Capital One Cup Final Preview: All London Affair As Chelsea Face Spurs
FOLLOW LIVE this year's League Cup Final as Chelsea and Spurs battle it out for London pride and the small matter of a trophy.
By Graham Ruthven ( @grahamruthven )
It’s often claimed that with competition for the top end places in the Premier League stiffening - as six or seven teams target Champions League qualification - cup competitions fade into irrelevancy, but the reality of the zeitgeist is something very different.
With just four Champions League places - and of course just one Premier League trophy - on offer, clubs are forced to scramble for whatever silverware they can get their hands on, even the most illustrious clubs like Chelsea and Tottenham.
Sunday’s League Cup final will see the two London sides compete for the first major trophy of the English soccer season - and neither team will be taking the game with anything less than full commitment. Try telling them that this fixture is anywhere beneath the Premier League.
It might be reasonable to assume that this game will mean slightly more to Spurs than their London counterparts, given that Chelsea look set to clinch their first Premier League title in five years and are well-placed for a run deep into the latter stages of the Champions League.
However, that might be an unfair presumption, according to Didier Drogba. “When you lose, you always remember it forever, like the one against Manchester United in Moscow or against Tottenham in 2008,” admitted the Ivorian striker ahead of Sunday’s showpiece event. “I have experienced the feeling of losing finals before, so I am scared to lose finals and maybe that is why I give everything.”
Mourinho’s second coming hasn’t been quite as successful as Mourinho might have hoped, as Chelsea went trophy-less in the Portuguese coach’s first season back at Stamford Bridge. Having suffered a barren campaign with Real Madrid the season before, Mourinho has a point to prove - and a reputation as European soccer’s go-to-guy for instant success to preserve. He can start on both objectives with victory at Wembley on Sunday.
For Tottenham a League Cup win would be a way for Maurico Pochettino to validate the progress he has made at White Hart Lane since his appointment last summer. Silverware is enough to distinguish any club’s season, and that perhaps is even more true when it comes to Spurs - who remain on the peripherality of the race for Champions League places.
The absence of midfielder enforcer Nemanja Matic - who is suspended following his dismissal in the draw with Burnley last week - will hit Chelsea hard, with Mourinho now faced with the dilemma of how to construct his central unit to combat Spurs.
Pochettino’s team are the only side - along with Bradford City - to have completely dismantled the Blues this season, and the Argentine will need some of the moment that helped his team claim that astonishing 5-3 New Year’s Day if they are to emerge triumphant on Sunday.
If Harry Kane can carry his current vein of form - in which he has scored six goals in his last six games - into the clash with Chelsea then Spurs stand a genuine chance of clinching the League Cup trophy, with the young striker enjoying a breakout season that not even if his own manager could have foreseen.
“Chelsea is one of the best teams in the world,” said Pochettino ahead of Sunday’s game. “I think whoever plays for Chelsea, they have the same philosophy. But for us, we need to be focussed on our game.
“Jose and I have a very good relationship from Spain. He is a manager I admire a lot. I think he is one of the best, if not the best, in the world. For me it is an honor to play a final against him.” Presumably it would be an even bigger honor were he to beat him.
There is an intrigue to the League Cup final that is perhaps missing from other cup finals, given that it is played in the middle of the domestic season, before most clubs are entirely clear how their respective seasons will shape up. Sunday offers both Chelsea and Spurs the chance to make a success out of their season before it’s even over.
- This will be the second time Chelsea and Tottenham have met in the League Cup final – Spurs were the winners in 2008, 2-1 after extra time.
- Both Chelsea and Tottenham are looking to secure their fifth League Cup success. Only two sides have managed to achieve this – Liverpool (eight League Cups) and Aston Villa (five).
- That 2008 triumph is Tottenham’s most recent trophy win, before losing on penalties to Manchester United in the League Cup final the following year (2009). Spurs have alternated between winning and losing in their last five League Cup final appearances.
- Chelsea’s last two League Cup final victories came under Jose Mourinho in 2005 and 2007. All three of Mourinho’s domestic final appearances as Chelsea boss have ended with the Blues lifting the trophy (FA Cup in 2006/07).
- Petr Cech, John Terry and Didier Drogba played in both the 2005 and 2007 finals under Mourinho, with Drogba scoring in both (once in 2005, twice in 2007). The Ivorian also scored Chelsea’s goal in defeat to Tottenham in 2008.
- The only Spurs player currently at the club from Spurs’ 2008 League Cup win over Chelsea is Younes Kaboul, who came on in extra time (Aaron Lennon started that match but is on loan at Everton).
- Only one of the last 11 League Cup finals has seen fewer than three goals scored (Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur in 2009).
- This will be the third time the League Cup final has been contested between two London clubs, the previous two occasions coming in 2007 and 2008.
- The Blues scored the opening goal in each match on their way to the final and are yet to trail in this year’s tournament. However, only against Liverpool in the second leg of the semi-final did they keep a clean sheet.
- Only two of Spurs’ 12 League Cup goals this season have been scored in the first half.
- Chelsea have lost two of their three previous meetings against Spurs at Wembley, both by a 2-1 scoreline (1967 FA Cup final and 2008 League Cup final). They did however beat them 5-1 there in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final.
- Harry Kane has been involved in more of Spurs’ goals in this competition than any other player so far (four, scoring three and assisting another).
- Spurs’ 5-3 win over Chelsea in January ended a run of 10 games against the Blues without a win (D5 L5).
- Felipe Luis has played more minutes in Chelsea’s road to the final than any other player (438) and the only Chelsea player to start all five games.
- Jan Vertonghen and Michel Vorm have played every minute of Spurs’ League Cup campaign so far.
