Written in the Stars?

11th February 2012, after a lackluster display at Goodison Park, Chelsea is forced to the 5th position in the Barclays Premier League, just about 17 points behind the leaders, Manchester City. Soon comes the round of 16 first leg of the UEFA Champion's League tie against Napoli at Stadio San Paolo where Chelsea can't handle the fast paced attack of the Italians and lose 3-1 after scoring the first goal. For any Chelsea fan even hearing the words, 'Champion's League' brings about feelings of breaking agony and desperation. These feelings obviously spur from the fact that Chelsea hasn't had not won it ever, even after coming so close to it every season. It's like that seasonal pie at that famous bakery, all your friends have had it, you are always in the line and can smell the deliciousness but when you get there, it's all done. Well, all that changed in the season of 2011/2012.

Lavezzi scoring one past Cech

Okay, back to the thrashing in Naples. Soon after another defeat in the league, everyone knew what was coming. André Villas-Boas follows the ill fate and the wrath of Roman, as did many of his predecessors, and is sacked from his position of head coach at Chelsea. Now, we can talk about the negative and positive aspects of this decision but let's not get into that. Upcoming fixtures after the sacking? FA Cup 5th round replay, away to City, London derby with Spurs and that Champion's League 2nd leg. Yup, every sane Chelsea fan had given up on the season and just prayed enough to finish the season in top 4. "Oh gosh, we might become like Liverpool!", I thought in disgust. But wait, who will manage Chelsea now? Well AVB did appoint a local Chelsea hero as his assistant manager who rose to the occasion with passion and might, Mr. Roberto Di Matteo.

Inspiring Roberto Di Matteo

Under Di Matteo, the team seemed to be replenished. They were clearly playing to win now and not just survive. Maybe it was the senior players not liking AVB, maybe it was AVB's rotating formations or future thinking but I think it hit the players pretty hard of what was going on and Di Matteo, being fueled by John Terry, excellently channeled those frustations into the fields and got the best out of the players. And so the magic began.

It's really hard to put in words the exhilaration from the Chelsea vs. Napoli 2nd leg game. The players didn't care about any trophy or tournament during the game, the objective was just to win. And they did win with great goals and by clearly playing better than the opposition, luck used 0%. Next up, Benefica in the quarter-finals. Seemed to be a pretty even fixture and again Chelsea over-powered them home and away with no special luck powers. But before even it sinks in that from such a disaster of a season Chelsea has made it to the semi-finals of the Champion's League and also punished Spurs to reach the FA Cup final, it became clear to most straight thinking and logic following people that Chelsea's magic run will come to an end at the hands of the mighty Barcelona. First leg, Chelsea display an excellent defensive front and even manage to sneak in a goal by who else but Didier Drogba. Chelsea not playing entertaining football? Yes. Chelsea using luck to win? No. Also, important to note, it is not easy for players to play so defensively. They are naturally inclined towards taking that run far wide and also while playing at the back, one small mistake will cause you the game. Anyway, bottom line, advantage Chelsea. Chelsea fans more shocked than Barca players. But I'm pretty sure the Catalans believed pretty strongly that they were gonna finish off Chelsea in the 2nd leg at Camp Now. And thus begins the drama filled 2nd leg. Chelsea, fully aware of the attacking power of Barca, come in with even more of a defensive outset than the first leg. Shortly before the first half ends, Barcelona have scored 2 goals, Gary Cahill gets injured and Chelsea's captain gets a red card. So, Chelsea are playing without any natural centerbacks and Barca are playing like their weekly attack and defense practice drill. Blues' fans trying to convince themselves, it's okay, this was bound to happen, all over now. But before the ref gets a chance to blow the whistle for half-time, Chelsea gets spurge of hope from a brillant volley by Ramires. Away goal advantage, will Chelsea force Barca to take a sip of their own medicine? 

The 2nd half of the game put every Chelsea fan's heart into their mouths and drove Barca fans to a high state of frustation where expensive iPhones are equivalent to a cheap glass for smashing to the ground. Yeah, the match had shifted to Chelsea's latter half, shot after shot, pass after pass and miss after miss. Some chances wasted because Barca players made some sort of a mistake in the execution and most chances wasted because of Chelsea's defensive resilience. So yeah, less luck more skill. Then came the penalty. Who else to take but the world's best, Lionel Messi. The world's best who had never before scored against this English opposition, failed to score again. So, was this Chelsea's luck that stopped Messi from scoring or maybe just Messi not being able to handle the pressure of the given situation like a world class player should? Then came the shining moment of the game, Fernando Torres finishes the job. Let's see, could it be Chelsea's luck that forced Barca to bring up their entire defensive lineup upfront? I'm gonna go with a no. Then comes the final against Bayern Munich in Allianz Arena, which happens to be their home ground. Chelsea again put up a defensive front but finding their glimmers of attack as well. And after a late goal from Drogba again, Chelsea manages to finish the normal time with 1-1. Then comes that moment again, Robben to take a penalty in extra time. Again maybe the pressure of playing a final or playing against his old team forces him to miss. Also, the great hands of Petr Cech. The game goes to penalties and Chelsea fans have gotten used to this feeling of things not going their way by now. As everyone knows the Germans are masters at taking penalties, freshly beating Real Madrid on penalties, while as history dictates most of Chelsea's penalties have not gone their way. But the Chelsea players manage to handle their nerves better and prove themselves a better team and crown themselves the Champions of Europe for the first ever time!

Chelsea's celebration parade in London

So, to sum it up. 'Luck' was mostly against Chelsea at most situations. Coach fired, getting a draw with Napoli in the 5th round, getting a draw with Barca in the semifinals, playing the final at the opponents home stadium and settling things at what the opponent is best at. Some other things were against Chelsea, like John Terry missing out half of the semi-final and the final and some other key players missing the final, but that was due to the player's own doings and discipline. I feel it was all about what was going inside all the players' heads which enabled them to display that passion to win. Let me state these feelings as bullets just because it looks nicer, especially after that giant paragraph, so in no particular order-

1. Midseason shock after AVB's departure.
2. Need to display passion for the club, specially when an old hero is the coach.
3. Revenge that Barcelona semifinal from two years back.
4. Constant disappointment and frustation of coming close to winning the UCL.
5. Not winning the final means not playing in the tournament next season. (On top of that, our spot will be taken by Spurs!)
6. Filling that empty space for the UCL trophy in the cabinet and in Roman's heart.

Pumped by all this, Chelsea proved to the world how to excel against all odds. I will agree with you that Chelsea didn't play striking beautiful football along the way and wasn't maybe better than the opposition at times. But, their objective of the game was winning. If you can come with the strategy to wear out the best passing and attacking side of the world and beat someone at their own backyard, you clearly are playing high level football. Still singing Chelsea was super lucky and play ugly football? Well, haters gonna hate.

TL;DR- Chelsea won the Champion's League with pure skill not luck.