Who is Chelsea's Player of the Season

Was Chelsea's cup half full or half empty last season? Even the club's fans seemed unsure for much of the time. The abrupt departure of Jose Mourinho was predicted to prompt an exodus of leading players and the dissolution of the successful era the Portuguese tactician had brought to Stamford Bridge. His successor, Avram Grant, was widely seen as a poor substitute for the Special One, or at best a stop-gap. Yet the beleaguered Grant defied the criticism and kept Chelsea in the hunt for major honours, overseeing a campaign of resilience and dogged consistency that brought them so close to major honours. They failed at the last hurdle to land silverware, and Grant paid the price with his job.

But who were the players who contributed most to Chelsea's coming within two points of the Premier League title and the width of a post from lifting the European Champions' Cup?

Interestingly, a glance at the final Actim Index for last season shows that Salomon Kalou and Nicolas Anelka were the two highest-placed Chelsea players. Anelka's points were surely accumulated primarily during his time at Bolton, as he was somewhat peripheral for Chelsea following his transfer. As for Kalou, he seemed like the proverbial curate's egg - good in parts. Much of his approach play was impressive, but too often his choice of final ball was the wrong one and the move broke down. Was Kalou one of Chelsea's very best players last season? I'm inclined to say he wasn't. So who were?

The object of this exercise is to pick the key players of Chelsea's campaign, and below – in alphabetical order – are a handful of performers who could be considered leading contenders for best player. That’s followed by a personal top three which, being highly subjective, Chelsea fans and others will surely take issue with. So please feel free to express your own views in the comments field below.

Michael BALLACK

Once he was available after recovering from a long-term ankle injury, the German midfielder came into his own during the second half of the season. Although Ballack had joined the Blues on a free transfer from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2006, his wages were astronomic enough for questions to be asked about his value for money as he struggled to make an impact in his first season at Stamford Bridge.

Jose Mourinho seemed unable to fit both Ballack and Frank Lampard into his midfield to optimum effect, and Lampard clearly out-performed the German, However, it was a different story last season. Lampard's campaign was disrupted by injury and Ballack assumed greater authority in midfield, displaying the box-to-box traits that had made him one of the world's most accomplished midfielders at Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich.

Fully fit again and comfortable with either foot, he began to assert himself, protecting the defence, marshalling the midfield and contributing goals as well with his outstanding aerial ability a handy attacking weapon. Ballack himself feels he has been forced to alter his style to make an impact in a Chelsea side full of leaders, and by the end of the campaign he was enjoying the form of his life. After an outstanding second half of the season for Chelsea the 31-year-old also capped a great performance for Germany against Serbia with the winning goal in the team's last match before departing for Switzerland and the Euros, prompting Gunter Netzer, the former midfielder who inspired West Germany's European championship success in 1972, to comment: "I've never seen Ballack in better form. He can and will make the difference for Germany this time."

Unfortunately for Ballack, at club level despite his contribution the season ended in bitter disappointment - something he'd also experienced in 2001-02 with Leverkusen, who finished second in the Bundesliga and lost out in the finals of both the Champions League and German Cup. (Ballack then tasted more heart-break as Germany lost in the 2002 World Cup final against Brazil).

He's also tasted glory, of course - three league and cup doubles with Bayern, for whom he scored 44 goals in 107 matches - and expects to win more with Chelsea now that he has found his feet in English football, where he says he intends to finish his career.



Ricardo CARVALHO

The reliable Portuguese defender may be lower profile than Chelsea captain and central defensive partner John Terry - whose own disjointed season suffered numerous injury set-backs - but Ricardo Carvalho proved again that he is a vital cog in the Chelsea machine. As in the best partnerships, he and Terry complement one another well, but in Terry’s frequent absences Carvalho had to assume greater responsibility for marshalling the back four, and proved up to the task with performances of grit, composure and alertness that demonstrated the positional sense and anticipation that the best defenders must possess.

In fact Carvalho - who is rumoured to be a player Mourinho would dearly love to be united with for a third time at Internazionale - earned fulsome praise from one of his key opponents, fellow Iberian Fernando Torres. Liverpool's Spanish striker attributed his prolific first season in English football in part to lack of sophistication of most defenders in the Premier League.

Torres claimed they rely too much on physical force at the expense of tactical nous, but singled out Carvalho as the exception. El Nino rates the Portuguese above Terry, and said he was the toughest opponent he met last season, describing Carvalho as "superb," possessing "every quality that is needed." That sums it up nicely the Chelsea players' own Player of the Year.


Joe COLE

The criticism most often levelled at Chelsea is that they play pragmatic, functional football that lacks flair. Like most generalisations, it is an over-simplification and certainly a bit of an insult to the contribution of Joe Cole, whose game is based on attacking invention and who demonstrated again last season that he is the creative inspiration in the Blues' squad.

Cole was ranked immediately below Anelka in the Actim Index at 23rd overall, with 475 points, but would almost certainly have been higher had he been deployed more consistently. Cole continued to be regarded as expendable by Grant as he had been, at least initially, by Mourinho: he was not introduced in the Carling Cup final until the 98th minute, and was substituted at the same stage of the Champions League final by Anelka, reflecting the burden he carries of being perceived as something of a 'luxury' player.

