The English lockout of the Champion League final gets a dress rehearsal at the Etihad, the champions-elect against the Premier League’s most improved team.
Chelsea’s form under Thomas Tuchel is all the evidence required to demonstrate that good coaches are just as important as good players. Same squad, different outcomes.
Two cup finals in the diary already and solidly top four, unimaginable when Frank Lampard was wringing his hands after a 3-1 home defeat to Manchester City in the first week of the year.
That result was a blowtorch to Lampard’s prospects and confirmed City’s rehabilitation as the most evolved team in the Premier League.
One of Lampard’s many failures at Stamford Bridge was to imagine there was such a thing as a future. There is only the present in this game.
Pleas for time to nurture players new to the Premier League environment were seen only as excuses.
There are so many points of interest in this encounter, not least the centrality of young English talent. To frame it around Phil Foden and Mason Mount would be an insult to their teammates yet, from the English perspective at least, the value of both to City and Chelsea respectively is one of the most pleasing.
The rise of English youth will acquire even greater focus in the summer when England contest the Euros as one of the favourites. Talent identification as a structural policy is almost a decade old in English football. The Elite Player Performance Plan (EPP) launched in 2012 has so far given us Foden, Mount, Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford, Reece James, Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold, et al.
English representation in Premier League teams is, at 37 per cent, at its highest for 14 years. At City and Chelsea, the best of British have come through the most rigorous environment in club football, tested against the best players money can buy.
Foden’s eclipse of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in the Champions League semi-final, when he had more touches in the PSG box than any City player, was a coming of age on the biggest stage. Similarly, were Toni Kroos and his Real Madrid teammates to come up against Mount next season, they would have more than enough grounds for losing sleep.
To hold down a place at City and Chelsea it is a given that players must perform in a high technical register. Foden and Mount are not only blessed with the necessary skills but the drive, imagination and courage to execute. They have earned the respect of teammates and the love of their coaches with their fearless expression and command of the stage.
As the table shows City under Pep Guardiola are fully optimised, ability spread richly across the individual elements. Tuchel is still engaged in a process of trial and error, searching for the best fit. The signs are indubitably encouraging.
Kai Havertz is beginning to look like the footballer Chelsea thought they were signing but have seen too little of. Antonio Rudiger is as important to Tuchel as Ruben Dias is to Guardiola, which is some testimonial. Tuchel is still experimenting with Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic, trying to identify the best position for one or both.
Chelsea’s chances in the short term might yet depend on Tuchel finding a resolution. Werner’s pace is rendered meaningless by a lack of judgment and composure the closer he gets to goal. Manchester United’s Dan James is beset by the same affliction, but he cost £15m not the best part of £50m. Pulisic, you feel, is missing only the affirmation of the coach. It’s a matter of trust on both sides.
Both coaches will distance themselves from the day out in Istanbul at the month’s end. This is about the three points City need to win the title and Chelsea to take command of fourth spot, go the party lines. Equally Guardiola and Tuchel will pore over the details in the aftermath to determine a plan of attack in the Champions League final.
Guardiola made eight changes in the FA Cup semi-final that ultimately handed the initiative to Chelsea. There are no secrets at this level of intimacy. Chelsea know they can win if they get it right. With a 13-point lead City don’t have to. At least not on this occasion.
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