Tottenham Hotspur 1 Chelsea 2: Chelsea driven into semi-final by Shevchenko

They left the pitch like a gang of bare-knuckle fighters, stripped down to the waist and ready for a scrap ­ and when the final whistle went Chelsea got one. But the Tottenham fan who tried to attack Frank Lampard encountered the same fate as so many who take on Jose Mourinho's team: overwhelming odds and swift retribution.

It was an unedifying end to a tense night, a match in which Tottenham knew in their hearts that they had been outclassed, an FA Cup tie they had thrown away after they went 3-1 up at Stamford Bridge eight days' earlier. Desperation, hurt pride, Martin Jol's bad substitutions in the first match: they could blame it on whatever they wanted. But no one was arguing that it was not the better team who will line up in the FA Cup semi-finals against Blackburn.

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You have to be born blue to love this Chelsea team completely. Just ask Chris Hughton, the Tottenham assistant manager who had a few choice words for his opposite number, Baltemar Brito. It certainly was not an invitation for a drink in the bar later. Earlier the glowering Brazilian had been in a shoving match with a Spurs physio and it was Rui Faria, the bolshy and bespectacled fitness coach, who threw the fan to the ground. At Chelsea, even the class nerd wants a piece of the action.

It is the way Mourinho's team have always played: aggressive, belligerent and, in the case of their two goals last night, just brilliant. As the Chelsea manager came back out later for a television interview in an empty stadium the club chairman, Bruce Buck, waited patiently for his manager to finish. "Wonderful, Jose, just wonderful," he said, shaking Mourinho's hand. That was an American lawyer to a Portuguese coach while outside the police sirens howled on Tottenham High Road in recognition of a more English tradition.

The game never really caught light until Andrei Shevchenko's opener on 55 minutes and with that it seemed to be slipping irretrievably out of Tottenham's grasp. His goal was the sort of strike the Chelsea hierarchy envisaged when they splashed out £31m on him last summer, and as he came off he was treated to an unusually demonstrative hug from Mourinho.

A goal for Shaun Wright-Phillips too, another one of Mourinho's lesser-loved men who was preferred to Arjen Robben, and yet another tactical masterclass. As Tottenham pressed in the closing stages, buoyed by Robbie Keane's penalty, Mourinho threw on Robben and Salomon Kalou to stretch the home side.

There was nothing so subtle from Jol, who sent Michael Dawson to centre-forward and Tottenham lined up like an American football team desperately trying to make the endzone. They were in a line on the edge of the box, putting their faith in the punt forward. For a team with the pocket-sized talents of Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe it seemed a baffling strategy, given how desperate their situation had become.

Mourinho will keep throwing a chummy arm around Jol as long as he is allowed to embarrass him like this on the pitch. Only when Lennon moved out to the left wing in the second half did he really tear into Lassana Diarra. That much would have been pleasing to Steve McClaren, who will surely play him there for England against Israel on Saturday, but Lennon's problems seem to start when he has done the difficult part. When he reached the byline and had the penalty area at his mercy he tended to make the wrong pass.

Chelsea's goals came in a devastating seven minutes,both taken with the swagger of a team who are not tiring at this stage of the season but just getting into their stride, especially Shevchenko. Just inside the Spurs area, he turned away from Steed Malbranque on to his left foot and, with hardly any backlift, cracked a shot into the top right-hand corner of Paul Robinson's goal. England's No 1 never even moved.

Tottenham were still rocking from that goal when Chelsea seized another just after the hour, a beautifully worked move with the ball played into Didier Drogba's chest. For once, Dawson was not close enough to put him under pressure and Drogba steered the ball to his right to Wright-Phillips, who took his volley quickly and clinically, firing the ball low past Robinson.

It was exquisite stuff and White Hart Lane knew it: "Normal service is resumed," was the chant from the away end. Jol sent on Defoe and he found Dimitar Berbatov, who won the penalty from Ricardo Carvalho. Keane dispatched the spot-kick. That was as much as they could manage; and for the fan on the pitch it was probably that which upset far more than anything Lampard could ever do.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-1-2): Robinson; Chimbonda, Rocha (Stalteri, 83), Dawson, Lee; Jenas, Zokora, Malbranque (Defoe, 63); Lennon; Berbatov, Keane. Substitutes not used: Cerny (gk), Ghaly, Huddlestone.

Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Cech; Diarra (Ferreira, 90), Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel; Wright-Phillips (Kalou, 85), Lampard, Ballack; Shevchenko (Robben, 81), Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Boulahrouz.

Referee: M Atkinson (West Yorkshire).