• Champions will consider going over £250,000 per week salary
• Striker banned from talking about his future while at Euros

Manchester City are confident they are best placed to sign Robin van Persie from Arsenal, with the champions considering making him the club's highest-paid player. Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman, may sanction offering the Dutchman more than the £250,000 weekly salary earned by Yaya Touré.

The potential deal is far enough along for the possible move to have been the talk of the dressing room for a few weeks. City, who have been conducting homework on the striker for some time, are confident that Van Persie will leave Arsenal and that the lure of joining the title winners plus a salary that would take him beyond Touré and Carlos Tevez, the club's highest-paid players, will convince him to move on.

The Dutchman, who has a year remaining on his deal with the north London club, held talks on Wednesday with Arsène Wenger and Arsenal's chief executive, Ivan Gazidis, to hear what improved terms he might be offered.

But despite Wenger stating he wanted to sort out Van Persie's future before he joined up with Holland's Euro 2012 squad, the Arsenal captain made it clear he has no intention of re-signing at the moment as he wants to listen to all prospective suitors.

Manchester United are thought to retain an interest in him, with Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona also monitoring the situation. Van Persie will turn 29 in August and knows he has only one more major move with regard to a bumper contract and chance of adding to his Uefa Cup (while at Feyenoord) and FA Cup winners' medals.

So anxious are Arsenal to retain Van Persie, the club have barred him from talking while on international duty. "We made a deal with Arsenal and he won't talk to the press," a spokesman for the Dutch Football Association, the KNVB, said.

The striker travelled to Holland on Thursday to begin his national team's preparations for the European Championship finals.

• Former Chelsea manager interested in Anfield opportunity
• Swansea City's Brendan Rodgers declines interview offer

Liverpool will hold talks with André Villas-Boas next week over the managerial vacancy at Anfield but their wide-ranging approach to finding Kenny Dalglish's successor has resulted in Brendan Rodgers rejecting an interview offer from Fenway Sports Group, the club's owners.

Villas-Boas, who guided Porto to the Portuguese title and Europa League before an ill-fated spell at Chelsea, discussed a possible move to Roma this summer but, with the Italians going for Vincenzo Montella, has made it known he would be interested in a second stint in English football with Liverpool. Anfield officials have scheduled talks with the 34-year-old and the Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martínez for the coming days as they accelerate the process of replacing Dalglish.

Pep Guardiola and Fabio Capello top the wish-list but Liverpool have not received encouragement from that pair. Jürgen Klopp, the double-winning coach of Borussia Dortmund, cannot be tempted from Germany. Rafael Benítez, who has made no secret of his desire to return to the club where he won the Champions League in 2005 and still lives on Merseyside, has not yet been approached although John W Henry, the principal owner, may consider an approach to the Spaniard depending on the outcome of talks with other candidates next week.

FSG are putting together a new management structure at Liverpool and doubts have been voiced over Benítez's willingness to work as part of that team given the control he sought, and received, during negotiations for his final contract at Anfield. However, the 52-year-old worked under a technical director both before he joined Liverpool, at Valencia, and afterwards, at Internazionale.

Liverpool's exhaustive interview process invited ridicule on Friday when a post on the club's official Twitter account asked: "Who do you want to replace Kenny Dalglish as #LFC manager? Reply with your suggestions and reasons." The club later said the tweet was "misunderstood – we were simply looking for fan views to include on a fun online feature". It also deterred Rodgers from accepting Liverpool's approach.

The Swansea City manager was invited for an interview but declined on the basis that Liverpool should be fully aware of what he brings to the table. Rodgers is also conscious of how disrespectful it would look to the Swansea supporters if he was seen to be chasing, rather than being offered, another position.

The 39-year-old signed an improved three-and-a-half year contract at Liberty Stadium in February and although he is hugely ambitious, there is no sense that he needs to go looking for opportunities elsewhere, especially at a time when he is trying to build a team at Swansea. Talks are ongoing in relation to signing Gylfi Sigurdsson, who was such a revelation on loan last season. There is also a feeling among those close to Rodgers that Swansea's performance at Anfield in November, when they were applauded off the pitch by the Liverpool supporters, together with the 1-0 victory over Dalglish's team on the last day of the season, should provide more than enough evidence of his qualities, as opposed to being part of a formal interview process.

Rodgers, who is also on the shortlist for the managerial vacancy at Aston Villa, has seen his reputation grow on the back of Swansea's outstanding first season in the Premier League, when they finished 11th and were widely acclaimed for their easy-on-the-eye playing style.

