It was a night that no self-respecting Chelsea fan would have missed for the world, when the heartache of all the Champions League near-misses was banished in an orgy of West London celebration. So where was Roman Abramovich?

This is the man who, we were told, fell in love with the game watching Real Madrid’s march on the European Cup, so surely he would not want to miss the greatest midweek party that Stamford Bridge has hosted. Lots on at work? Hen-pecked into staying at home? It seemed unlikely. The official explanation was “political business” with Vladimir Putin, the outgoing Russian President.

Regular absenteeism might also lead you to believe that he has been frustrated with Avram Grant’s failure to turn José Mourinho’s relentless threshing machine into football’s great entertainers. Last night they more than made up for those failings with an overload of drama, emotion and fierce competitive will.

Those virtues may not be enough to turn Abramovich’s world blue, because he has missed more Chelsea matches than he has attended in recent months, but his team, his creation, are in the Champions League final, and in Moscow of all places, so it is a safe bet that he intends to make up for all the nights he has missed.

Asked who he wanted to face in the final, Sir Alex Ferguson had smirkingly requested Liverpool. “Because if it is Chelsea,” the Manchester United manager had said, “Abramovich will buy up all the tickets.” He was only half-joking. The Chelsea owner is a man who does not book a table but a whole restaurant, who does not rent a ski chalet but takes over a resort. The Luzhniki Stadium holds 69,500, which is barely enough room for a billionaire when he has added up his bodyguards, his friends and his kitchen cabinet — let alone the 250 Chelsea staff that he has promised to fly out.

It has taken five years and £578 million to reach the final — although Abramovich will have lost more sleep over the time than the money. There was an unseemly impatience about the Chelsea operation from the moment that Abramovich arrived and went shopping for players like Imelda Marcos used to snap up shoes.

The irony is that he stands on the brink of grasping the European Cup at the end of a campaign that, through the sacking of Mourinho and his replacement by Grant, was expected to bring nothing better than unsatisfactory drift.

That Chelsea, built on Abramovich’s mega-millions, should form one half of the first all-English final seems appropriate. The confrontation with Manchester United may have been brought about by a swerving Paul Scholes missile and a Frank Lampard penalty of remarkable courage but, these days, it is not just about the football.

There is also the business, and the presence of United and Chelsea in Moscow is not only testament to the teams but to the collective, corporate prosperity of the Premier League, particularly its four-club elite.

The global pull has made it possible to attract players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Ballack and Fernando Torres at their peak rather than simply seeking a quick pay-day before retirement. We still lack the very best South Americans, but the clubs are throwing money at a better class of foreign player, thanks to the wisdom of a better class of foreign coach.

Now is not the time to go over the apparent contradiction of why English clubs are dominating European competition, yet Euro 2008 will kick off this summer without an England team. Our reliance on the best foreign players, and our own technical failings, are well documented.

But whatever our imbalance of imports and exports, it is undeniable that the Premier League is now top dog in continental football. Spain had its all-La Liga final in 2000, Italy its Serie A head to head in 2003. An all-English final has been coming given that Liverpool (twice) and Arsenal have ensured a representative in each of the past three showpieces. English hordes will descend on Moscow and, without the tension that would have been inevitable had United faced Liverpool, hopefully it will be a good advertisement.

Better certainly than the previous time these sides met on a showpiece occasion, in the FA Cup Final at Wembley last May. Repeat that stalemate and the rest of the Continent will be hoping that an all-English final is a freak.