In 2007, injury robbed Michael Ballack of the chance to lift the FA Cup - but his arrival an hour into Saturday's game means he can now add the trophy to his extensive list of career successes.

However the German international captain needs no reminding that the Champions League and the Premier League remain titles he has yet to capture. Now back in trophy-winning ways and with a new, highly-experienced manager on his way, he sees no barrier to future success.

But first he is relishing this season's closing triumph.

'If we win any title we should be happy and the FA Cup is a really important title. Of course if you win the league it is really good but as we have seen, you need a little but of luck in the Champions League. We were close the last years. What the club needs is a little bit of luck as well.

'If we had finished with nothing it would have been a major disappointment. We deserved it, we have played well in the second half of the season.'

In winning the FA Cup, Chelsea join Man United as the only two clubs in the Barclays Premier League to have captured silverware this campaign and Ballack is highly-confident the seven-point gap that separated the two in the table can be bridged.

'We know what we can do and that we have a strong squad,' he says. 'This year we lost too many points at home and we need that consistency. I am sure we are at the same level.

'You can see that in our performances, especially in European games. We went to the final last year and this year we had one foot in the final and we were really unlucky to go out, so you can't say the club is going in the wrong direction.'

'If you compare the clubs we play, Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, they are really strong teams and only one can win the league. Man U had a really good time the last years, like Chelsea two years before in the league.

'In the three years I have been at Chelsea we have had four managers and it is really important now for the club that we are getting consistent and we are not changing manager every year,' he reckons.

'That is what we need for the squad to be successful. I am sure if we have a bit of quietness around the squad, the success will come.'