“There’s a difference between being defensive and defending well, Chelsea are defending well,” former Liverpool defender-turned pundit Jaime Carragher remarked after the Blues won 2-1 away at Manchester City earlier this month.

A dress rehearsal for the Champions League final, that was the third time Chelsea and City faced each other this season, as well as Thomas Tuchel’s second encounter against Pep Guardiola during his time in England.

The former Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund manager has so far won both his clashes against the Spaniard this season, masterminding Chelsea’s runs to the FA Cup and Champions League final, apart from a top four finish in the Premier League. 

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Since his appointment on January 26, a day after Frank Lampard was fired from the position, Tuchel has turned the London club from a disjointed, insipid side into a well-drilled, ruthless unit who have outran, outwitted and outplayed their opponents to the brink of glory.

His switch of formation from a back four to a back three has given Chelsea more defensive cover when they push higher up the pitch and press in on their opponents, a noted tactic Tuchel has used to win the ball back in dangerous positions.

The system also gives more options to build up from the back, as the extra body in defence and wider fullbacks create more passing lanes and more outlets to break an opponent’s pressing system.

In defence, the formation becomes a 5-4-1, while in attack it reverts to a 3-2-2-3, giving more flexibility and balance for quick transitions. The German has also reinvigorated some of Chelsea’s stalwarts, like Cesar Azpulicueta – who has thrived at right centre-back in his system – and Marcos Alonso – who has shown glimpses of his tremendous form at left wing-back from his time under Antonio Conte. Mason Mount, who was like Lampard’s prodigy, has become one of the best in his positions under Tuchel.

While Chelsea have had to run more and be more aggressive in their approach to change their fortunes, it was the exact opposite for Guardiola’s Man City.

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“The only difference is that we run less, we were running too much,” Pep Guardiola said in January, when his team strung together a winning run to pull away from the chasing pack in the league.

His philosophy is based on the idea that players need to run more without the ball, while with the ball, they need to make the ball run, rather than running more themselves.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has himself transformed his worst-ever start to a domestic season into a runaway Premier League winning campaign. Missing both his strikers for vast majorities of the campaign, Guardiola has created a system to adapt to their absences.

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As is customary, his possession-based style dictates the play regardless of opposition and helps the Citizens control a majority of the game. Another constant from his traditional approach to games have been the use of inverted fullbacks, with both Zinchenko and Cancelo often cutting in and joining the play in the middle of the pitch rather than making overlapping runs on the flanks. This leaves Mahrez and Sterling, or the other wide players, with more space on the flanks to create chances.

The biggest change this season has been the use of the ‘false 9’, forced because the absence of Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus through injury. There is fluidity for who is used in that position, with all of Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez chipping in at the position.

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This has allowed different players to excel at different positions, with Gundogan particularly enjoying an exceptional goal-scoring season, while Foden has only added to his ‘Stockport Messi’ hype with a string of eye-catching performances towards the business-end of the season.

While Tuchel’s transformation of Chelsea has been remarkable, he comes up against one of the greatest minds in the game, with his 2-0 record against Guardiola this season nothing but a number going into the final in Istanbul.

The final on Saturday will be Tuchel’s second in as many years and Guardiola’s first in a decade. Past results won’t matter and it will all be down to how each manager rallies up their team to rise up for the occasion. For one them, the ‘Old Big Ears’ awaits.