The teams and how they rated

FAREWELLS do not have to be sombre and Guus Hiddink has a happy vision of how his leave-taking of Chelsea will be. A beautiful sunny day, Wembley, drenched in ticker-tape, a magnum of bubbly clutched in his mitt. Wealth is there to allow those who have it to enjoy the finer things in life and the billions of Roman Abramovich have made him the most deluxe caretaker in football. Chelsea are in the FA Cup final and Hiddink will be with them for the maximum timespan possible, until this competition’s showpiece brings an end to the club season on May 30.

Hiddink could only ever commit himself to Chelsea for the remainder of the 2008-09 campaign, after which he will return to coaching Russia full-time. By extending Chelsea’s fixture list by one more match he inevitably provoked further “why-don’t-you-stay?” questions in his press conference, which he answered with his customary twinkle and good grace.

“On May 30 I say, with a nice bottle of champagne, goodbye. Well, not goodbye because I will be back at the club in the future in a friendly way,” he said.

Chelsea might yet also have Champions League final in the season’s final week and Arsenal could be their opponents. Should these teams meet in Rome, its Olympic Stadium would be glad to showcase a red-corner-blue-corner slugfest, the kind of which Wembley staged. The biggest crowd to attend a match at this stage of the competition saw one of the FA Cup’s best recent semi-finals.

Sir Alex Ferguson noted Chelsea’s 4-4 draw with Liverpool had dollops of an ingredient often key to making classic football games, mistakes. This was similar. Flaws were what perfected the entertainment and, just as in midweek, after swings of initiative and having come from behind, Chelsea ensured the result went in their favour.

The errors came from their midfielders in the early stages, Arsenal’s defenders in the later ones, and both goalkeepers throughout the match. The last blooper, made by Lukasz Fabianski, decided things. Didier Drogba had scored four times in his previous two appearances against Arsenal and hardly needed the help Fabianski offered him. He is tipped for big things but, deputising for Manuel Almunia, the magnitude of the occasion snapped the young Pole. Six minutes from time, a long, volleyed pass by Frank Lampard landed outside Arsenal’s box and Fabianski raced hare-brained out to meet it. Drogba outmuscled Mikael Silvestre in a lion-versus-antelope battle of strength and will and reached the ball first, taking it past the Arsenal keeper and retaining balance and composure to squeeze home from an angle. The Ivorian crossed himself repeatedly and smooched the blue

No 11 shirt he had ripped from his chest and the Chelsea end cavorted. Arsenal’s fans were distraught and in the neutral sections there was bewilderment. Had Fabianski learnt nothing? Drogba had so nearly punished him for an identical error in the opening moments of the game.

Arsenal had won the previous seven FA Cup ties between these sides but Hiddink has a knack for inspiring teams to achieve that of which they were formerly incapable and self-belief is the key. It seeps from him and gets into his players. After conceding a goal to Theo Walcott after 18 minutes, Chelsea had the conviction to assert themselves in the game, equalise through Florent Malouda and use their greater muscle to wear down Arsenal’s resistance before it was broken by Drogba.

Hiddink felt Lampard, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack sat too deep at the outset and Cesc Fabregas, abetted by Denilson, was quickly able to establish a rhythm for Arsenal. Walcott was their outlet, his pace and nimble feet tormenting Ashley Cole and Cole — literally — lent him a hand with his goal.

In those initial stages Arsenal were taking far more care than their opponents in possession. When Emmanuel Adebayor received the ball to the left of Chelsea’s area he held it, toying with Branislav Ivanovic until Kieran Gibbs overlapped. With a smooth pass, he fed his young colleague. From the touchline, the defender clipped a pass back to where Walcott was arriving and Walcott, these days calm and classy in his finishing, did not attempt to blast a shot but simply ensured his foot came right through the centre of the ball. It struck Cole’s outstretched hand and was pushed into the net by Petr Cech, leaden-footed and slow to dive. The form of the former best-goalkeeper-in-the world appears to be collapsing like an Icelandic bank.

But Fabianski’s problems overshadowed his counterpart’s. After three minutes he charged from his box towards a John Terry clearance that was always dropping short of him and Drogba reached it first, heading the ball beyond Fabianski, who was bailed out when Gibbs, racing back, scooped the ball to safety within a yard of the line.

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