for a glass of wine, but Mourinho sent his assistant Steve Clarke and strutted out of the ground to sit alone on the team coach.

Their results may be impressive, but the runaway league leaders’ general conduct now straddles the fine line between self-belief and arrogance, and their “who-needs-you-anyway?” PR leaves a lot to be desired. Mourinho disappeared down the tunnel at the final whistle, when Robson was looking for the customary handshake, and events left a nasty taste at the end of an afternoon that had begun so well, when a public address announcement about the death of Peter Osgood brought a warm round of applause for the Chelsea legend from all present, followed by a minute’s silence immaculately observed.

The first half was relentlessly mundane, giving no hint of the pyrotechnics to come. West Brom, in safety-first 4-5-1 mode, were hoping for a draw and Chelsea, with an unassailable lead in the Premiership and one eye on Tuesday’s Champions League tie against Barcelona, seemed content to oblige. Nothing of any consequence occurred until the 43rd minute, when a bad tackle on Claude Makelele, for which Ronnie Wallwork was booked, set the scene for what was to follow.

Tempers, stirred by that, simmered just below boiling point at the start of the second half, when three Chelsea players were still in the dressing room when the referee wanted to kick off. The full West Brom team was kept waiting for two minutes before first Eidur Gudjohnsen, then Drogba and finally William Gallas deigned to join the rest. “For whatever reason, they came out late,” Robson said. “Maybe they wanted to take the sting out of the game. Whatever it was, we were a bit annoyed.”

For the second time in four days Joe Cole was his team’s hero. England’s matchwinner against Uruguay in midweek provided further evidence of his burgeoning influence and maturity in a substitute’s cameo that saw him settle the issue within 11 minutes of his introduction. Another sub, Nwankwo Kanu, pulled one back for West Brom in the 88th minute, but it was too late to affect the outcome.

It was Chelsea who took the lead after 51 minutes, when Drogba burst past both centre-halves before shooting left-footed into the right-hand corner of Tomasz Kuszczak’s net from 20 yards. Drogba’s eighth strike in the league this season was a classic centre-forward’s goal — one of which “Ossie” would have been proud.

As they showed against Barcelona, Chelsea are quite good at playing with 10 men, and Cole, who replaced Damien Duff after 63 minutes, scored after 74, shooting over Kuszczak. “That’s why we’re champions,” crowed the visiting contingent, only to be silenced, temporarily, when Kanu tucked away Paul Robinson’s cross at close range.

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