Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager, seemed to have been resigned in advance to what kind of a disappointing game this would turn out to be. He makes no secret of the fact that he dislikes those weeks in which a host of international matches take place, taking his players away from him in numbers.

“I don’t like to play after one of the international weeks,” he said. “Some train very hard, some don’t train at all, some come back and train yesterday. I can’t train with the team. At the same time, I think Portsmouth is a good team, with good players and they made it difficult for us. Also, the weather is very hot. Very difficult to play in the first half. I have to shake them at half time.”

Though Chelsea won by Frank Lampard’s solitary goal, and thereby extended their remarkable unbeaten home sequence to 66 games, they could so easily have been caught at the end by a Portsmouth team less dynamic and well organised, consistent, persistent, and intelligent.

It was then that Sulley Muntari Pompey’s Ghana international, eulogised by his manager Harry Redknapp, after the game, sent in a high corner from the left. Hermann Hreidarsson who had adventurously moved upfield from defence, got his head to it strongly, obviously beating Petr Cech in Chelsea’s goal but Ashley Cole resourcefully cleared off the line. It was by far Cole’s most important contribution of a hot afternoon on which we scarcely saw him overlapping as he so famously can.

Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, had praise for the only goal of the game, which was scored, characteristically, by Frank Lampard. After 31 largely soporific minutes, Cech booted the ball Route One upfield, Didier Drogba controlled it and flicked it on, and on ran Lampard to send his strong right-footed shot home, though the Pompey goalkeeper David James did get a hand to it. Lampard, said Redknapp admiringly, gambled that Drogba was going to get the ball, ran past him, and was duly rewarded.

“Frank scored at Reading and Liverpool and now it’s four consecutive matches for England and Chelsea. They were important goals for us and every goal meant something,” Mourinho added.

Unsurprisingly, Redknapp had high praise for the intricate virtuosity of the lanky Nigerian, Kanu, in attack. “Kanu,” he said, “was terrific for us, he held the ball up, got people into the game, gave John Terry a hard day, which isn’t easy. What a footballer! Can you imagine what he must have been when he was 20 years old? The man’s a top-class footballer. He’s always got a smile on his face. He isn’t going to run all over the field like a looney, he’s a footballer.”

Memory was stirred to recall a still more remarkable display by Kanu on this very field. Playing for Arsenal, getting the ball on the left-hand goal line, he picked his way like some chamois past man after man, before finding the net.

Redknapp also rejoiced in the fact that “we can give anybody a game, now. I think we’re a decent team, we don’t come here thinking, my God, we’re going to get a real caning.”

He was also predictably pleased with the resilient performance in central defence of Sol Campbell, who, he pointed out, had had only one day’s training.

For the first half hour, the game stuttered in the sunshine. Drama was at a premium, though on 12 minutes, Kanu found Matt Taylor, always eager to strike, whose shot flew over the crossbar. Stepping his way past tackles, Kanu continued to keep his team on the move and then there was Taylor once again to shoot only narrowly wide from Kanu’s left-wing cross.

Lampard’s goal, however, brought Chelsea finally and belatedly to life.

On 44 minutes the same player had a powerful right-footed drive from outside the box that James threw himself full length to block. And now, Shaun Wright-Phillips, who had done so well for England last Wednesday at Wembley despite being brought on only in the second half and stuck on the left wing on his wrong foot, began to show his speed. Less than a minute of the second half had gone when he sidestepped his marker and shot just wide of the target.

But you never knew when Portsmouth were going to hit back and this they did when Kanu capped a perfect invitation to Sean Davis, only for Davis close in to shoot high over the bar and pantomime his dismay.

In due course, Chelsea sent on their newly acquired Brazilian right-back from Barcelona, Juliano Belletti, which enabled Michael Essien, another Ghanaian who is appreciated by Redknapp, to move into his preferred position in central midfield where we soon saw him bring James to full length with a fierce drive. On 84 minutes, there was James again to frustrate Drogba, who has been served by Florent Malouda.

There was still time for Chelsea’s narrow escape when Ashley Cole frustrated Hreidarsson. On the balance of play, and opportunities you might say that Chelsea just about deserved their exiguous victory. But who, even with enough Portsmouth supporters, could have begrudge the away team the draw they so nearly achieved.