Henry strokes home the penalty (JamieMcDonald/Allsport)

Sylvain Wiltord chose the sabbath morning to increase the volume in an unholy row at Highbury over the manager's rotation policy. By late afternoon, however, the Highbury congregation were chanting his name after his goals were decisive in Arsenal reaching the quarter-finals.

The club's £13million record signing was quoted in the French media saying that being left out against Lyon last week had 'stuck in his throat' and that he did not understand his coach's decisions sometimes.

Given Wenger's anger at similar attacks by Nwankwo Kanu and Dennis Bergkamp, perhaps Wiltord might have considered himself lucky even to get a seat on the bench. The manager, however, does not forgive - he demands recompense.

Bergkamp was picked to start and failed to get going. Wiltord took less than five minutes before he put his side ahead and then finished off the tie with five minutes left.

Until his 69th-minute arrival in place of Robert Pires, both sides had scored a goal but the air of celebration which followed them was laced with the threat that this ill-tempered contest would ignite into a bonfire of profanity.

At the heart of the inferno was Dennis Wise, stoking arguments with his poker tongue and inflaming benign incidents with overzealous involvement.

A routine clash with Patrick Vieira on the right led to heated words being exchanged. Pires then exacted immediate and foolish revenge with a sliding tackle before Wise exhibited his dextrous use of the language once more and, within seconds, the match was on the verge of a riot.

Thierry Henry and Ashley Cole became involved, as did Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Celestine Babayaro. At least three punches were thrown in the resulting melee but referee Graham Barber showed only the same amount of yellow cards and remarkable leniency in its wake.

Chelsea would suffer instead from the eccentricity of their own manager Claudio Ranieri. It didn't take a genius to recognise that Arsenal might be vulnerable in central defence, where the pedestrian Oleg Luzhny partnered Igors Stepanovs.

Ranieri's response was to instruct his team to feed the ball wide, where Gus Poyet and Sam Dalla Bona showed even less pace.

Perhaps the greatest mystery, however, was the exclusion of Jepser Gronkjaer - the winger who terrorised Arsenal here a month ago and made Manchester United look ordinary last week.

Ranieri saw sense at the break only to see the Dane push Lauren over in the 52nd minute to give Arsenal a penalty, which Henry converted.

What should have been a routine stop for Lee Dixon and Luzhny when Poyet ran and slipped a pass into Hasselbaink sparked the most fearful period of the match for the home side.

Cutting inside both defenders, the Dutchman unleashed a trademark drive high into the net. In the Clock End, the Chelsea fans were still partying when Eidur Gudjohnsen slammed an overhead kick off the post two minutes later.

Then, Wiltord appeared on the scene and Albert Ferrer will regret not allowing Gudjohnsen's wayward pass to run out of play. Instead, his clearance left him out of position when Stepanovs' hopeful punt arrived in the inside-left channel. Wiltord's lob was as perfect as Marcel Desailly's lunge to clear was desperate.

When Babayaro allowed Lauren to charge through, Wiltord finished the job off with wonderful efficiency. He may have changed the course of the game but whether he has changed his manager's mind remains to be seen.