CRUISING, or so it seemed, to a facile 4-0 victory against an unadventurous Bolton Wanderers team, Chelsea suddenly and astonishingly collapsed in the last 20 minutes. Bolton got back three of the goals and dominated, even ridiculed a Chelsea defence whose keeper, Petr Cech, was hopelessly and helplessly at sea and all but gained an equaliser.

However, right at the end of stoppage time, when the visiting keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, was beaten to the ball by Nicolas Anelka, Gretar Steinsson raced back to scramble the ball off the line.

To what extent Chelsea were ultimately tired after their famous victory at Liverpool, and to what extent — in a presumed excess of confidence — they took their foot off the accelerator, we can only surmise.

The embarrassing fact is that despite dominating the game for so long, and rattling in three second-half goals, Chelsea were, bewilderingly, on the ropes.

For Bolton, who pushed centre-back Gary Cahill up front in the hectic closing stages, the transformation almost defied logic.

They had begun with their usual five men across the middle, had occasionally broken with a mild threat, but once, after 40 minutes, Michael Ballack had exchanged passes with Salomon Kalou and effortlessly scored from the return, Bolton’s goose already seemed to be cooked.

In the last moments of the first half, though, both Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies were only just wide with shots past the left post.

The immediate future of Cech, who, in those last frantic 20 minutes seemed to be going through some kind of nervous crisis, must be in some doubt, what with Liverpool arriving at Stamford Bridge for the European Cup return on Tuesday and Chelsea facing Arsenal at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.

Chelsea’s Dutch manager, Guus Hiddink, hailed as a hero last week after Anfield, said diplomatically: “I think everyone, including the goalkeeper, did not perform well. I like not to talk about one specific player. At the end, the goalkeeper is nearest to the goal.

“We suddenly got very sloppy,” admitted Hiddink. “Not winning duels anymore. And I’m not just talking about defence.”

When the second half began, Chelsea’s mastery seemed complete. Bolton’s manager, Gary Megson, admitted: “The first 20 minutes I thought we looked quite secure and then for 25 minutes we lost it. But we still lost the game 4-3.”

The second Chelsea goal came three minutes into the second half. Frank Lampard, in impressive form, took a free kick from the right after a decoy run by Florent Malouda. Didier Drogba neatly and incisively turned the ball home.

For the third goal, on the hour, Ballack found Lampard and when, from the left, he tried to guide the ball into the goalmouth, Steinsson handled. Lampard confidently drove home the penalty.

Three minutes later Drogba scored again. Branislav Ivanovic, the hero of Anfield, got his head to an inswinging corner from the right by Malouda and Drogba neatly provided the final touch.

Whether man-for-man marking is superior to the zonal game, as was stressed by so many critics after the Anfield affair, must remain a moot point. Broadly speaking, Bolton coped with Ivanovic where Liverpool couldn’t.

At 4-0 the game seemed over. Not a bit of it. After 70 minutes Bolton substitute Andy O’Brien made it 4-1 when he was arguably offside. Cech had dived and missed the ball after failing to cut it out, a lapse that obliged Ballack to clear off the line from Davies’ shot.

The goal seemed somewhat unimportant. Four minutes later, the music radically changed when Davies headed across from the left, Cech missed the ball once more and the 20-year-old substitute, Chris Basham, exploited the open goal. Megson felt Basham, with “that drive”, was the man who changed the game.

In the 78th minute, when Davies flicked the ball on, Matt Taylor drove in his team’s third goal and all of a sudden the game was up for grabs. Chelsea survived but it was an embarrassingly close-run thing.

Star man: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)

Referee: P Walton

Attendance: 41,096

CHELSEA: Cech 4, Ivanovic 6, Carvalho 6, Terry 6, A Cole 6, Ballack 7, Mikel 6, Lampard 8 (Deco 65min), Kalou 6, Drogba 7 (Anelka 65min), Malouda 7

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen 7, Steinsson 6, Cahill 7, Shittu 6 (A O’Brien h-t, 6), Samuel 6, Muamba 6, McCann 6 (Cohen 83min), Gardner 7, K Davies 7, Elmander 6 (Basham 66min), Taylor 6