Chelsea Teach Us A Lesson In Life By Defying All The Odds

Guest blog post by Julian Subadheep.

Who expected Chelsea to win the FA cup and the Champions League this season after all they had to go through? Even the club owner, Roman Abramovich, would not have dreamt in January that he would be laying hands on the shiny trophy  which he always longed for this year.

Since 2003 he has overseen seven managers without giving anyone a good run to work with the team. The impatient man has spent millions in changing managers, and he would have been pinching himself on Saturday night when he laid his hands on the much coveted trophy.

So what changed Chelsea’s luck this season? Is it the new interim coach Robert Di Matteo’s qualities of instilling new belief into the team? Or, Is it because sheer luck and destiny that it had to happen this way for Chelsea? Or is it because the Chelsea players who did not get along well with Villa-Boas wanted to prove the world wrong?

How come a team which ended up sixth in the Premier league this season and a team which was said to be old and over-the-hill, turned things around in the last three months and won the greatest cup competition in world football?

I would say it was a combination of all the above, plus the players deserve a lot of credit for never giving up despite the odds being against them. To beat Barcelona over two legs in the semi finals and to go and beat Bayern Munich in the Alianz arena is a great achievement. To stand against a wave of attack after attack (35 attempts on goal to Chelsea’s 9) from the Munich team and finishing champions requires real mental strength.

It is true that luck favored them a lot during this journey. Messi and Robben, two of the best players in football, both missed penalties and 10-man Chelsea had to rid their luck to withstand Barcelona throughout both semi-final legs.

But no credit should be taken away from Chelsea. Luck favors the brave and Chelsea were brave on a consistent basis in this competition. Also not many expected this Chelsea team to win the Champions league this season, so with not much pressure on them and without having a ‘special’ coach, this team has showed just by team work, confidence, perseverance and determination the highest was achievable in this beautiful game.

This also tends to be a lesson for life to believe during difficult times, to persevere and never give up and surely the time will come when luck and destiny will smile on us. Thank you Chelsea for teaching us this lesson through the beautiful game. Chelsea – deserved Champions of Europe.