Reaching the CL Final has overshadowed the rest of our season. We've ALL had it in the back of our minds since we qualified, & everything has been affected since. Luckily we'd already done enough to all but seal the league, & every match since qualification has the air of a farewell tour.
Dead rubber or not, I fuckin HATE losing! :-( The issue we have now is keeping the players fresh, motivated & fit, so it's no surprise we've conceded so many in the last few games & look decidedly distracted.
Roll on the CL Final. It can't come soon enough for me. Leicester beat a stronger Chelsea team at Wembley than the one which beat us. I'm tired of hearing about the Final, & hearing our fans thinking it's a given that we'll steamroller Chelsea. We won't!
We still have to turn up to play to our highest standard, physically, mentally & emotionally. We need to avoid giving away penalties, or getting players sent off. How our mentality will be affected by playing 3-4 matches with the final in mind, remains to be seen.
I just fuckin hope we can click back into gear when it matters which is easier said than done. Since overcoming PSG, we've not covered ourselves in glory & have looked all over the place. We've still got a job to do & need to get out of this premature celebratory mood & get serious for the big one.
Make no mistake about it, if we don't, we'll be cruelly exposed. The one advantage/disadvantage is Chelsea still need to ensure CL qualification. Whilst it means they still have meaningful matches to play whilst we can rest players, their players will have enough time between their last league match & the final to rest, & they'll still be game ready, whilst we will have to raise our game one last time after a 3 week lull. It's not gonna be the walk in the park some think it will be.