A Swansea statement said: "Swansea City can confirm that an approach from Liverpool FC to speak to manager Brendan Rodgers was officially received by chairman Huw Jenkins this morning. The club is pleased to confirm that Brendan has declined the current opportunity to speak to the Anfield club about the vacant position. The Swansea manager is currently working hard to strengthen the squad in readiness for the new Barclays Premier League campaign. The club will make no further comment at this stage."

Liverpool, meanwhile, are to appoint Jen Chang, the senior editor for football at sportsillustrated.com, as their new head of communications.

The striker will be 39 by next season but he still feels he has plenty to offer Ian Holloway's side in the play-off final

Kevin Phillips, with 275 career goals and counting, is intent on one last tour of the Premier League. Blackpool's penalty-area master turns 39 on 25 July when he hopes pre-season will be a countdown to the club's second campaign – his ninth – in the top flight. West Ham United stand before Ian Holloway's quick-passing unit in Saturday's Championship play-off final at Wembley, where two years ago they defeated Cardiff City 3-2 to enter English football's elite for the first time since 1971.

Phillips's eight-club career took him into the big league with Sunderland, Southampton, Aston Villa and Birmingham City, with whom he was relegated last season. Did he think those times were over? "A lot of people thought my days were gone altogether. But I've never given up, and the most important person in all this, who never gave up on me, was the manager Ian Holloway. I'd like to think I've repaid him this year," he says of a haul of 16 league goals in 38 appearances.

Over Blackpool's two encounters this season with Sam Allardyce's men, 8-1 was the aggregate victory for West Ham. But Phillips believes that in a sudden-death match, with the £90m golden ticket at stake inside a packed national stadium, these results will count for nothing.

"We're a different proposition to what we were in those games," he says. "You hear all this talk in the media about how we needn't turn up because they're clear favourites to win and that suits us. History shows it's who performs on the day and if you don't freeze or bottle it then generally you win it. I'm sure there'll be 30,000 going down – they tell me it was a cracking atmosphere two years ago, and it'll be the same again on Saturday."

Manchester City's last-gasp 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers that sealed their Premier League title proved the top flight's pre-eminence to this gnarled veteran. "It's the place to be and what happened on Sunday eclipsed everything," he says. "It was incredible. It wouldn't happen in other leagues. It's incredible what comes with being in the Premier League, not just on the pitch for the club but in terms of the boost to local businesses."

By taking Blackpool to the brink of an instant return to the playground of City, Manchester United, Chelsea et al, Holloway has illustrated what a fine manager he is.

"It's always difficult for a team that's been relegated to bounce back straight away," Phillips says. "When I saw the players the manager was trying to sign I certainly believed we had a great chance. He added a lot of players in the summer – youngsters, youth and pace – to the team. He also kept hold of key players despite losing Charlie [Adam], DJ [Campbell] and Vaughany [David Vaughan] who were key last year."

Eleven players departed for a £10.2m yield while 14 were recruited at zero cost. Of these, Thomas Ince, son of Paul, and Matt Phillips provide the supply line to Phillips and Gary Taylor-Fletcher, the first-choice striker in Blackpool's 4-2-3-1 formation.

"As a centre-forward to have two flying wingers putting in crosses like they do – it's a dream come true. They've taken a bit of time to settle in, Matty had to go on loan [at Sheffield United] and get game time and Tom has had to be patient. It might have been a bit kamikaze at times going forward because they left themselves open at the back. One of the things we've done this season is to become more solid at the back."

Whatever happens at Wembley, Phillips will be back at Bloomfield Road. "The club have got a 12-month option and they've already taken that up so come what may next season I'll be playing for Blackpool. If it was to be in the Premier League that would be fantastic.

"By the time next season kicks off I'll be 39, and if it was in the Premier League I would pretty much call it a day at the end of next year and look to move on to other things. I certainly think I could score goals in that league."

The under-fire Hammers manager believes the play-off final is bigger than the Champions League because it has the power to change lives

Sam Allardyce has an evolutionary theory for his particular species. "As a manager," he says, "you accept that you need a double skin: a rhino's skin and an elephant's skin to survive in the job."

West Ham United's manager has had the best part of 20 years to toughen up his hide yet that did not stop him from feeling sore and instructing his lawyers earlier in the week when the video footage of Steve Kean slating him appeared on YouTube. Allardyce's revenge stands to be meted out by more than the libel silks. The script calls for him to lead West Ham to victory over Blackpool in the Championship play-off final at Wembley and so swap places with Kean's relegated Blackburn in the Premier League.

