Fernando Torres finally got the goals to end his embarrassing goal-drought. In fact he hit two as Chelsea romped home 5-2 in a fantastic attacking FA Cup Quarter-Final against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge.
It was 25 hours and 40 minutes since the £50m striker last tasted a goal against Genk in the Champions League back in October. By the time he hit his first on 67 minutes, Chelsea were two-nil up through Gary Cahill and Salomon Kalou.
In-between his first and second, Leicester got a goal back through Jermaine Beckford. Ben Marshall made it 4-2 before Raul Meireles hit the fifth in a pulsating and free-scoring tie.
Chelsea had an excellent chance to grab a quick opener on three minutes when a counter-attack saw Daniel Sturridge on the right set Fernando Torres clear. The Spain striker slid the ball to his left to in-running Juan Mata, who took a touch before shooting.
The ball deflected off Souleymane Bamba for a corner. Leicester City responded well with a spell of good possession in and around the Chelsea penalty area, forcing the home side into making elementary mistakes which City could not capitalise on.
Jermaine Beckford, perhaps seeing right-back Jose Bosingwa as a weak link, received the ball in that position from Neil Danns and hit a smart right-footed curler from just outside the area, which failed to trouble Petr Cech unduly.
But Chelsea showed their craft and strength on 12 minutes to score. Gary Cahill, back in the side in the absence of John Terry, rose above Bamba from eight yards out and planted Mata's corner into the back of Kasper Schmeichel's net.
The England centre-back then pulled up his shirt to reveal a nice tribute to stricken Bolton player Fabrice Muamba with the touching words Pray 4 Muamba on his vest.
Six minutes later and Chelsea doubled their lead. Similar to an earlier move, Torres was sent clear on the right. His forceful 30-yard run resulted in the same cross field pass. but this time the runner was Salomon Kalou. The Ivory Coast striker also took a touch, but this time, unlike Mata before, he slotted home carefully past a prone Schmeichel from just inside the City penalty area.
Sturridge almost made it three a minutes later but clipped a chip wide, while on 21 minutes a fine byline cross to unmarked Torres, saw his downward header, from six yards out drop into the grateful palms of Schmeichel?
A minute later, he thwarted Torres again by beating away a right- footed drive from the edge of the penalty area.
A wayward Beckford drive on 32 minutes was the visitors' respite response to the onslaught from the Premier League side. Cech produced a classic trademark save, from Neil Danns drive on 34 minutes, after the live wire winger took full advantage of Gary Cahill's awful lapse in concentration, the centre-back lost the ball just outside his penalty area.
Leicester made their first subtitution four minutes of the half remaining, replacing forward Paul Gallagher with defender Lee Peltier. Chelsea interim boss Roberto Di Matteo replaced Mata for Florent Malouda at half-time.
Both sides, to their credit, kept pushing forward. Chelsea in the days of Villas-Boas would have shut up shop, but such is the players' desire to see Torres score that the home side piled forward at every opportunity.
Thus leaving space for Leicester to counter which they did on 63 minutes, and Lloyd Dyer almost made Chelsea pay, but his sliced shot from just inside the Chelsea area zipped across Cech and wide of goal.
As if sensing the game could turn against them, Di Matteo made a tactical change replacing Kalou with defensive midfielder Michael Essien on 64 minutes.
But the players achieved their aim on 67 minutes, when Torres did score to seal the tie.
A pass by Sturridge into the path of Raul Meierles saw the Portugal midfielder pass to Torres just inside the area and he cooly slotted home a low right-footer into Schmeichel right corner of the net.
He could have had a second a minute later when he flashed a fierce drive wide of the Leicester goal.
The goal took almost 26 hours of play stretching back to his last effort against Genk in the Champions League in October 19. David Nugent forced Cech into a diving save on 74 minutes as the away side attempted to salvage some pride.
They did it two minutes later when following Dann's long range effort which rebounded off Cech's left post, the ball fell to the gleeful path of Beckford, six yards out, who slammed it into the empty net.
With renewed vigour, Leicester piled forward and Peltier was unlucky to see his header from a corner inch over the Chelsea crossbar with eight minutes remaining. But this was Torres's game and the striker hit his second and Chelsea's fourth with five minutes on the clock.
A simple clipped Meireles corner was glanced in by the previously miss-firing striker from the near post much to the delight of most of the 38,276 crowd.
On 89 minutes Leicester produced the goal of the game, when substitute Ben Marshall received the ball 25 yards out and sent in a beautiful curling right-footer that sailed over a wrong-footed Cech and into his top left-hand corner.
The scoring did not stop there.
Just as the fourth official put up his board to show three minutes of extra time,Torres broke free on the left.
He side-footed to Meireles, who, on the edge of the area drove home past Schmeichel for Chelsea's fifth.
Chelsea will play the winner of the abandoned Spurs v Bolton on either Saturday, April 14 or Sunday, April 15.
Teams: Chelsea Cech, Ivanovic, Torres, Mata, Mikel, Meireles, Bosingwa, Kalou, Sturridge, Cahill, Bertrand Subs: Hilario, Luiz, Essien, Lampard, Drogba, Malouda, Ferreira.
Leicester City: Schmeichel, Konchesky, Bamba, Gallagher, Dyer, St Ledger, Wellens, Beckford, Danns, Morgan, Nugent Subs: Smith, Peltier, Howard, Marshall, Schlupp, Kennedy, Hopper
Referee: Lee Probert