You'll Never Walk Alone... Unless You're Branislav Ivanovic

When Fernando Torres sweetly passed the ball past Cech and into the Chelsea goal, I was only barely halfway through my chips. What swept me then was this unpleasant sinking feeling that it was gonna be a long long night.

But never in my wildest imagination did I envisage Chelsea totally silencing the Kop and storming back with three goals. And not even the most starry-eyed romantic would have scripted the unlikely matchwinner to be Branislav Ivanovic.

Truth is, while I pride myself to be pretty good at deconstructing what goes WRONG when Chelsea falter, I am at a loss attempting to explain what went so ultimately right, why every single player was so impressive and playing so far above themselves, even Malouda. But I’d try anyway.

1. Michael Essien: Stop Gerrard and you stop Liverpool. Thought it would be simple enough for managers to grasp but apparently not. The Golden Guus, however, did, and Essien did just a brilliant shackling job on Gerrard which left Torres largely isolated and confined Stevie G to a few speculative long-range shots. Provided significant impetus in going forwards as well, and basically was here, there and everywhere. Which proves that he is not really human.

2. Didier Drogba: Missed two gilt-edged chances to put this tie beyond a shadow of doubt and totally humiliate Liverpool, but led the forward line excellently, putting himself about and bullying Carragher and Skrtel into submission. Held the ball up admirably allowing the likes of Lampard and Essien to join the forward play in doing so. Constant pain in the Liverpool arse.

3. Michael Ballack: He seems to not do much, and commentators, pundits and everyone else love to slam him. Yet every manager in his playing career loves him. I posit that he must be doing something right. Tends to cover more ground than anyone and contributes aerial ability and experience. And his through ball that set Malouda off to cross for the 3rd, truly worth its weight in gold. Loses the ball a bit too much for my liking though.

4. Ashley Cole: Kept Kuyt quiet by his constant forays upfield, making it necessary for Kuyt to shadow him and therefore be far away from goal, further isolating Torres.

5. Branislav Goalmachine Ivanovic: Unlikeliest matchwinner with two powerful headers from two corners. His zigzag run into the box for the first goal was simply classic, completely bamboozling the Liverpool defence and their zonal marking system. Did not forage forward as much as Cole, but took on Albert Riera in a more conventional manner as a defender and kept him comfortably in his backpocket. Secretly has lots of pace - as the commentator remarked, “where does he get all that pace from?”

6. Salomon Kalou and Florent Malouda: Tracked back in defence diligently, defended from the front well, putting Liverpool’s fullbacks under constantly unwilting pressure. I still won’t call them true wingers per se, but Kalou caused a few problems with his willingness and ability to dribble and take on places and Malouda had an exceptional game (by his standards), not giving the ball away and actually responsible for two crosses that led to goals, including the brilliantly-weighted first-time low cross to Drogba for the third. Okay there, credit where it’s due.

7: Guus Hiddink: Tactical genius. Please please pleassseeee don’t go! And how could you bear to????

I've only picked out the above honourable mentions, but of course like I had mentioned early in the post, the entire team was oustanding and played above themselves, delivering a scintillating display of attacking football (wow never thought I'd say this with Chelsea) and playing Liverpool off the park. What a slap in Scolari's face, sadly.