Chelsea winning the psychological battle over Manchester City ahead of Champions League final

Manchester City should have wrapped up the Premier League title by now. Having led the table since late January, the Cityzens are on the brink of their third league title in four years.

However, their celebrations have been delayed following a disappointing defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s side has been the best team in Europe for many months now, but they seem to be losing steam in recent weeks.

With the Champions League final scheduled for May 30th, the Spanish coach would have loved to secure the league title before playing in the all-important European final.

Blues stun Guardiola and Manchester City again

On Saturday, Manchester City tasted their second defeat in the space of three weeks. Interestingly, both losses have come against Chelsea.

The Blues beat the Cityzens 1-0 in the semi-final of the FA Cup. Chelsea then came from behind to beat Manchester City 2-1 in the Premier League.

Despite taking the lead through Raheem Sterling in the first half, a ridiculous penalty miss by Sergio Aguero proved to be the catalyst for a Chelsea comeback.

Thomas Tuchel’s side improved in the second half, with goals from Hakim Ziyech and Marcos Alonso sealing an impressive win at the Etihad Stadium.

Morale booster for Chelsea ahead of Champions League final

No one can predict how the Champions League final will go, but Chelsea appear to be winning the psychological battle.

Having won twice against the Cityzens already, Chelsea are bound to arrive at the final in high spirits.

After Saturday's win over City, Tuchel said (quoted by Goal):

"It will not change too much no matter what the result was. But surely it is not a disadvantage to us to have this experience in such a short time to have the possibility to beat them twice."

Chelsea's coach also spoke about his side's confidence and belief ahead of the Champions League final:

"We know very well that if you play a final, the context is very special. You have to fight for every centimetre and little advantage that you can win that game. Yes, it gives us the true and genuine belief that we can do it because we have already done it."

Speaking about the mentality his team needs to adopt, Tuchel said:

"We will try to conserve this feeling and momentum for our arrival in Istanbul. We arrive with our target and clear objective to win. The best way to play a final is through confidence and I think we can conserve the feelings from these matches."

Chelsea will go into the Champions League final with a clear objective - to make it three successive wins against Guardiola and Manchester City.