Goals from Juan Mata and Raul Meireles secured Chelsea's safe passage in this FA Cup 5th Round replay at St Andrews tonight.
This was not by any means a vintage Chelsea, but neither was it awful Chelsea, and interim boss Roberto Di Matteo can take some comfort that his first match in charge after taking over from Andre Villas-Boas at the weekend has ended in victory.
Fernando Torres was restored to the side at Didier Drogba’s expense, while Frank Lampard was rested on the bench.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the return, a month ahead of schedule of John Terry, who underwent knee surgery two weeks ago.
Showing perhaps who was really in control at SW6, Terry was an unused substitute but the team’s performance had his hallmark all over it.
Not flash, not overly creative, but solid and full of concentration.
This is what Chelsea needed to get their season back on track and it worked.
Two minutes in and Juan Mata fluffed the chance of the perfect start when he raced through on the right. But the Spain midfielder scooped a weak left footer which was easily saved by Colin Doyle.
It took until the 15th minute for the Chelsea faithful to cry out for Jose Mourinho.
Birmingham was soon reduced to 10-men temporarily when Nikola Zigic was forced off the pitch to receive stitches in a head gash sustained from the boot of David Luiz. They took advantage of the extra man and Ramires was unlucky when, after excellent set-up play, he saw his shot from the edge of the Birmingham area go over the bar.
The home side were content to play on the counter-attack and showed good pace in the attack. Thankfully Luiz was alive to a number of attacks and snuffed them out.
A clever free-kick on 25 minutes saw Wade Elliot collect the ball in the Chelsea area. His turn and shot was on target, forcing Petr Cech into a low save.
A minute later and Fernando Torres, making his 50th appearance for the Blues failed to control a pass and the ball bounced off his thigh into the gleeful hands of Doyle.
A frustrated Zigic was handed a yellow card by referee Anthony Taylor on 29 minutes for a late, lunging challenge on Gary Cahill.
Despite gradually taking control of the match through superior possession, Chelsea failed to create clear-cut chances, while the home side looked the more potent – and a superb diving, glancing header by Zigic five minutes from the end of the half simply served to illustrate that fact.
Cech was on his toes to tip Zigic’s effort over his bar.
Misfiring Torres had the Blues best chance of the half seconds from time. The Spain forward outmuscled Curtis Davis on the edge of the area, but he scuffed a left-footer, wide of the post.
Neither side made a change at half-time but Birmingham showed greater enterprise forcing a corner and putting the visitors under pressure.
But it was Chelsea who almost scored. A fine interception by Pablo Ibanez on 51 minutes thwarted Mata as the midfielder was about to let fly from eight yards
He was not to be denied on 55 minutes as he poked home from six yards.
Ramires arrowed in a fine right-wing cross which saw the ball held up under the boot of Salomon Kalou; Mata was quickest to react and stabbed home a right-footer past a hapless Doyle.
That was Kalou’s last involvement in the game as he was replaced by Daniel Sturridge on 59 minutes.
Adam Rooney was then replaced by Chris Burke for Birmingham.
Within seconds Chelsea doubled their lead. Branislav Ivanovic exploited the space on the right and sent in a low right-footer into the box. The ball was tapped back by Ramires to in-running Juan Meireles who, 25 yards out, blasted a fierce right-footer into the top left hand corner of Doyle’s net. It was an unstoppable shot from the midfielder.
Chelsea won a deserved penalty on 68 minutes as Guirane N’Daw upended Torres. With the Chelsea fans calling for Torres to take the spot kick, Chelsea elected that official penalty kicker Mata take it.
They should have listened to the fans, as Mata, as he did in the first match, fired his left-footer directly at Doyle and Birmingham cleared the ball to safety.
Nathan Redmond fired in a speculative right footer from 30 yards on 75 minutes, over Cech’s crossbar and 10 seconds later Frank Lampard replaced Ramires.
Sturridge should have finished the game off on 76 minutes, but the England striker lost control of a perfectly-flighted byline cross from Torres on the six-yard box when he had the goal at his mercy.
With nine minutes on the clock Jordon Mutch could have pulled a goal back but midfielder clipped a left-footer over Cech but also over the Chelsea crossbar.
Chelsea ran down the clock to set up a relieved home tie against Leicester City in the Quart-Finals.
Teams: Petr Cech (c) Branislav Ivanovic Gary Cahill David Luiz Ryan Bertrand Ramires John Mikel Obi Raul Meireles Salomon Kalou Fernando Torres Juan Mata
Subs: Hilario, John Terry, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Daniel Sturridge, Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku.
Birmingham is expected to line up in the following 4-3-3 formation:
Doyle; Spector, Davies (c), Ibanez, N'Daw; Elliott, Mutch, Gomis; Rooney, Zigic, Redmond.
Subs: Myhill, Burke, Valles, Packwood, Jervis, Reilly, King.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.