They used to be his Blackburn, of course, only that changed when the newly installed owners Venky's fired him in December 2010 and promoted Kean in his stead from the coaching staff. Allardyce has an axe to grind with Venky's.

Saturday afternoon's Wembley showpiece has additional intrigue.

Allardyce's first permanent managerial post in English football came with Blackpool and it ended badly when, after the 1996 division two play-off semi-final defeat to Bradford, the club's owner at the time, Owen Oyston, who was imprisoned, sacked him from a prison cell. Allardyce's team had won the first leg 2-0 but contrived to lose the second, at home, 3-0.

"It was devastating because I thought I might have been lost to football, I thought I might not get back into the game," Allardyce says. "I was only two years managing in this country. Have you built enough of a reputation for someone else to give you a go? It took eight months before Derek Pavis gave me the chance to manage Notts County and my career grew again. Many managers in that position never work again as a manager."

Oyston's son, Karl, is now Blackpool's chairman. "I've seen Owen a couple of times since," Allardyce says. "He's looking well for his age, he's still wearing that hat. They said it wasn't Owen's decision, it was a board decision. It was a huge blow to me at the time but it's long gone, water under the bridge."

It has been a gruelling first season at Upton Park for Allardyce, during which he has felt the wrath of the club's fans for his playing style and erratic home results. One stick to beat him with has been his non-use of Ravel Morrison, the mercurially gifted but difficult 19-year-old midfielder, who arrived in January from Manchester United. Some United players speak in awed tones about his talent.

But Allardyce continues to throw punches, he continues to believe that vindication will be his, even if a little wariness undercuts his confidence. "You [the media] will suggest if we don't win that because you haven't gone up in the first year, your job might be on the line," Allardyce says. "I can hear the question now. But I hope I don't hear it after the match."

West Ham began the season as hot favourites for an immediate return to the Premier League, following the trauma of relegation under Avram Grant, and Allardyce did little to dampen the expectation after his appointment last June. "We want to go up automatically," he told the Observer in July. "And if we don't quite achieve that goal, then we are going to be left in the play-offs, at the very least, unless I become the worst manager ever overnight and the players become the worst there has ever been."

Allardyce swings between an acceptance that promotion is the minimum requirement to a grumpiness that the squad's achievement in getting this far has brought no credit. In some respects, it reinforces a theme of Allardyce's managerial career. At Blackburn and even Bolton Wanderers, where he spent eight successful seasons, he did not always get the praise that he deserved.

"People turn round and say 'You're supposed to do this anyway', and that's been something that we've had to live with right from the start because we're a massive club," he says. "It's been difficult in that we've only been doing what everybody's expected us to do."

The nerves will churn inside Allardyce when he leads a team out at Wembley for the first time since 2000, when his Bolton lost on penalties to Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final — "Dean Holdsworth missed a sitter [in the] last minute, I still haven't forgiven him," he says, with a smile — while to Allardyce, the occasion is no undercard to Chelsea's Champions League final against Bayern Munich in the evening.

"The bigger game is on Saturday afternoon," he says. "The Champions League final is a glory game. This is about your livelihood and your status. The Champions League is a major tournament but this one is about changing people's lives."

Allardyce is fortified by his experience of high-pressure situations, particularly the battles that he waged to keep Bolton and Blackburn in the Premier League. He takes a fighting fit and in-form squad to face opponents that they have already beaten 4-0 and 4-1 this season. West Ham have sold out their 35,000 ticket allocation; Allardyce predicted that 45,000 Hammers would find their way in. It is make or break. Big Sam can scent the big time.

The under-fire Hammers manager believes the play-off final is bigger than the Champions League because it has the power to change lives

Sam Allardyce has an evolutionary theory for his particular species. "As a manager," he says, "you accept that you need a double skin: a rhino's skin and an elephant's skin to survive in the job."

West Ham United's manager has had the best part of 20 years to toughen up his hide yet that did not stop him from feeling sore and instructing his lawyers earlier in the week when the video footage of Steve Kean slating him appeared on YouTube. Allardyce's revenge stands to be meted out by more than the libel silks. The script calls for him to lead West Ham to victory over Blackpool in the Championship play-off final at Wembley and so swap places with Kean's relegated Blackburn in the Premier League.

