Kenny Dalglish feels May chill as Chelsea crush Liverpool's only form of league escapism "I think I've found something to Liv For," read one of the countless emotive banners in the red sector of football's national stadium, where Liverpool have appeared 34 times in all. Those big numbers hid all the angst that has gnawed away at them as the top four places have receded out of sight. Opposing all the Mersey fervour were the more forthright banners of Chelsea fans who feel they now have bigger fish to fry in Munich. Chelsea flags tend to be painted with the names of pubs or towns in Surrey, not "Believe It and Achieve It," as Liverpool's are. The contrast was apparent all over. Chelsea beat Barcelona. Liverpool are 34 points off the lead in the Premier League. Chelsea are trying to buy Battersea Power station to build a new home. Liverpool squandered £50m on the abortive Stanley Park scheme. So Liverpool needed this more, much more, to bolster Dalglish's viability as a long-term saviour. King Kenny's problem is that the English game is currently bristling with fresh coaching talent, led by Paul Lambert and Brendan Rodgers. Steadily, as Liverpool's league campaign has faltered, Dalglish has looked less and less impregnable in his role as elder statesman. His chances of staying on the payroll of Fenway Sports Group sustained another whack when Ramires raced away and drew a tame attempt at a save from Pepe Reina, the Liverpool goalkeeper, who is among this season's under-achievers. As Chelsea settled into their 11th minute lead, Steven Gerrard was obliged to hold the hands of Liverpool's overwhelmed central midfield pairing of Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson. "Cup team" is a flexible term. It can be used to patronise or praise. It can point to the limits of a club's ambitions or portrayed as a base for grander aims. For Liverpool it was the only good label available in a season where the price of stagnation has been tens of millions of pounds. Dalglish's fourth FA Cup final as manager started with the independent republic of Merseyside jeering the national anthem and the greatest of all Anfield legends greeting the VIPs in his long grey puffa coat and tracksuit bottoms. Liverpool will not bend to etiquette. But they must yield to the numbers that said they desperately needed this FA Cup to add to their gruelling Carling Cup victory over Cardiff. Way off the pace in a league they have not won for 22 years, Liverpool have dropped 30 points at home and won only five times in front of the Kop. The 99th game at the new Wembley started jerkily, with Stewart Downing, Henderson and Spearing ineffective. Luis Suarez was mostly isolated in the centre-forward's role. The big price tags were swinging in the wind again: £20m for the sometimes timid Downing, £16m for Henderson - and that Carroll splurge which seemed to pay late dividends when his 81st minute header was pushed out by Cech, with Liverpool players insisting it had crossed the line. The overhead camera view supported that view but from ground level it looked a miraculous save by Cech. Chelsea's inner cabinet would not be denied. Few of us really believed they could engineer another rearguard action against Roman Abramovich's whims and wishes. But only age can defeat these great survivors.