Chelsea have won the Champions League Final comfortably beating Manchester City in Porto. The game was a tactical masterclass from Tuchel who has beaten Pep Guardiola 3 times since coming to Chelsea. The general consensus among fans and pundits after the first two losses was that City played a weaker team and hence lost the game. It was certainly not because Chelsea played well. I was so ready for Chelsea to spank the City team at their full strength in the final and be done with obnoxious fans and pundits waxing lyrical about a team that has not won a single Champions League. But Alas!
Excuses galore
As soon as I saw the City starting XI for the final I could already see the excuses coming our way if they lose, and behold. “City were not playing their best team.” “They were not motivated enough.” “The mood of the team was down because Fernandinho was not playing and Sterling was.” There were more excuses than the total number of Manchester City fans in the world. The most infuriating excuse however was that Pep lost the game due to overthinking! Yes. If he had stopped thinking 10 minutes earlier when creating the team, Manchester City would have won the Champions League!
So much disrespect to Chelsea
A final of this stature is not just stressful for the players but also for us fans. To release some of it, I listened to every podcast, watched every YouTube video and read every article about the game in hope of finding someone who would be in support of Chelsea but no. The “experts” presented Chelsea as a mid-table Championship team lucky to be breathing the same air as the genius Pep. Our strengths were ignored whilst flaws highlighted. Despite Tuchel defeating Pep 3 times in 2 months, there was no acknowledgement of Tuchel’s achievement but rather Pep’s failure, as if the Champions League is his birthright, something that he HAS TO win no matter what.
A footballing genius? Scoffs Please
The media loves to raise people on a pedestal – a place so high that a fall from it looks spectacular. Also, something that the media loves to watch. Pep is put on a pedestal that no other manager in the world can match. He is credited highly when his plans pay off but called “overthinker” when it does not. It is implied that he is too good to simply get it wrong, despite doing it for 7 years running. 7 years is however too long to be overthinking. Pep is certainly a good manager but genius he is not. He makes mistakes just like all the other managers while being more arrogant than them.
He saw this Champions League final as his crowning glory; an exhibition for his ultra-modern team. He wanted this to be the ultimate team to win the Champions League – a team of midfielders. Hurting from the two defeats by Tuchel he wanted to not just defeat him but humiliate him. Manchester City were set up not to win 1-0 but 4-0. Pep however was the victim of his own media hype. He overestimated himself and underestimated Chelsea and the result is all laid bare for everyone to see.
So, for anyone making the same lame “overthinking” excuse, I have this to say,
If my uncle had breasts he’d be my aunt