They used to be his Blackburn, of course, only that changed when the newly installed owners Venky's fired him in December 2010 and promoted Kean in his stead from the coaching staff. Allardyce has an axe to grind with Venky's.

Saturday afternoon's Wembley showpiece has additional intrigue.

Allardyce's first permanent managerial post in English football came with Blackpool and it ended badly when, after the 1996 division two play-off semi-final defeat to Bradford, the club's owner at the time, Owen Oyston, who was imprisoned, sacked him from a prison cell. Allardyce's team had won the first leg 2-0 but contrived to lose the second, at home, 3-0.

"It was devastating because I thought I might have been lost to football, I thought I might not get back into the game," Allardyce says. "I was only two years managing in this country. Have you built enough of a reputation for someone else to give you a go? It took eight months before Derek Pavis gave me the chance to manage Notts County and my career grew again. Many managers in that position never work again as a manager."

Oyston's son, Karl, is now Blackpool's chairman. "I've seen Owen a couple of times since," Allardyce says. "He's looking well for his age, he's still wearing that hat. They said it wasn't Owen's decision, it was a board decision. It was a huge blow to me at the time but it's long gone, water under the bridge."

It has been a gruelling first season at Upton Park for Allardyce, during which he has felt the wrath of the club's fans for his playing style and erratic home results. One stick to beat him with has been his non-use of Ravel Morrison, the mercurially gifted but difficult 19-year-old midfielder, who arrived in January from Manchester United. Some United players speak in awed tones about his talent.

But Allardyce continues to throw punches, he continues to believe that vindication will be his, even if a little wariness undercuts his confidence. "You [the media] will suggest if we don't win that because you haven't gone up in the first year, your job might be on the line," Allardyce says. "I can hear the question now. But I hope I don't hear it after the match."

West Ham began the season as hot favourites for an immediate return to the Premier League, following the trauma of relegation under Avram Grant, and Allardyce did little to dampen the expectation after his appointment last June. "We want to go up automatically," he told the Observer in July. "And if we don't quite achieve that goal, then we are going to be left in the play-offs, at the very least, unless I become the worst manager ever overnight and the players become the worst there has ever been."

Allardyce swings between an acceptance that promotion is the minimum requirement to a grumpiness that the squad's achievement in getting this far has brought no credit. In some respects, it reinforces a theme of Allardyce's managerial career. At Blackburn and even Bolton Wanderers, where he spent eight successful seasons, he did not always get the praise that he deserved.

"People turn round and say 'You're supposed to do this anyway', and that's been something that we've had to live with right from the start because we're a massive club," he says. "It's been difficult in that we've only been doing what everybody's expected us to do."

The nerves will churn inside Allardyce when he leads a team out at Wembley for the first time since 2000, when his Bolton lost on penalties to Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final — "Dean Holdsworth missed a sitter [in the] last minute, I still haven't forgiven him," he says, with a smile — while to Allardyce, the occasion is no undercard to Chelsea's Champions League final against Bayern Munich in the evening.

"The bigger game is on Saturday afternoon," he says. "The Champions League final is a glory game. This is about your livelihood and your status. The Champions League is a major tournament but this one is about changing people's lives."

Allardyce is fortified by his experience of high-pressure situations, particularly the battles that he waged to keep Bolton and Blackburn in the Premier League. He takes a fighting fit and in-form squad to face opponents that they have already beaten 4-0 and 4-1 this season. West Ham have sold out their 35,000 ticket allocation; Allardyce predicted that 45,000 Hammers would find their way in. It is make or break. Big Sam can scent the big time.

• 'My players have all the qualities you need to win this trophy'
• Frank Lampard relishes 'great challenge' of playing in Munich

Roberto Di Matteo will send his Chelsea players into the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich on Saturday night urging them to grasp their opportunity to make history and claim the club's first European Cup.

This will be the last game of the interim coach's 11-week spell in charge following the dismissal of André Villas-Boas, with his future at the club beyond the expiry of his contract on 30 June unclear. The impressive impact made by the Italian has drawn praise from his opposite number Jupp Heynckes, with Di Matteo and his players now attempting to make up for painful near misses in this competition over recent seasons.

"I believe my players have all the qualities you need to win this competition," said Di Matteo, who stressed that Villas-Boas, too, deserved praise for setting Chelsea out en route to the final. "Those qualities have taken us to this stage and I'm very positive and very confident now. I don't know what the future will hold but we can win it. We have to believe we can and have the confidence to do so.

