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Guardiola is conscious Chelsea will not be pushovers despite their misfiring season. Sat in ninth, Pochettino’s temperamental band of players have only been beaten once in 12 games – that being February’s Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool – and are coming off on Monday. Yet if City appeared battle-fatigued by the end of Wednesday’s epic tussle, Jack Grealish is clear Chelsea should abandon any thoughts of Guardiola’s side being deflated.
“I think a lot of it is in your mind. We’re fit players and there’s only a few players who played 120 minutes,” insisted the England international. “A lot of us came off and we still have quality players on the bench who didn’t even get a minute. It’s one good thing about our squad; there’s a lot of depth and we’ll need that going forward.”
The 28-year-old is sure there will be no hangover. “I’d say so. We’ve not been used to losing, especially in the last couple of years. We always knew it was going to be a tough game against one of the best teams in the world. It went down to penalties and it’s never nice to go out on penalties. Luckily enough for us we’ve got another game within three days where we can go and put it right.
“Sometimes it’s better when it’s like that,” added Grealish. “It’s better when you can put it right straight away rather than waiting and dwelling on it for a couple of weeks. It’s another massive game to try to put it right.”
The winger very much sees Saturday’s semi-final as a chance for City to reassert their ascendancy. “Ever since I’ve been here, for three years it’s been the same,” Grealish said. “We’ve always played the second Champions League quarter-final game and then we’re straight into the FA Cup. The first year it didn’t go well and we got beat in that game against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final, but last year it was perfect. We went and won 3-0 at Wembley [against Sheffield United]. It’s the perfect game for us to put it right.
“Definitely there’s a lot still to play for. I had an unbelievable first season – I didn’t actually play that much but I loved it – one of my favourites that I’ve had to date and all we did was win the Premier League that year and it was in the last 10 minutes of the final game [against Aston Villa].
