London is Blue Dispatch #033

Nearly 19 years to the day Chelsea and Liverpool clashed for the first time in a major cup final, the two sides meet again in circumstances that will feel familiar to many. In 2005, Chelsea’s men’s team arrived at the league cup final looking to win their first title under new ownership, and under a new manager. A young striker from West Africa wearing number 15, playing his first season in England, was tasked with leading the line. At the other end of the pitch, after an injury to longstanding starter Carlo Cudicini in preseason, a young Petr Cech, also playing in his debut season in the Premier League, took over the starting slot that would be his alone for a decade. That win was Roman’s legion setting the kind of example that turned Chelsea into a collection of hard-headed adrenaline junkies that regularly made a mockery of the odds and form tables.

For Pochettino and his players to repeat that feat from the history books, they must first learn to read the fine print on those pages. Post Roman Abramovich’s takeover and Chelsea’s rampage towards the title, an overwhelming amount of media scrutiny was placed on the club’s extravagant spending. Drogba, Carvalho, Ferreira, Robben and Cech arrived for a combined €134m, an unprecedented spend in the PL back then. Half of those players were 23 or under. Rafa Benitez brought up the spending in his pre-game comments, reiterating the pressure was firmly on Chelsea to win.

That pressure was cranked up to full when John Arne-Riise put Liverpool ahead in under 60 seconds. Chelsea nearly went behind twice more, with Steven Gerrard missing from point blank range. For more than three quarters of the game, Jerzy Dudek repeatedly slammed the door shut on noses sniffing for an opening. With every passing second, the pressure seemed to swell inside Mourinho.

When Gerrard headed the ball into his own net in the 79^th minute, Mourinho quietly spun, and began shushing the Liverpool fans behind him, an infamous taunt that earned him a red card. “The signal of close your mouth was not for them but for the press, they speak too much and in my opinion they try to do everything to disturb Chelsea,” insisted Mourinho after the game.

It wouldn’t be the last time Mourinho channelled the us-against-the-world siege mentality, specifically against Liverpool. When Brendan Rodgers refused to allow Chelsea’s request for a better date for the fixture to help them prepare for a Champions League game, Jose was livid. “They didn't give us that, so when we went there to destroy their party,” Mourinho said recently, on The Obi One Podcast. Gerrard slipped again, and the rest… never got to make history.

The déjà vu is strong with this one. A Frenchman at fullback, an English academy graduate at left centerback. A Cole on the right wing this time too. Hell, Liverpool had a Nuñez in their side back then too (and he scored their consolation in extra time.) There are redemption stories up for grab everywhere. Most people remember Drogba’s goal in extra-time to put the Blues 2-1 up. No one remembers the rest of the season, where he managed a disappointing 16 goals in 40 games. If Jackson scores in this one, 14 missed chances in the league will either be forgiven or forgotten. Chelsea have lost their last 6 finals at Wembley, an unimaginable record under the team that went on to evolve from the triumph that night. One win cleanses endless accusations of Pochettino infecting the club Spur’s bottlejob gene.

The media have already begun to build this up as Klopp’s grand farewell tour, as if divine right has already passed judgement on which ending is more poignant. This is a gilt-edged chance for everyone at the club to part the Red Sea and step closer to the promised land of titles and glory. This is the rarest of opportunities for the manager, the players, to earn a second of tranquillity, after a seismic change and its aftershocks have left countless sleepless nights and false dawns in their wake. Roman Abramovich's reign began with a League Cup win. There is no better reason to repeat history.