"The players deserve this. Many of them have been here before and know how it feels not to bring the trophy home but you make your own destiny and fate. It will come, sooner or later. We hope it will come here in Munich. But, with the quality that's been at this club before and that will certainly come into this club again, it will happen [one day]. But all our focus is on delivering it now."

Roman Abramovich's Chelsea have featured in six semi-finals in the past nine years but have only once previously progressed into the showpiece, with eight of the squad who will be involved on Saturday having been involved in the defeat on penalties to Manchester United in Moscow in 2008. "It's taken us a long time to get back but we always believed we had the quality to come again," said the stand-in captain, Frank Lampard, right. "We would only get a sense of reprieve if we go on to win. Being underdogs, playing Bayern Munich in their own stadium, fills you with even more determination. The fact they're the home team is a great challenge for us: bring it on."

The England midfielder, who will captain the team in the absence of the suspended John Terry, praised Di Matteo's impact. "He's been very clever in how he's managed the situation," he said. "We were struggling for confidence on the pitch, and rather than come in and make drastic changes, he spoke to everyone individually and created confidence in the group. We got some early wins, the Napoli game [in the knockout stage] changed everything, and from then on he's quietly done a perfect job. If anyone deserves to win this game, it's him."

Bayern will employ Anatoliy Tymoshchuk or Daniel Van Buyten alongside Jérôme Boateng at the heart of their defence in place of the suspended Holger Badstuber, with fears over Arjen Robben's fitness allayed. They will begin the match as favourites having won 14 of their past 15 European matches here, though Heynckes has urged caution. "Two years ago, [the president] Uli Hoeness said he had a dream: to play the Champions League final in our own stadium," Heynckes said. "Well, we've made it. But now we need some realism.

"We're up against a team with huge experience, fantastic organisation and outstanding players. I don't share the euphoria you hear outside that we're the favourites. Chelsea have players who have won everything apart from this trophy, and it's their dream too. We have played some great home matches this season but it'll now be necessary to play one more."

The striker has a history of red cards and red mists on the big stage in Europe but could make amends against Bayern Munich

Didier Drogba can sometimes feel like a mesh of contradictions. The hulking centre-forward who batters and bullies but also tumbles and writhes; the ruthless and selfish goalscorer who likes to muck in defensively; the combustible competitor who is the polite and generous family man away from the field.

It is a cup final curiosity, though, that preoccupies him and it forms a thick layer of his motivation for Saturday night's Champions League collision with Bayern Munich in what could well be his valedictory appearance in a Chelsea shirt. Drogba has been almost untouchable in domestic finals yet his fortunes in European and international showpieces have needed to be filed under the nightmarish.

Earlier this season, in the Africa Cup of Nations that Ivory Coast were finally supposed to win, Drogba led his country to the final before imploding against Zambia. His second-half penalty ought to have settled the matter; instead he lifted the ball high over the bar. Zambia won the trophy after a penalty shoot-out, which provided Drogba with uncomfortable déjà vu. In the final of the 2006 competition Ivory Coast had lost on penalties to Egypt and Drogba missed his kick in the shoot-out.

Drogba was a Uefa Cup final loser to Valencia in 2004 with Marseille and many observers felt he was lucky to avoid a red card. Already on a booking, he kicked out in the 89th minute and was spared only by the leniency of the referee, Pierluigi Collina. Yet there was no such charity on the night that traumatised everybody connected to Chelsea in 2008.

Drogba was sent off in the Champions League final defeat by Manchester United for a petulant slap at Nemanja Vidic in extra-time and everyone knows what happened next. The tremors from John Terry's missed penalty in the shoot-out that deprived Chelsea of the ultimate high have never truly dissipated, although Drogba and some of the survivors from the chaos in Moscow now have the opportunity to realign their karma.

"That was a difficult moment for me and the club," said Drogba. "It's one memory I cannot forget. It was an experience, a first Champions League final for Chelsea, and I think we've learned from it. I hope that this final is going to be great for us. We've been waiting four years to be in this situation."

It has been inevitable that the defeat by United has exerted an influence over the Chelsea camp in the countdown to kickoff at the Allianz Arena, yet it was notable, too, to hear the Bayern players discuss it. The Bavarian club know a thing or two about Champions League final heartbreak at the hands of United and there is a wariness that Drogba & Co might resemble wounded animals.

