From the moment, two weeks ago, when Jose Mourinho decided to let his players go suitless to the Millennium stadium, we knew Sunday’s League Cup final was going to be something of a dress rehearsal.
Despite often fielding below-strength sides, two of the Premiership’s biggest clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea, have struggled to the final.
For Liverpool, who have spent the season trailing behind arch-rivals Everton in the Premiership, this is an important chance to grab some silverware — though the midweek 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen suggests the Champions League is not as distant a prospect as their captain, Steve Gerrard, suggested last Monday.
In a remarkably downbeat assessment, Gerrard — suspended for Tuesday’s game — said: ”I think we may have to accept this is just not going to be our year.”
That could turn out to be the classic foot-in-mouth quote of the season as, for once, Liverpool shone without their skipper, who could well be playing for the opposition by next season.
But really, the Champions League action this week has outshone what hype the League Cup, always the little brother of English football, was going to get.
Even when he was pushing on all four fronts for silverware, Mourinho was pooh-poohing years of tradition by insisting his players would not go through the pre-final tradition of buying new suits for this one.
Since then, of course, they’ve been ousted from the FA Cup by Newcastle and, though the Premiership remains a formality, you have to wonder if he regrets that now.
The sight of teams at the tailors, on the bus or out on the pitch before the final in their suits has always been a bit of a thrill, though Liverpool’s white suits at Wembley a decade ago did threaten the sanity.
Mourinho, refusing to spend any more of Russian owner Roman Abramovich’s oil bounty, apparently feels the suit-fitting tradition would detract from their now-defunct hunt for the grand slam.
Sad, really. They had lovely blue pinstripe Armani gear on show before their 2-0 defeat against Arsenal in the FA Cup final two years ago. This time, they’ll apparently stick to the old Hugo Boss numbers they’ve been wearing to away matches all season.
And Mourinho? He’ll probably be in the lucky grey trenchcoat his wife gave him at the start of the winter. Britain has been snowbound all week and anything less will probably cause unwelcome shivers.
But what of the game itself? Certainly Liverpool sparkled during the week. Luis Garcia, John Arne Riise and even Igor Biscan were impressive for a side bereft of Gerrard and the cup-tied Fernando Morientes.
But their Polish goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek, continues to look like, well, a pole in goal. They way he gifted Leverkusen their late, possibly vital, away goal will stick in the memory of Spanish coach Rafa Beitez.
For the first time since his arrival at the start of the season, Chelsea boss Mourinho looked a troubled man after the FA Cup exit at Newcastle last Sunday. With Wayne Bridge breaking his ankle and all three subs on, his side were a man short for most of the second half … and that became two short when goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini was sent near the end.
With William Gallas and Damien Duff also limping about, it was something of a Dunkirk effort that restricted Newcastle to just one goal.
But Chelsea have the resources to cope in these situations, despite the apparently frantic phone calls Mourinho was making in the tunnel for European reinforcements after the game. Petr Cech is hardly a bad reserve goalkeeper, Didier Drogba is fit again and Frank Lampard … he just goes on and on and on.
On paper, the first cup of the season should go to Chelsea. I can’t shake the memory of Liverpool’s awful FA Cup exit at the hands of Burnley a month ago as an example of just how badly the Reds can perform. And their last Premiership effort was that horrendous 2-0 defeat against Birmingham.
Sure, Tuesday night at Anfield against a below-par Leverkusen has restored confidence and Chelsea will be less rested after their Wednesday-night efforts in Barcelona.
But this has always been Chelsea’s season. Abramovich’s roubles have ensured that. My verdict: a 3-1 win for Chelsea, with Lampard the hero.
He hasn’t missed a game for months, he is a regular on the scoresheet and this should be the first honour of a season that could — and should — end up with a rare homegrown Player of the Year accolade.
Frankly, Liverpool will be second best, though I hope that Harry Kewell, once the greatest Australian footballer, could finally come up with something for Liverpool in reply.