Chelsea Vs. Liverpool, 2012 FA Cup Final: Player Ratings

A strange game for Petr Cech but one that will mostly be remembered for one absolutely sublime save in the second half. You will surely know the story by heart at this point - with less than ten minutes to go Luis Suarez dinked the ball in for Andy Carroll, and the big man smashed in a header that was destined for the back of the net. That's not where it ended up, thanks to a miraculous save. Cech clawed the ball off the line, whereupon it hit the underside of the bar and was cleared by Branislav Ivanovic. The goal was (correctly) not given. That's the good - and don't get me wrong, a legendary, world-class save is a very good thing. However, the rest of Cech's game was not so good. He should have stopped the actual Carroll goal having gotten a hand to it, and his terrible distribution put Chelsea under insane pressure in the second half. It's hard to figure out how to weight all of these factors, but I think it's fair to say that I wouldn't be giving him a nine.

Shut down Craig Bellamy so effectively that he was forced to move infield, although the left back did have more difficulty when Liverpool started putting Chelsea under real pressure towards the end of the second half. The big Carroll chance came after Cole found himself isolated against a pair of red shirts as Salomon Kalou increasingly found himself too high up the pitch, but faulting anyone in particular for the massive defensive collapse after 2-1 would be silly. I really enjoyed some of the runs he made during the beginning of the first half, but it would be nice if he could get a goal so that the confidence to shoot when he has to comes back.

The moment we'll all remember is when Andy Carroll managed to do some sort of double shuffle juke thing and leave the captain in the dust to make it 2-1. That wasn't exactly Terry's finest hour, and he didn't really redeem himself thereafter, but we shouldn't forget that he had Luis Suarez in his pocket for most of the match, something that most teams haven't really managed. If Liverpool were as clinical as normal (i.e. not), we would be focusing on Chelsea's dominance of the first hour rather than the rest of it.

Cleared twice off the line but otherwise didn't seem to be at his best. Then again, he did clear off the line twice. The first was from Craig Bellamy's volley just after the opener, which came... right after Ivanovic had headed the ball straight to him from a cross. Admittedly, it was a difficult one to deal with, but it's difficult to give him too much credit for mopping up a mess he made himself. The second was game-saving and really really neat so he should probably get a big ol' hug for it.

Like most of Chelsea's defenders, did just fine for an hour before the Great Catastrophe of 2012 hit. More than anyone else, he was at fault for Andy Carroll's goal, when his attempted clearance bounced of Stewart Downing and straight into the penalty area. Other than that, he had an alright game. His positioning wasn't particularly special and he had to rely a lot on Ramires in the early stages. Combine a relatively pedestrian showing with that error and I'm not feeling particularly generous.

Lampard was excellent in the pivot, playing a very nice assist to Didier Drogba for the crucial second goal and generally controlling the game from the midfield. If you weren't playing close attention, you'll have missed out on his fine defensive work as well - he's doing absolutely superbly in his new, deeper role. By and large bypassed during Liverpool's thirty minute rennaisance, because Chelsea never had the ball and Liverpool were playing down the wings the whole time. There've been complaints about Lampard's 'lack of creativity' in the past but he's becoming a crucial part of the central midfield with his ability to quickly pick out long passes. Rumours of his demise appear to have been greatly overstated.

Was Salomon Kalou. This might have been the Kalouest game he's ever played. One moment in particular stands out. Kalou has the ball outside the penalty area. There is zero chance of him taking it through the three defenders between himself and Pepe Reina's net. Then he simply waltzes past said defenders and... doesn't shoot. There were other examples - a couple of hilariously poor shots from the edge of the box spring to mind, but Kalou's an incredibly frustrating player when he has games like this. He's not a bad one per se, but he could be doing so much more with his gifts.

The architect of some wonderful counterattacks, Mata set the tone for the match very early when he played an excellent through ball to Ramires for the game's opening goal. It was pretty obvious that Liverpool's deep-lying midfielders had no idea how to track him, because he was finding an insane amount of space for a man theoretically marked by boy Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson. Was less effective in the middle after the introduction of Andy Carroll, and he was eventually shunted to the side and then replaced.

There's not much left to say about Ramires, who has emerged as one of the top wide midfielders in the league. He'd been brilliant in the centre during the Andre Villas-Boas 4-3-3 era, and there was some trepidation about his influence diminishing as he got pushed out wide. That hasn't happened. He's still a very important outlet for the counterattack, his finishing has improved, and he's got significant defensive ability for a winger. Against Liverpool, he was a potent threat, getting up and down the right and scoring the opener. He tailed off after the hour mark - it looked like he picked up an injury around then, and he was eventually replaced by Raul Meireles.

Didier Drogba owns Wembley. There was never any doubt that he would score on the grand stage - he's been key in nearly every big match Chelsea have played this season - and he lived up to that tag with a neat strike in the second half that turned out to be the winner. No, it wasn't as good as his goal against Tottenham Hotspur, but few things are. Other than the goal, he was effective enough at holding up play, and most of his misplaced passes seemed to me like they were caused by the failure of his teammates to make the proper runs. Not bad at all.

Was brought in to shore up the midfield thanks to Ramires running out of steam/being hurt. It didn't really work, because the problem was in the transition between defence and midfield, and Meireles didn't do much to help out there. Didn't screw anything up though.

Came on for Juan Mata in the 90th minute, and almost instantly Chelsea managed to regain their shape. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence, but Malouda played a big part in calming down the team's nerves and seeing out the five minutes of injury time without incident.