"Those players who were in Moscow for the final will have the extra motivation," said the midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. "They will be the most dangerous. They know maybe that it is their last chance to try and win the title they unfortunately lost there. I'm talking about Drogba, [Frank] Lampard, Ashley Cole and [Michael] Essien. Drogba is a player who can get a goal out of nothing. He is probably the most dangerous."

The respect and admiration for Drogba within Bayern ranks is palpable, even if it has been undercut in some quarters by an acknowledgment of his darker arts. Together with the rest of Europe, the Bayern squad watched Drogba score the only goal of Chelsea's semi-final first leg against Barcelona but spend an inordinate amount of time on the ground.

"Sometimes he overdoes it a bit; sometimes he is an outstanding actor on the pitch," said the Bayern manager, Jupp Heynckes. "But for many years Drogba has been one of the top strikers in the Premiership and he is definitely dangerous. He can score at any moment, although it would be remiss to concentrate solely on one player."

The goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said: "Drogba is a total professional and a real danger to us. He gives everything and I have seen him helping out in defence, when Chelsea have been under pressure, while we know what he can do at the other end."

Drogba has done it all domestically with Chelsea and his record in English cup finals marks him as a legend ahead of his time. He has won four out of four in the FA Cup, most recently against Liverpool two weeks ago, and two out of three in the Carling Cup – the blot being the 2008 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur. He has scored in all seven finals, with two coming in the 2007 Carling Cup defeat of Arsenal.

Since his return from the Africa Cup of Nations in February the 34-year-old has summoned some colossal performances in the biggest games, with arguably the best coming in the Champions League last 16 second leg against Napoli and the FA Cup semi-final success over Tottenham.

It is tempting to wonder why, if he remains the man for the grand occasion through the sheer force of his personality, Chelsea have not tied him to a new contract. Roberto Di Matteo, the interim coach, said he had seen nothing to suggest Drogba could not reprise such form next season. "It's not a question of age," Di Matteo said.

Chelsea, though, appear ready to wave him off on a Bosman free transfer, possibly to Nicolas Anelka's Shanghai Shenhua, to leave him striding to the bar at the last chance saloon. With Drogba and Chelsea the Champions League has tended to end in red cards, red mists, missed penalties and recrimination. From Liverpool's 'Ghost goal' to Drogba's infamous meltdown after Barcelona's smash-and-grab at Stamford Bridge, the bottom line has been depressingly consistent.

It surely has to change one day and Drogba intends it to be now. The tears of sorrow and rage would make victory taste implausibly sweet. Drogba stands to take his leave with the triumph to complete him.

The Spanish midfielder believes a good first year in London can become a magnificent one with victory over Bayern in Munich

He has changed countries, cities and clubs. He has changed coaches. Twice. He has changed culture and language. He has even changed his name. Or they have changed it for him. Johnny Kills has had a busy year. He won the European Under-21 Championships, joined Chelsea from Valencia for £23.5m, scored on his debut, beat Barcelona and won the FA Cup at Wembley. This week he was named the fans' player of the year and this summer he will play for the favourites at Euro 2012, looking to add to his World Cup winner's medal. Then he will compete at the Olympics. In his new home city. And before that, a European Cup final.

No wonder Juan Mata is beaming as he ducks out of the rain and into a café on the Kings Road. He left home at 15, swapping Oviedo for Real Madrid, and left Madrid for Valencia at 19, improving with every step, but even he didn't expect things to go quite this well. "This has," he says, "been perhaps the best 12 months of my career." So much for needing time. His initiation ceremony involved singing La Macarena in front of the squad and he admits finding cockney accents hard and Scottish ones near impossible, but to visit him in London is to find a man completely at ease. To watch him play is to see one too.

Daniel Sturridge's literal translation rendered him Johnny Kills. The name stuck. It fits too. "My adaptation on the pitch has gone in parallel with my adaptation to London," he says. Not for him the gated community in Surrey; there was no point living in London if he wasn't going to really live in London. Visits from friends and family have increased too: "More than ever came to see me in Valencia," he laughs. From the balcony of his flat, he looks out on the Thames. Battersea Power Station is within view – "Spectacular," Mata says, "the biggest brick-built building in Europe, a symbol of London, the Pink Floyd cover..." – and the city within reach. Mata pounds the streets and takes the tube.

