Arsene Wenger believes Chelsea were ‘convinced’ they would beat Manchester City in the Champions League final on Saturday after previous successes against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea overcame CIty 1-0 thanks to a first-half goal from Kai Havertz, and suffocated their opponents’ traditional attacking flair and verve with a dogged defensive showing.
And legendary former Arsenal manager Wenger stated after the match that recent results – Chelsea beating City 1-0 in the FA Cup semi-final and 2-1 in the Premier League – left City ‘insecure’ ahead of the European showpiece in Portugal.
He said: ‘Guardiola has just been voted manager of the year in England, because he won the (Premier League) championship and dominated, but a final is only one game and that’s where you have to turn up and play at your best.
‘Today, for Manchester City, that was not the case. They lost three games against Chelsea before. That strengthened Chelsea’s belief, and certainly made Man City a bit insecure.
‘We never know exactly what traces that defeats leave in our mind, but it shows tonight that Chelsea were convinced they could beat them.’
Wenger then went on to analyse specifically what Blues boss Tuchel did to negate City’s attacking threat, namely defending narrower from the front.
He added: ‘I must say as well, what Tuchel did well was play Mount and Havertz more inside defensively, so City could never find a way through the middle and they had to go wide, where Chelsea were quite strong tonight.
‘So Man City had a big tactical problem tonight that they could never sort out. They were not balanced, they didn’t find a way to play incisive football and Chelsea stopped them very well.’
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