Chelsea 3 Liverpool 2: Three times before yesterday Liverpool had come to Cardiff and won cup finals in which even they could be said to have been second best.

For just short of 80 minutes yesterday they were on course to continue that run but this time the task proved too much for the Merseysiders and, in a frantic half an hour of extra time, Chelsea powered their way to the season's first piece of silverware thanks to goals from Didier Drogba and Mateja Kezman.

If this is the only thing the club has to show for Roman Abramovich's vast investment come the end of May then the season will scarcely be seen as having been a success but amongst the players both the joy and relief of finally having won something was obvious at the final whistle and the team will have left Wales last night with renewed confidence on their ability to drive home their advantage in the Premiership.

Obviously, their status as favourites to win this game was based in no small part on the quality of the squad assembled thanks to their owner's millions. In the end, though, it was as much the hunger displayed by the Londoners as the actual talent that brought victory - that and a return to form on the part of their Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho whose tactical manoeuvring through the second half helped to undermine Liverpool's determined defence of a lead earned in the first minute by Jon Arne Riise.

Mourinho was sent from the dugout moments after Steven Gerrard headed Paulo Ferreira's free-kick into his own net for what many around the stadium could have quipped was his "first goal for Chelsea", after appearing to gesture at the Liverpool fans to the effect that the equaliser had silenced them. Instead, he claimed afterwards, his actions were directed at the media who, he made clear, had been foolish to doubt either him or his team on the basis of two defeats.

There may be some debate as to whether his side deserved to lose in Newcastle or Barcelona but there was little doubt about their superiority here. Liverpool started well and led until 10 minutes from the end of ordinary time but for the best part of the afternoon they were simply outplayed.

Chelsea might have been expected to take the game to their opponents but even after the week they just had endured few would have guessed that they would be obliged to do so by the need to cancel out a goal conceded after just 43 seconds.

That was precisely the position they found themselves in, however, after Liverpool scored with their first move forward. Riise's volley was precise but at least as much credit was due to Fernando Morientes who slipped between two defenders on the right of the box before crossing to beyond the far post for the Norwegian, who was unmarked after Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho both sought to pick up the same man.

It was not the sort of stuff which Chelsea's largely impressive campaign to win a first league title in 50 years has been built and not much of what followed for the next 30 minutes was that much better with the Londoners surrendering much of their possession cheaply in midfield where they struggled to cope with the extra bodies their opponents deployed there.

Luis Garcia's floating role behind Morientes proved especially difficult for Chelsea to counter with the most obvious candidate for the role, Makelele, repeatedly reduced to chasing the Spaniard down as red shirts swept past him towards Petr Cech's area.

The former French international was lucky more than once to avoid a first half booking for he was guilty of some rather forceful challenges but his greatest escape came after 27 minutes when his push from behind on Steven Gerrard sparked what looked to be a decent penalty claim.

Liverpool could have done with the spot kick and the goal it might have produced for the incident marked the end of what turned out to have been by far their best spell of the afternoon and despite a couple of very good scoring chances their advantage remained very slim.

Too slim, one suspected, almost immediately for even before the break Chelsea began first to match and then surpass their opponents' passing and movement.

Having once again been the villain in midweek, Jerzy Dudek had to be, and was, outstanding yesterday, reacting calmly to a succession of crosses from Chelsea's wide men, taking firm command around his area and producing a stunning double save, from Eidur Gudjohnsen then William Gallas, early in the second period as Mourinho's side, playing at one point with four men up front, steadily built momentum.

Liverpool clung stubbornly to their lead, though, with Jamie Carragher, Steve Finnan and Dietmar Hamann all pulling off important challenges when required, Riise clearing Gallas's attempted cross from under the bar and Dudek chipping in with another couple of fine stops, notably from Damien Duff who came close to capping a good afternoon with a goal.

Hamann also forced a good save from Cech at the other end but then rather recklessly conceded the free from which Gerrard beat his own goalkeeper to plunge the game into extra time. During it Drogba and Kezman struck to make the game safe although Antonio Nunez briefly restored some hope for Rafael Benitez's men by halving the deficit within two minutes of Chelsea's third.

Igor Biscan might even grabbed an equaliser in injury but Liverpool's luck didn't quite run to forcing a penalty shoot-out and so their Cardiff love affair ended.