PEP’S CRUET TO BE KIND..

THOMAS TUCHEL once sat at the dinner table talking tactics and moving salt and pepper pots around with Pep Guardiola.

Now the Chelsea boss (above) gets to show his Manchester City counterpart what he has learned as they pit wits against each other at Wembley.

Tuchel admits to being a student of the Guardiola way – and that the Spaniard schooled him regularly when they both managed in Germany. But it was a dinner in a Munich restaurant seven years ago that helped the German gain a real insight into the City manager’s methods.

Tuchel said: “We had dinner and if you go out with Pep, why not talk about football? For me he was a huge influence.

“We began to talk tactics and it was nice. It was about positions on the field and what he did with Barcelona.

“He explained it to me and we had some drawings that we used on the table. We were talking about how he changed Barca when he bought Cesc Fabregas (below).

“How that changed with the team, how to play Lionel Messi as a ‘false nine’ and how to create spaces, playing with a back three and a back four.

“Just two coaches talking normal stuff. “We used what was on the table and sometimes it’s easier to explain a formation.”

Tuchel has faced Guardiola five times as a manager and never won.

He said: “When Pep was at Bayern, almost every game was a lesson for me. It was not always a pleasure.

“We still have to accept there is a gap. But we truly believe we can close the gap for one game.”