Ray Wilkins was pleased with the side's professionalism after pulling through against a spirited Cardiff side.

Our Championship visitors pushed us hard at Stamford Bridge in an at times scrappy encounter, but eventually our superiority shone through and second-half goals from Michael Ballack, Daniel Sturridge and Salomon Kalou added to Didier Drogba's opener, after Michael Chopra had equalised.

'It's not so much their class as their professionalism that shines through, some people might have thought it would be a cushty game for us but those guys took it by the throat and pulled us through when we weren't paying particularly well,' Wilkins said.

'We anticipated a hard game and obviously Cardiff from a lower division will work their rocks off basically, and that's what they did. They played exceptionally well first half and gave us a lot of problems, but thankfully we managed to up the tempo in the second half and it became a tad easier for us.'

Goalscorer Sturridge earned praise from Carlo Ancelotti's assistant after scoring his fourth goal in three FA Cup matches this season, ensuring we are still well on course in three competitions.

'Daniel's been working really hard and he's done very well. It's never easy for a player to come in to a group of players such as we've got, but he's worked extremely hard at his game.He has a lot of talent and we're hoping for big things,' said Wilkins.

'We want to win every game we play and we're fortunate to have a squad of players that can accommodate that situation. The team was changed today, we took quality out and quality came back in.'

Joe Cole was withdrawn after a frustrating first 45 minutes, and replaced by Kalou who has found game time difficult to come by in recent weeks. Wilkins explained the change was tactical rather than enforced.

'We've got a squad full of quality and the manager will change things if he sees fit. We take Joe off and we bring quality on so we're very fortunate as far as that's concerned.

'When you've had a long layoff like Joe it is a shock to the system and it takes a while to get back to tip-top form, and that will come with Joe no problem at all,' he confirmed, 'he's working extremely hard day by day so we don't see any problems there at all.'

Cardiff's equaliser came courtesy of a cross into the area, not the first time recently we have fallen victim from such a situation.

'We got to grips with it after a bit but we have to get to grips with it straight away. 'When you have good delivery you will cause problems, and you have to be on your mettle and concentrate. Perhaps every now and then we have a lapse and people score goals against us, so I don't think it's only us, it's throughout the league,' he explained, before offering some thoughts on our opposition, managed by Dave Jones.

'They're doing well in the Championship and put a good performance in today, for an hour at least. Dave's a good guy and a good manager, so good luck to him. The guys are pulling their weight for him, no question. When you think of the guys they have up front they score goals for fun, and Peter Whittingham has a Premiership left foot, and they caught us out on the first three set plays they had, so we had to be very wary because they have some big blokes.'

Jones pointed out afterwards he had not targeted any perceived defensive frailty from set-pieces.

'In the Championship there's some big guys and if you put the ball in an area you cause some problems, if you have good delivery the rest is down to the players making the runs, but we didn't say "Let's hope we get a corner so we can get a goal",' said the former Southampton boss, who was pleased with his team's input.

'It looks like a bit of a drubbing but for an hour we gave a good account of ourselves, but their quality came through.

'We regrouped and stuck to our game plan when they were in possession and we stopped all that. Their keeper pulled off some fantastic saves,' he said of Hilario. 'But as the game draws on they started to impose that bit of quality, and it gives us a lot of credit that he [Ancelotti] brought on the big guns.

'It's a nice place to come. I've been here many times, this is a fantastic football club, and this is the best club in the division at the moment, because they're top. It wouldn't matter what team they put out - as soon as we drew Chelsea and I looked at the team I was going to put out, I was terrified of coming here, but thankfully I got some of my big players back and that makes a big difference.'

Finally, Wilkins had a word on the Stamford Bridge pitch, which looked unusually sticky and a little cut up.

'It is a slight concern but the lads are working extremely hard and you can't fault the work the groundsmen are doing on the pitch,' he said. 'Unfortunately we've had a tough winter and the majority of the pitches around the country have taken a bit of a battering.'

There is now a two-week break before it is used again, but before that we have away trips to Wolves in the league, and Inter in the Champions League.