"People just get on with life and I can be part of that normality," he says. "Sometimes they notice you but no pasa nada." Piccadilly Circus is 15 minutes on the underground. Concerts, galleries, musicals, theatres, restaurants. This week he spent his day off at the Tate Modern. He's seen the London Eye, Westminster, Trafalgar Square and more. So far, so standard. But he reels off some of the other places he's enjoyed: "Soho, the East End, Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market, Notting Hill, Portobello Road, Camden." Camden? "There's nothing like it in Spain: the atmosphere, vintage clothes, second hand record shops, books. Records for my uncles, fans of British music from the 70s. I call them from Camden or Kings Road or Carnaby Street and they talk Punk and Mods."

Mata has had to adapt on the pitch as well as off it and the transition has been as smooth, despite a change in management that might have worked against him. André Villas-Boas's sacking appeared to tilt the club's identity away from the Valencia playmaker brought to fit a new philosophy, and back towards Chelsea's former self. But from Spanish football to English and from Villas-Boas to Roberto Di Matteo, Mata has fitted in. In fact, he has stepped into a more central role. Any fear was immediately allayed by the new man in charge, of whom Mata speaks fondly.

A fan of English football, especially Manchester United's Ryan Giggs and Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp, he admits that he doesn't remember Di Matteo as a player – "He says to me: 'Bah, you're too young!'" Mata says, smiling – but he has seen his coach's goal 40 seconds into the 1997 FA Cup final and that of his No2 Eddie Newton in the same game. "Robbie said he was lucky," Mata adds, "but it was a golazo."

"English football is changing," he continues, "the champions don't play a 'typical' English style, for example. But in general it's quicker than in Spain: more counter-attacks, more open, more direct. André Villas-Boas was a little more European, trying to bring the ball out and build from the back. He did everything he could to make it work but it just didn't happen. And everything depends on results.

"Roman [Abramovich] came to the training ground and he told us: we're Chelsea, we need a change. When Robbie came in the priority was to win come what may. If that means being more direct, fine. We were on the edge. The psychology is very important: we won the first game in the FA Cup with Robbie and then the next and the next ... that changed everything.

"We've played lovely football – against Spurs for example – and also competed. We can do both. We've got players who won lots here with high-intensity football and others who are more technical, like Lampard or Meireles.

"André was an important reason why I came. But from the first day Robbie took over, he gave me confidence. He told me it was a difficult moment because of the departure of André, who is a friend of his, and that we had to look ahead. He told me I was an important player. We've changed the system. Instead of a 4-3-3 we play a 4-2-3-1, with me in the centre."

Slowly, Chelsea set about rescuing their season. Opportunities arose. First in the FA Cup, a competition treated with reverence by the Spanish and the moment that has most marked Mata, and then the Champions League, one that started back in the autumn with Mata returning to Valencia to face his former team. Then Napoli, Benfica, Barcelona.

"When you play against Barcelona, you talk to the coach about how you can compete. You reach the conclusion that there is a way you can beat them — if you are effective in taking your chances, as we were. We didn't simulate the game in training; there was no 'this is Xavi', 'this is Messi' kind of session but we watched videos and we talked a lot. The coach told me my job would be to play on the right, close off the wing and generate counter-attacks, looking for Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Ramires — the fast players.

"I like to be in contact with the ball, have possession, to play. But we knew that it was going to be a different type of game. Maybe not as pretty but that's what we had to do. And that's what makes you reach the final."

Did you enjoy it? "During the game, I suffered. You run and you run and you don't touch the ball and you defend. You suffer. [When Terry was sent off] you think it's going to be very, very hard. A man down, losing. But Ramires's goal gave us life. At half-time, the manager told us we'd done that hardest part: score. If Ramires hadn't scored and in the moment he scored, I think we wouldn't have got through. Half-time, 2-0 down, a man less. Barcelona would have grown. But that goal changed everything. There's a reason it was voted Goal of the Season!

"We still suffered though. After I came off, sitting on the bench, I didn't want to look. I had a terrible time. I was sure they were going to beat us. You see the chances – the penalty, the post, they're getting closer, and you think: 'They're going to score, we're going out.' It was horrible. I was nervous, alongside Gary the kit-man. When Fernando scored, we just exploded. At the final whistle, I ran straight for Fernando because he deserved it: he'd seen us to the final after everything that had been said."

And so to the final, where Chelsea – again – will be the underdogs. Bayern Munich played superbly against Real Madrid and are at home. The balance of suspensions is tilted slightly in their favour too. "They're missing the left-back, one in the middle, a central defender; we're missing Meireles, Ramires, Ivanovic, Terry – four starters in Barcelona," Mata says. "If it's not a really bad foul, an aggression, something that deserves a direct red, maybe there needs to be a different punishment. It's the biggest game of a player's life.

