FA Cup Triumph Once Again
Who would have imagined it? FA Cup Winners after thrashing Spurs in the FA Cup Semi and then comfortably outplaying Liverpool for 2/3's of the game and walking out worthy winners of this prestigious trophy. Despite attempts by ITV to portray both of our Wembley win's on the way to this trophy as "lucky" make no mistake we got what we deserved. We have been one of few top clubs to respect the traditions and history of this competition in contrast to Liverpool and Dalglish who gave the impression it was meaningless. After all the man couldn't even make the effort to wear a suit to the final so I'd hardly expect him to show any class or respect towards anything or anyone.
2 months ago under previous management us winning the FA Cup and being in a Champions League Final would have been unfathomable. Having been at St Andrews for RDM's first game in charge you could already note a drastic change in confidence and morale. It had become clear to me since around December that this team could no longer play 4-3-3 and we had suffered hugely because of it. RDM has found a system that works for us and deserves all the plaudits. This isn't by any means a brilliant squad, but it isn't as terrible as the media would have people believe, our form proves this.
The Champions League Final
Make no mistake we are underdogs in this final, but not massive underdogs as many would have people believe, The injuries and suspensions don't help but we still have some good squad players in Essien and Romeu that can fill the void left by Meireles and Ramires. I've been a huge critic of Meireles and still am but his performance against Barcelona was utterly selfless and he will be missed in Munich for sure.
We're being written off by pundits already but then again we have been since the group stage. Southgate gave us no chance but he's never liked us anyway, still can't get over the fact we beat his side in the 2000 FA Cup Final with relative comfort.
We all know that if this was a media favourite like Liverpool or United they wouldn't dare write us off no matter what the personnel.
"You won't get past the group stage as you won't beat Valencia"
"There's no way you'll beat Napoli, their front three will destroy you"
"You'll be knocked out next round anyway. United couldn't beat Benfiica so nor will you"
"You're going out next round anyway, Barca will thrash you. they'll put 7 past you with ease. Cahill won't stand a chance against Messi and Fat Frank and JT will be found out"
"You got lucky, there's no way you'll win at the Nou Camp"
"Oh well, Jose knows the Chelsea players inside out, you won't stand a chance against Real in the Final"
It's statements like these that have been spouted across social networking sites and various forums throughout our campaign so I'm quite happy being underdog, we haven't lost a game all season where we have been.
I'm quite enjoying the widespread panic across North London that our victory against Barca has caused. Spurs and Arsenal fans will try and convince themselves Bayern will win with ease and Chelsea have no chance but in their heart of hearts they are scared witless that they will miss out. Our N17 neighbours missing out would almost certainly mean the likes of Bale, Modric, Sandro and Kaboul will coming under the intense scrutiny of clubs such as PSG, Man City, Real Madrid, Barca and Juventus to name a few. It would also mean the likes of Eden Hazard and Jan Vertonghen won't even look twice at them. Manchester City are likely to put in a bid for Arsenal... sorry Van Persie in the summer and if Arsenal miss out on the CL he will surely be off. Rival fans are quickly changing their tune once again and it's now:
"You won't stand a chance against Bayern as their at home and are much better than you anyway"
Nobody can deny Bayern playing at home carries a significant psychological advantage, they know the dressing room, pitch, pretty much everything off the back of their hand, that's an advantage we cannot atone for. But make no mistake this can carry disadvantages as well. Bayern are a European Giant, commercially they are only trumped by Real Madrid. They have lost 4 out of their last 5 Champions League finals and the German media will no doubt underestimate us and see a Bayern win as a given. It happened in this country in Euro 96 in the semi and happened to Germany in 2006 whereby the expectation and favourites tag proved too much.
It isn't any normal home game for Bayern either we will have 20,000 Blues at least roaring the team on. It almost has a Germany v England 2001 feel about it. Let's be honest nobody expected England to win in Munich never mind 5-1.
Call it clutching st straws if you must but there is still hope, we can't get carried away by the Bayern hype and allow the media to make us feel we're massively inferior to them and are mere minnows, there is enough quality in this side to beat Bayern.
Portugal vs Greece Euro 2004 Final - It was almost a given Portugal would win this. Greece's "luck" would surely run out and there was no way Greece would be able to beat Portugal on Portuguese soil. The celebrations in Portugal were practically under way before kick off. What happened in that game was regarded as possibly the biggest upset in a major European tournament.
Cast your minds back to the 2006 World Cup when Germany had played some sublime football and after beating a talented Argentinian side they were seen as clear favourites against an Italian side who had played poorly throughout the competition. On German soil how could Germany (the form team) be beaten? Well it happened.
In the 2005 UEFA Cup Final CSKA Moscow turned Sporting Lisbon over on their own patch. Russian Football was generally overlooked by the media and it seemed a given that a Sporting Lisbon side containing the likes of Nani, Moutinho, Liedson to name a few would just have to turn up.
Even in last year's CL Final, the media out of desperation tried to convince us that United had an advantage being on English Soil because Barcelona's slick passing would not be replicable on the much maligned Wembley pitch. Messi and Xavi would struggle according to them. In the end that turned out to be the most one sided final I have ever witnessed, even more so than the footballing lesson Barcelona gave them 2 years earlier in Rome.
My head is telling me Bayern should win, but having got this far I carry the belief we can actually win this despite being an eternal pessimist in regards to anything Chelsea related. Let's ignore the press, pundits and rival fans trying to put us down and try to be optimistic about this final no matter who the personnel available is.
