Both sides were locked goalless at the end of full time and a scrappy match was decided by a moment of brilliance from the Ivorian forward, who has been the stalwart for the Blues this season.

Drogba combined beautifully with midfielder Frank Lampard who lifted a pass over the defence for the front-man to poke past the advancing Van der Sar to score in the 26th minute of extra-time.

Chelsea then held on for the last few minutes despite some nervy moments to win the first final in the new Wembley.

With the Premiership champions close to full strength and Chelsea obliged to do without the injured trio of Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, United's line-up appeared, on paper at least, to carry the greater attacking threat.

In practice, it was Chelsea, with Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips swirling either side of Didier Drogba, who displayed the greater attacking initiative in an opening half that never really sparked into life.

Wayne Bridge's dipping cross from the left offered Didier Drogba the opportunity to give Chelsea the lead as early as the third minute but Gabriel Heinze's close attention served to unbalance the Ivory Coast striker and his header sailed comfortably over the bar.

Cole's delivery from the opposite flank proved equally unsettling with Wes Brown's weak clearance landing at the feet of Wright-Phillips, whose shot was charged down by Rio Ferdinand.

Jose Mourinho's pre-match insistence that his side would play the match in the correct spirit was hardly reflected in Cole's late, two-footed lunge at Wes Brown, for which the England midfielder was fortunate to escape a yellow card.

Referee Steve Bennett was equally indulgent when Heinze chopped Wright-Phillips to the newly-laid turf but those proved to be isolated incidents.

United's first sniff of an opening came after quarter of an hour when Darren Fletcher's header left Rooney with only Petr Cech to beat. The offside flag went up -- wrongly television replays suggested -- but Rooney, in any case, placed his shot wide of the target.

The England forward's touch was equally awry a minute later when he failed to get a clean contact on a volley after Michael Essien, standing in for Carvalho, miscued a clearance into his path.

At the other end, Drogba sent a long-range effort looping wide before Paulo Ferreira's surge into the box generated Chelsea's best chance of the opening period.

Having cut inside Heinze, the Portuguese right-back slipped the ball to Lampard on the corner of the six-yard box and the midfielder was able to squeeze a shot on the turn through Rio Ferdinand's legs, forcing Edwin van der Sar to get down smartly to his right to save.

An unusually subdued Cristiano Ronaldo finally got involved in the contest ten minutes before the interval, shooting narrowly wide after collecting an astute long ball from Scholes, a minute before Lampard sent a 30-yard drive whistling narrowly over van der Sar's crossbar.

Half-time brought the introduction of Arjen Robben at the expense of Cole for Chelsea, but it was the increase in United's tempo that had a more profound impact on the pattern of the match and it took a superb double save by Cech to prevent them taking the lead within three minutes of the restart.

An uncharacteristic lapse by Claude Makelele allowed Rooney the opportunity to go round Essien on the edge of the area. The goalkeeper could not hold the drive that followed but he recovered quickly enough to keep out Ryan Giggs's follow-up effort. Ten minutes later, Scholes picked out Giggs at the back post with an angled cross from the inside right channel. The Welsh winger met the immaculate delivery with a volley but his strike was a foot too high to cause Cech any real concern.

Drogba went closer with a free-kick from the corner of the box that he curled onto the outside of van der Sar's near post -- although the United keeper appeared to have the danger covered.

With the game opening up, there were threatening bursts into the boxes from both Robben and Rooney, who was increasingly getting the upper hand in his personal battle with Essien.

But clear chances were extremely thin on the ground with a Ronaldo shot that found the netting the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock before extra-time.