Nevertheless, he made 28 Premier League appearances last season, plus five as substitute, and scored seven goals (adding three more in cup ties). He had enjoyed his best season for the Blues in 2005-06 when they won a second successive title, but the next season was one of frustration as he injured a knee ligament in pre-season after impressing for England at the World Cup, and then suffered a stress fracture of the foot that kept him sidelined for much of 2006-07.

He regained fitness towards the end of that season and gradually returned to his best form in early months of the most recent campaign, beginning to influence games again. He netted crucial winners against West Ham and Blackburn and scored the equalising goal in Valencia that triggered a 16-game unbeaten run stretching through to December. Cole built on that solid start to become a driving force as the Blues came from the chasing pack to overhaul Arsenal and start breathing hard down Manchester United's necks. He turned in a number of impressive performances, confirming that his natural ability had been harnessed to the team's needs, with his ball-skills being utilised to good effect with some telling runs and crosses.

On either the left or right of an attacking three, Cole adds a dimension of flair to the Chelsea side that they struggle to replace when he's missing. He had more than 50 shots and made more than 70 crosses in Premier League games last season, and also weighed in with crucial assists in addition to the goals he scored.


Michael ESSIEN

One of the Ghanaian midfielder's greatest assets can also work against him on occasion: Essien is the embodiment of versatility but because of that is routinely deployed anywhere in midfield or defence where there's an immediate need - defensive midfield, attacking midfield, full-back or the centre of the defence. As a result, while his overall contribution to Chelsea's cause season was substantial, he was not always seen at his peak because the demands of the team often had him playing out of position.

An obvious case in point was the Champions League final, where Essien, at right-back, saw Cristiano Ronaldo tower above him to head home the opener.

However, his strength and power when driving through the midfield were what gave Chelsea both ball-winning impetus and attacking momentum. Perhaps surprisingly for such a tenacious tackler, Essien earned more than 40 free-kicks for the Blues last season. He also netted six goals in 23 Premier League starts and four appearances as a substitute. His winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Everton during the title run-in kept Chelsea right in the race with United.

2007-08 was perhaps not as sparkling a campaign for Essien as the previous one had been, when he was voted Chelsea's Player of the Year by the fans (the first African to receive the honour), and had his goal against Arsenal also voted Chelsea's Goal of the 2006-07 Season; but the Ghana international, who was away in January and early February representing his country at the African Cup of Nations, nevertheless put in a very solid shift.


Frank LAMPARD

Frank Lampard is a player who seems to polarise opinion: he is either admired and applauded or jeered and derided (the latter reactions often apparent when he plays for his country), The England midfielder also continues to burdened by criticism that, for England, he can't play with Steven Gerrard; and for Chelsea that he doesn't gel with Michael Ballack.

Yet despite all the negativity, Lampard consistently delivers for the Blues. And last season, which for him was professionally frustrating and, later, personally distressing, he again impressed, once more out-scoring the strikers to bag 20 goals in all competitions (including 10 in the Premier League from 27 shots on target), and also contributing nine assists in League games (no one was credited with more, though Kalou had had nine).

During the course of the campaign, Lampard scored his 100th Chelsea goal, notched hat-tricks against Leicester and Derby, and reached the 20-goal mark for the third successive season to make it 80 goals in the last four, underlining his consistency.

Injuries to both his thighs at different stages of the season restricted his appearances, sidelining him for the best part of three months overall. And in the last dramatic few weeks of the season, the illness and death of his mother Pat from pneumonia took a heavy emotional toll on the player. But he impressed many with his strength of character on the pitch in that difficult time - particularly when, with Chelsea's Champions League semi-final tie hanging in the balance at 1-1, Lampard stepped up to convert an extra-time penalty.

Ex-Chelsea boss Mourinho described Lampard as the finest player he has worked with, and would like to make him one of his first signings for Inter.

And the most recent of Chelsea's ex-managers, Avram Grant, said: "There are many midfielders in the world but you cannot compare Frank to anybody else. He is a midfield player who can do everything on the pitch but his best quality is to score goals. When he gets a chance, he scores... Modern football has become more and more organised and it's very important to have a player who can come from behind and score goals."

*

It may seem outrageous to some to have excluded John Terry and Petr Cech from this top five; both have strong claims for inclusion, but the disruption of injuries played a significant role in their seasons, undermining their best form. Salomon Kalou was a valuable member of the team, though as noted earlier, should probably have had more end-product. John Obi Mikel and Ashley Cole also had reasonable claims for inclusion, while Didier Drogba scored 15 goals and might have had more but for injuries, the African Nations Cup and his counter-productive histrionics. But a line has to be drawn and decisions made.

And The Winner Is…

It was a close-run thing, but ultimately my choice was based on who provided the most entertainment, and that put Joe Cole in pole position as the Chelsea Player of the Season. Second and third? Ricardo Carvalho and Frank Lampard.

No doubt you’ll have your own thoughts on the subject…