Chelsea: A tale of two Champions League finals ahead of a third

It’s 2008 and one of the most dominant Chelsea teams had made the Champions League final. In the middle of the night and a torrential down pour, the match went to penalties. Captain, leader, legend John Terry stepped up knowing if he could just get it in the net, Chelsea would win. He slipped in the mud, shanking his shot off the post.

That is often remembered as the end of it, but Nicolas Anelka walked up two penalties later. Manchester United’s keeper Edwin van der Sar pointed the direction he thought Anelka would kick. Anelka went the opposite way, but so did Van der Sar. Anelka’s shot was saved and United left Moscow as Champions League winners.

It’s 2012 and one of the least dominant Chelsea teams had somehow made the Champions League final against all odds. Playing Bayern Munich in their own stadium, Chelsea had clawed their way through extra time, holding on to once again go to penalties in the final. The improbable was suddenly possible.

Petr Cech, dominant all match, dove the right way on the first three penalties, only just coming up short on each. He made no such mistake on Ivica Olic’s shot, giving Chelsea a chance. Bastian Schweinsteiger but Cech would not be beaten. Didier Drogba, on what was then assumed to be his last ever kick for Chelsea stepped up. He knew if he could slot it in, Chelsea would achieve the impossible. Cool as you like, Drogba achieved the impossible.

It’s now 2021, and Chelsea has again found themselves in a Champions League final. It’s not as impossible as it was in 2012, nor as guaranteed as 2008. This final sits somewhere in the middle. But just as important as the final in Moscow and Munich were, the build up to both was also important. How do those build ups compare to now and how might they be used to make this one more Munich than Moscow?

Perhaps the big story of 2007/2008 was Jose Mourinho’s departure from the club. In only September, after two league draws, a league loss, and a Champions League draw, Mourinho left “by mutual consent”. The new technical director, Avram Grant (believed to be part of the issues that drove Mourinho out) became the interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Chelsea at this time had only just finished second the year before after winning the Premier League twice on the trot. This team had John Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Petr Cech, Michael Essien, Michael Ballack and more in their peak or entering it. Chelsea’s history of sacking managers since has been pointed to as a success story for the club, but it’s worth noting that a team of that talent could very much run on auto pilot and do well.

The Blues did do well that season, on paper at least. The main issue is “well” wasn’t good enough. They lost to Tottenham(!) in the EFL Cup final. They were dumped out of the FA Cup early by Barnsley. They finished second on the final day of the season by failing to beat Bolton and other results not going their way. The Champions League final was this team’s chance to fix all of that but there was always a sense that this team, for all its quality, had something wrong that season that caused them to fail at the final steps.

Call it luck or call it mentality or whatever else, that season is largely seen as a disaster for Chelsea. With all the talent they had, they won nothing. Grant, despite being the winningest Chelsea manager in history, was sacked days after the final.

2011/2012 could not have been more different. Andre Villas-Boas had come in with big ideas, but those big ideas often came at the expense of the “old guard”. Mind, Drogba, Terry, Cole, Lampard, and Cech weren’t the same players they were in 2008. Even still, Villas-Boas often went too far to exclude them for his new look Chelsea which honestly never looked all that great.

Maybe if that hadn’t all culminated at once, Villas-Boas would have remained. But a crippling Round of 16 loss to Napoli, followed shortly thereafter by a loss to West Brom (the OG bogey team) in the league was too much too quickly. The plug was pulled on the new look Chelsea Villas-Boas experiment. Chelsea legend Robert Di Matteo was moved from assistant to manager with the simple task of stopping the bleeding as much as possible.

Then, something funny happened. With the old guard returned to most matches, Chelsea started to achieve things previously thought impossible. It began by flipping the Napoli tie, somehow advancing by a ridiculous 5-4 aggregate. The league form wasn’t’ stellar, but it kept the Blues just above water enough to believe in themselves in other competitions. By April, the league was very much a lost cause other than maybe sneaking into top four, but the FA Cup and the Champions League both featured Chelsea in the final four.

Forgotten in shadow of the two Barcelona matches, which are very much in Chelsea lore now, is the absolute beatdown of Tottenham in the FA Cup semifinal just days before the first leg. Maybe that result had boosted the Blues enough to get the job done in the first leg. Regardless, Chelsea dug in against what was then the best team in the world. Fernando Torres, who had struggled so much in blue, simply put an exclamation point on it all with his last minute goal.

Chelsea, against all odds, was in the FA Cup and the Champions League final. Like the Semifinal, it is often forgotten that Chelsea even won the FA Cup that season in light of what came next. Maybe, unlike 2008, it was that final which instilled in Chelsea the belief needed for Munich.

So, how does this all compare to Chelsea’s current season? The obvious one is the managerial change. Frank Lampard, like Villas-Boas, was a manager with big ideas but those ideas came at the expense of older players that ultimately turned on him. Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso, and Jorginho are by no means comparable to the old guard, but Lampard’s marginalizing of them hurt his chances of continuing. It’s been shown sense that they did have more to offer so hopefully Lampard takes that lesson like Villas-Boas (eventually) did.

The actual results of the season are more reflective of 2008 than 2012. The build up to the final in 2008 was marred by almost being successful. This season has been similar. Chelsea wasn’t fighting for a title, but they limped over the line for top four thanks to help on the final day when they could have done it themselves. They crashed out of the FA Cup final despite being favorites. And now they go to the Champions League final against a Manchester based team with the margin between a successful season and an unsuccessful one depending on what happens in the final.

This team isn’t really comparable to either side on paper. No one comes close to the old guard’s status for Chelsea. Thiago Silva might in regards to the game itself but that is about it. The team is now younger, overall, than the side in 2008 but arguably stronger, overall, than the team in 2012. It’s really a matter of whether they have the well to draw from the 2012 team had, perhaps gained in the four years since 2008.

But perhaps the biggest difference of all is Thomas Tuchel. Grant came into Chelsea as technical director after years of management in Israel. He was okay, all things considered, but he never felt fully qualified for the role. The most useful thing he did, for the most part, was let a team of high quality players do their thing. Roberto Di Matteo, meanwhile, had two unsuccessful managerial stints in England before taking the assistants job at Chelsea. He also let Chelsea do their thing, but it was quickly revealed in the next season that he had little more to give than motivation and a solid structure.

Tuchel comes to Chelsea after years of strong management. Just last year, he took Paris Saint-Germain to their first Champions League final. His time at Chelsea has been much less about letting Chelsea do their thing and much more about building the foundations he will need for next season. When he arrived, no one really expected a Champions League final or a FA Cup final. Even top four seemed largely impossible to many.

But Tuchel did amazing things. It may have come off the boil in the last few weeks, but there is still a sense that something can happen when Chelsea plays Manchester City in Porto.

Ultimately, this season’s story isn’t going to be the same story as 2008 or 2012. It’ll be the story of 2021. There are many similarities between this season and those two, but the main difference is Chelsea is going into this final with the most experienced and capable manager of the three. If he can let this team be themselves, while motivating them the right way to bounce back from their near misses, this may very well be a new chapter in the legend that is Chelsea Football club.