Chelsea games

First things first let's review the FA Cup final and the league game against Chelsea. I will be writing a big review of the whole Premier League season in the next couple of days.

FA Cup Final: Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool

A disappointing day for Liverpool, with Pepe Reina's rare mistake (although he has a mediocre season by his high standards) allowing Ramires to score and a team performance that was lifeless until, of all people, Andy Carroll sparked the team into life. If they'd started like they finished Chelsea wouldn't have had a prayer. What I want to know is where the hell has that Andy Carroll been all season?! He was magnificent, sparking the team into life with a superb goal and an awesome performance. I thought Kenny got the team selection very wrong - Suarez has never been a lone striker and was left far too isolated while Spearing and Henderson were far too inexperienced a pair to be anchoring the midfield. The former was overwhelmed on the big day, looking out of his depth while the latter is just not all that good I'm afraid. It seemed daft to start with Bellamy then not play him up front with Suarez. Downing capped a hugely disappointing campaign with another anonymous display while perhaps more sadly, Gerrard just couldn't find his magic touch and while he certainly didn't have a bad game, did perhaps prove that the days of hoping he'll come up with a virtuoso game winning performance have to be over. As for Chelsea, overall they deserved it and bloody Drogba yet again was the winner curse him! An awesome talent though, whatever you may think of him.

Ratings:

Reina - 5
Poor for him, bad mistake on first goal
Johnson - 6
Please god teach him to defend
Enrique - 5
A strange deterioration in form this season was capped with a poor display
Agger - 6
Solid-ish
Skrtel - 7
Good, almost scored late on
Gerrard - 7
Lively but lacking his old drive
Henderson - 5
Got to go and be written off as a costly mistake, good riddance Comolli
Spearing - 5
Sadly, as I love this guy, not a good performance and looked a little out of his depth
Downing - 5
Yawn...
Bellamy - 6
Worked hard as ever, but contributed relatively little
Suarez - 7
Excellent once Carroll had come on, isolated before that

Subs:
Carroll - 9
Far and away without a shadow of doubt, his best performance in a Liverpool shirt. I've been so critical of him but more of this kind of performance and he might just convert who knows?
Kuyt - 7
Should have been on from the start like he always should.

Cech - 7
Ivanovic - 7
Cole - 7
Bosingwa - 7
Terry - 6
Ramires - 8
Lampard - 7
Mikel - 6
Mata - 8
Drogba - 8
Kalou - 6

Subs:

Meireles - 6
Malouda - 6

Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea

In stark contrast, this was a great performance and Carroll built on his impressive cup final cameo and was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet. Chelsea were beyond atrocious to be fair, but a good result nonetheless.

Ratings:

Reina - 6
Little to do but did it fine
Johnson - 7
Good going forward and wasn't needed to defend too much thankfully
Agger - 8
Good goal and great performance
Carragher - 7
God bless him, a good display
Skrtel - 8
Superb as he has been this season
Maxi - 7
For him, quite effective
Henderson - 6
He scored, but he's still shite
Shelvey - 7
Well taken goal
Downing - 6
What a pile of crap and who thought he should take a penalty?!
Suarez - 8
Lively
Carroll - 8
Again, excellent. Who'd have thought it?

Subs:

Kuyt - 7
Hope to god he doesn't leave
Sterling - 7
A lively prospect and a lively performance