Football is a game full of rituals and superstitions. Fans across the world will rigidly stick to their pre-match routine: they'll catch the same train, drink at the same pub, enter through the same turnstile. Players and coaches are equally habitual, especially if success is being enjoyed.
This belief in the unknown forces, the gods of football, is why countless supporters are quickly able to identify omens – good and bad – when it comes to their club. And these can be reinforced time and time again throughout a campaign.
That brings us to Chelsea, who will this Saturday compete in only their third Champions League final. Thomas Tuchel and his players take on Manchester City in Porto, and all have the chance to write their name into the club's history books.
Back in January, when the campaign appeared to be collapsing under Frank Lampard, few could've envisaged Chelsea reaching this stage of European football's most prestigious club competition.
Yet the appointment of Tuchel transformed the season. The German altered the Blues' shape and with that their fortunes. Chelsea, as a result, were able to move through the knockout stages, overcoming Atletico Madrid, Porto, and then Real Madrid.
And with every round that Tuchel's side navigated, the club's fanbase began to believe that history was repeating itself. That this was 2012 all over again.
That was the year in which Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time. The final in Munich is the greatest night in the club's history. Didier Drogba's late header. Petr Cech's extra-time penalty save. Drogba's spot-kick in the shoot-out. They are moments forever replayed, recounted, and remembered.
Few expected the Blues to win the Champions League that season too. It was perhaps even more improbable as this term. But the stars aligned that season and many Chelsea supporters feel they are doing so once again.
The first and most obvious omen is the path Chelsea followed in the latter stages of this season's Champions League.
In 2012, they faced Portuguese side Benfica in the quarter-finals and then La Liga giants Barcelona in the semis. This time around, Porto were the Blues' last eight opponents while Spanish football's other powerhouse, Real Madrid, came in the last four.
Then there is the fact in 2012 a young coach, Andre Villas-Boas, with a long-term plan was dispensed with by Chelsea mid-season and replaced. Lampard suffered that fate this term with Tuchel his replacement.
And that's not all. Not by a long shot.
This season, at the age of 34, Olivier Giroud has become the first Chelsea player to score six goals in a Champions League campaign. The last? Didier Drogba in 2012, who was also 34 years old at the time.
In the first leg victory against Porto, meanwhile, Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell were on target. Two England internationals were last on the scoresheet for Chelsea in a Champions League game in 2012 (Lampard and Terry against Napoli).
That victory over the Portuguese side in Seville meant Tuchel guided the Blues to three successive knockout wins in the Champions League. The last was 2012 head coach Roberto Di Matteo, whose birthday is on the same day as this year's final.
Among that 2012 squad were two World Cup winners (Juan Mata and Fernando Torres). This time around Chelsea have two members of France's successful 2018 squad in Giroud and N'Golo Kante.
There are plenty more of these quirks, such as PSG finishing second in Ligue 1, the champions of the Bundesliga ending the campaign with a +55 goal difference, Borussia Dortmund winning the DFB Pokal. All also took place in 2012.
Are these omens? Coincidences? Pure dumb luck? Who really knows, and Tuchel will almost certainly not be paying too much attention to them in truth.
But perhaps the stars really have aligned once more for Chelsea in the Champions League. It's down to Tuchel and his players to take advantage.
