The brawl for it all. The match for the ages. Whatever you want to call it—suggest any superlative you’d like—the biggest club match of the year is Saturday, and Chelsea is a finalist. The Champions League final is this week and our favorite team is in the match. It doesn’t get much better than that. It’s all on the line versus Manchester City, the bully of the Premier League and without doubt one of the finest, if not the finest, squad on the planet. That notwithstanding, can the Blues take down the soft blues in Porto? The answer is an emphatic “you bet!”
Man City is a fabulous squad led by a world class manager who may just be the best in the business. This is, unless he is beaten three straight times by the possible future best in the business, one Thomas Tuchel. The Citizens are a loaded squad fitted with a team of the utmost quality, a monster in European football. Yet, they have lost two straight to the underdogs of Chelsea. That fact could very well be Man City’s undoing. The two sides—one an acknowledged giant in world football and the other a pretender that aspires to that dominance—will scrap in the match of matches, the Champions League final.
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In order to be the best, Chelsea has to beat the best, and the best is currently Manchester City.
Now, Man City has stormed through the Premier League this season without a doubt almost from start to finish, the best in the toughest league on the planet. Yet, the club in royal blue has dispatched this grand side in the past two encounters this season, one win coming in the semifinals of the FA Cup. Anyone who thinks Man City, on the verge of a double, triple or quadruple even looked at that game as a throwaway is well, totally misguided. Guardiola’s men wanted and looked for the win and were denied by a solid, tight-defense Blues side that turned them away.
Unfortunately for Tuchel’s men, they were in turn dispatched by Leicester City when the FA Cup was lost. The thought here is that some poor decisions by the manager doomed the Chelsea side to oblivion in the FA Cup final and almost destroyed their Champions League qualification hopes in the Premier League, as well. Chelsea should send Spurs a very large fruit basket to thank them for bailing him out of a potentially embarrassing situation. Thank you, Spurs!
Yet, that was last Sunday. Porto on Saturday is a whole other matter. Which Chelsea will make an appearance at the Estadio do Dragao? The side that took the previous two games from Man City or the side that faltered almost into obscurity in the final games of the Premier League season?
Without a crystal ball or other means of future prediction, that question will remain unanswered until next Saturday. Yet, it says in this space that, despite Tuchel’s gaffes in the previous matches, Benjamin Mendy will play Saturday and will excel. This means the Blues will prevail against Man City on Saturday and claim European football’s highest honor. It’s just a thought, and maybe a prediction, but it can come to pass. If Mendy plays, Chelsea wins; you heard it here first.
Yet, let this writer insert a certain factor that could, and may I say will, have a material impact on the said contest on Saturday. It will be of consequence for the Blues, but most certainly, and definitively for Man City.
As one article from The Top Flight noted:
"While Manchester City have looked to be the better team, you just can’t count Chelsea out at this stage. Chelsea have beaten the Champions twice in two meetings since Tuchel took over, and have been excellent in the Champions League.Counting them out before the game even starts would be a mistake. It’s going to be an exciting game, and it’s very interesting to see how both managers handle it after their recent dress rehearsal."
The fact is this: Chelsea has no fear of Man City—no fear whatsoever. In fact, Man City fears Chelsea. Chelsea will win due to the simple fact that Man City now fears Chelsea. Since Chelsea has no fear of City, it’s quite simple to deduce that Chelsea will win the Champions League. The ultimate determinant is the fear factor.