New Chelsea have to prove they can win trophies by beating Tottenham

José Mourinho had clearly tired of references to that game at the Millennium Stadium a decade ago, a success history now views as the snowball that preceded an avalanche. More mischief was preferred.

“This cup final is the most important of my career,” he said. “More important than the Champions League finals. More important than all the other cups I’ve ever played before.” Cue a pause, challenging the room to protest. “Do I look stupid? It’s just because it’s the next one. The others are in the club museum. My medals are somewhere at home, I don’t know where … But the most important game of my career is always the next one.”

He sat back sporting his familiar satisfied smile, even having resorted to cliche, with the focus wrenched momentarily from recollections of the showpiece against Liverpool that yielded the first silverware of Roman Abramovich’s ownership, and back upon collision with Tottenham Hotspur.

Mourinho the manager has never had to wait so long between major trophies, memories fading of the Spanish league title and Supercopa de España claimed in 2012 with Real Madrid. Last year’s first campaign back at Chelsea had promised much but ended barren.

Spurs are the club in this tête-à-tête for whom silverware feels a modern‑day novelty, yet the significance of the Premier League leaders claiming success at Wembley is less about the man in the dugout reimposing his reputation and far more about this team breaking through a psychological barrier. Chelsea’s new crop must prove to themselves they can fulfil undoubted potential and prosper.

Mourinho’s message has been consistent all season when addressing what this squad could achieve. They have the required talent, skill, industry and even spikiness to dominate but, until they accumulate trophies, they cannot be favourably compared with the team that won five big ones in three seasons during his first spell in charge, a group whose core effectively drove on after his departure in 2007 to claim another five significant titles culminating in the 2012 Champions League.

That show of resilience, and almost fateful success, in Munich felt like a last hurrah. It certainly prompted a change in club policy in terms of recruitment and strategy, with players such as Oscar, Eden Hazard and César Azpilicueta all fresh faces after the European Cup had been raised.

The season that followed was chaotic, with Roberto di Matteo’s air-brushing from history – the supporters’ regular 16th-minute applause was a show of defiance – and Rafael Benítez’s controversial recruitment as interim manager reinforcing the sense of transition, much of it traumatic. They still won the Europa League, a competition they had hoped to avoid, but of the side that started against Benfica in Amsterdam only Petr Cech, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Ramires and Oscar remain at the club.

Paulo Ferreira, currently undertaking his coaching badges at Cobham, was on the bench that night. As was Ross Turnbull, now of Barnsley in League One, and the regular loanees Victor Moses and Marko Marin. Hazard was hamstrung and absent. Throw in Yossi Benayoun and that feels like a team from a bygone era with the new, thrilling blend that has been assembled since Mourinho’s return eager to make their own mark. Cesc Fàbregas has not won a trophy in England since the 2005 FA Cup. In the context of English football and Chelsea’s expectations, Diego Costa, Willian, Thibaut Courtois, Filipe Luís and Kurt Zouma are new to all this. The theory goes that the first step is always the hardest to take. In that case, this team can take a giant stride against Spurs.

There are still some in their number who have experienced this before and, unlike the manager, are willing to acknowledge the significance of 2005. Didier Drogba, a scorer at the Millennium Stadium who returned last summer, claimed the victory in Cardiff “gave us a big boost, knowing we could win something together if we all pushed in the same direction”.

“It set us on the way,” said John Terry, recalling the 3-2 success in extra time that first stoked the rivalry between Mourinho and Benítez. “It made a big impact through all the squad, gave us a taste of what we wanted, and we wanted more. It brought the squad closer together. With that in mind, this could be the first one for all of us this time round. The manager is right: we have to go out and win trophies to put us right up there.

“Like everyone, I felt something different when the manager came in back in 2004. It was a different mentality. Everything was about winning. He made that clear from day one. That rippled through the whole squad, through the academy, through the whole club really, and he has continued that. He has brought that back again this time.

“A lot of clubs write off this competition but, when we look back at 2005, it had a huge impact on our confidence and momentum. Now, for lads like Eden, it’s a chance for a first trophy. There are a few new players like that because it’s been a couple of years since we won anything. So it is an important competition for us. It means a lot to this club.”

Terry had featured under Avram Grant in the Carling Cup final of 2008, the last time Chelsea graced this stage in this competition, when Juande Ramos’s Tottenham won in extra time. “Sometimes setbacks like that can have a positive impact, and we have moved on since then and won major trophies in the meantime,” said the centre‑half. As has Mourinho, in Italy, Spain and European competition, though the manager’s focus is remaining matter‑of‑fact. His team are top of the Premier League and are the best placed of the English sides to progress into the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Victory at Wembley will be a fillip ahead of the run-in. Defeat must not derail a promising campaign.

“Even if we had lost that final 10 years ago, I still think we would have won the league that year,” Mourinho said. “I don’t see a relation between now and then.

“With our schedule now we can only think about what is directly ahead of us. We have no time for stupid celebrations if we win – I mean like celebrating for a week – and we can’t be crying for a week, also, if we lose. I will go home on Sunday evening and have dinner with my family, that is all. I can’t control the players, but they will be back for training on Monday, for sure, looking at West Ham in the Premier League on Wednesday.

“This is the first time since I came back in July 2013 where I haven’t been thinking about the future of this club. I just think about the moment, not the consequences. We have a new team full of people who have not been in dozens of finals at Wembley, and we will try and help this new generation of players and this new team make Wembley something normal for us. Normal in the sense that we get to play there year after year. But the bottom line is we have a final to win on Sunday. And nothing else matters.”

Victory may come to be seen as a statement of Chelsea’s intent. A new generation senses an opportunity awaits.