Gianluca Vialli must hope next Saturday's Wembley weather matches the Mediterranean-like heat at Stamford Bridge yesterday because his Chelsea team, playing with the sun on their backs, also performed with a smile on their face.
And much to the manager's delight he could have filled buckets with the sweat shed by his men after this unceasing effort.
Vialli will not replicate yesterday's selection - at least five players were on a proving ground - and all bar one of them will have slept more easily last night. Not so Albert Ferrer, who nursed a painfully twisted ankle which prompted his departure just past the half-hour. With that may also have gone the Spaniard's chance of a first, perhaps only, FA Cup final.
Nobody persevered more than Tore Andre Flo, a striker who has been restricted to 19 substitute appearances this season. While others would have lost their cool in the face of Mart Poom, Derby's goalkeeper and player of the year, he combined calm and audacity in back-heeling the fourth and most deserving goal in injury time.
With that flourish Flo also reasserted himself as Chelsea's leading scorer - by one goal - over Gustavo Poyet, who also struck and deepened the feeling that he, too, will start against Aston Villa. The Uruguayan was substituted 10 minutes after his goal, almost certainly to save his energy and spare a slight ankle injury.
Derby folded once Gianfranco Zola had side-footed Chelsea ahead. Poyet, who helped create that, then headed in the little Italian's corner eight minutes later.
Di Matteo and Flo struck amid the unstinting effort which continued with a lap of honour, but only after one - at walking pace - by Vialli and his chairman Ken Bates.
Vialli said: "That was the best way to get ourselves ready for next Saturday. They worked hard but I also saw some happiness on the pitch."
Chelsea: Cudicini, Ferrer (Melchiot 32), Desailly (Terry 57), Leboeuf, Babayaro, Di Matteo, Wise, Deschamps, Poyet (Ambrosetti 64), Flo, Zola. Subs Not Used: de Goey, Morris. Booked: Di Matteo. Goals: Zola 47, Poyet 55, Di Matteo 69, Flo 90.
Derby: Poom, Delap (Jackson 64), Laursen, Elliott (Riggott 56), Dorigo, Burley, Bohinen (Murray 64), Johnson, Sturridge, Burton, Christie. Subs Not Used: Oakes, Boertien.
Referee: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).
