The Mikel masterstroke

He was deployed in that role for the first time at Liverpool in the Premiership game. Claude Makelele was suspended, Michael Essien had to play centre-back and there was no one else. Mikel flourished, and since then has on occasion been selected ahead of Makelele, although on Wednesday they both played and restricted Rafa Benitez's men to one solid chance, Steven Gerrard's volley, saved by Cech.

What would United, for all their midfield resources, give for the young Nigerian now, as a long-term prospect? Probably nearly as much as Liverpool would offer for a Didier Drogba. Yes, with his all idiosyncracies; with all his idiocy. Even with that propensity for portraying the dying swan which so enrages his opponents and their followers, but which failed to hoodwink the excellent referee Markus Merk. And they'd love him right now, in the knowledge that one goal from the powerhouse who has amassed 31 of them from 50 starts could kill Tuesday's second leg at Anfield.

While we're on the subject of the players who have emerged to sustain Chelsea's progress in Europe, what of Ricardo Carvalho? One suspects that both Liverpool and Manchester United, particularly the latter, would relish boasting the Portuguese defender in their ranks. United are as defensively vulnerable as naturists in a cutlery store, even if Rio Ferdinand's groin miraculously heals in time for Wednesday's potential epic in Milan.

For all the impression he made in Euro 2004, Carvalho's subsequent assimilation into the English game has not always appeared the smoothest. This season, he has undergone a resurgence of form, and the confidence thus gained has empowered him as an attacking force. He scored the winner against Tottenham, and on Wednesday it was his transformation of defence into attack, with that raking pass, which provided Drogba with the opportunity to set up Joe Cole for the decider.

It was a goal that epitomised the contest. Direct. Power. They were the qualities that predominated on a night that didn't yield the most aesthetic advertisement for English football; nor, for that matter England international football. There were six England players in the outfield starting 20, and three more appeared as substitutes. In comparison with some of that exquisite play the night before at Old Trafford, Chelsea's passing was too often speculative; Liverpool's too frequently went awry, to the chagrin of a purse-lipped Benitez who, if he can mastermind triumph from this position, will be entitled to the bouquets which are so regularly thrust at him.

One thing is certain on Tuesday. Attention will be drawn as much towards the battlegrounds of Anfield's technical areas as the field of play. After a week in which Mourinho has continued to spin more outrageously than Muttiah Muralitharan on all manner of issues, the Chelsea manager has succeeded in riling Sir Alex Ferguson and the Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as Benitez.

With the Parthenon in sight, and Mourinho preparing himself to be installed on the pantheon of greats, the acid responses from all three won't trouble him an iota. As his men remain content to allow him to provide diversionary fire for their assault on the European dream, Mourinho can be content that it is not just the accepted figures of influence, Terry, Lam-pard and Makelele, who are proving themselves the guiding forces of that ambition. It is just as much in the gift of three characters whose destiny no one would have predicted so propitiously last summer.

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