"Bayern being favourites could be good. And we're treating this like a normal game. We've stayed in London until Friday and been working at Cobham as usual. Of course there are always two readings: it might feel too 'normal' for a Champions League final or it might be that by doing that we take the tension out. I think it's been the right decision.

"For those who played [in 2008] you can see what it means to them to pull that thorn out from their side. You never know if you will get another chance – and not just the more experienced players. Lampard and Terry are legends here. For everyone at the club, for Roman, the players, it's important to have the European Cup in the cabinet. There still isn't one. This game is different."

"There's always pressure. People's happiness depends on you; they suffer with you. You get used to it but you have to know how to handle it. I wouldn't call it superstition but routine helps, always doing the same thing. You eat, watch videos, meet up in someone's room, chat. A stroll on the morning of the game. And I talk to my mum on the way. 'I'm going to the ground', 'good luck', 'see you later'. It's just a quick call, but I always make that call.

"We were sixth in the league: we know Chelsea have to finish higher. But we've won the FA Cup. At times it's been difficult, with a change of coach and some bad moments, but it's been a good year. It could end up being a magnificent year."

• Blues wary of threat of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry
• Bertrand not in squad for group games, yet to play in Europe

Roberto Di Matteo is considering the radical move of handing Ryan Bertrand a first Champions League appearance in Saturday's European Cup final against Bayern Munich.

The interim first-team coach is wary of the considerable threat posed by the German club's wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry, but has found his options limited by suspensions to four key players and a hamstring strain sustained by Florent Malouda against Blackburn Rovers last Sunday. The Frenchman returned to training only on Friday night, working closely with Chris Jones, the first-team fitness coach, at the Allianz Arena and will be reassessed at the team hotel on Saturday morning.

The experienced international had been pencilled in to start against Bayern but, if he is not deemed fit enough to start, Di Matteo is now contemplating gambling on granting Bertrand a European debut on the grandest of stages.

He has used Bertrand on the left of a trio of advanced midfielders behind Didier Drogba in training this week in the hope that the 22-year-old, more naturally a left-back, will offer much-needed support for Ashley Cole against Robben and the overlapping Philipp Lahm.

Di Matteo experimented with the tactic at the weekend, replacing the injured Malouda with Paulo Ferreira just before half-time against Blackburn Rovers. The Portuguese filled in at left-back and Bertrand pushed up into the unfamiliar midfield berth. The management staff gained encouragement from that 47-minute display, and from what they have seen in training this week, and his inclusion would be likely to restrict Michael Essien to the bench.

"I've been trying different solutions to cover every eventuality," said Di Matteo, who has drafted the youth team graduates Nathaniel Chalobah and Todd Kane into his squad.

Bertrand's sudden elevation would be all the more surprising given the England Under-21 international was not even included in the club's Champions League squad for the group stage. The left-back, who had signed from Gillingham for an initial £125,000 as a 15-year-old, spent periods since on loan at Bournemouth, Oldham, Norwich, Reading and Nottingham Forest and, with his Chelsea career so interrupted, had not qualified as a "club- trained" homegrown player.

The Londoners had already used up their allocated four "association trained" players with Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Ross Turnull and Daniel Sturridge, leaving Bertrand ineligible. Room was made to accommodate the youngster when the list was re-submitted in February ahead of the knock-out stage – Bertrand, Gary Cahill and Essien replaced Alex, Nicolas Anelka and Hilario in the squad – though the full-back did not even feature on the bench in the subsequent ties against Napoli, Benfica and Barcelona.

Bertrand boasts only seven Premier League appearances this season. But Di Matteo has made bold selections before, not least when he asked Ramires to play on the left of midfield against Barcelona in an attempt to nullify the threat posed by the marauding Daniel Alves down the flank. The tactic was effective at Stamford Bridge, with Ramires also supplying Drogba with the game's only goal.

Di Matteo has experimented with Salomon Kalou and Fernando Torres on the right this week but is expected to start with the Ivorian, who arguably offers José Bosingwa more protection at full-back. That would leave Torres as an option to throw on from the bench at some point.

Hibernian have not claimed the cup since 1902. Six years earlier was the last time Hibs met Hearts in the final. The stage is set for a dramatic encounter

This year's Scottish Cup final offers Hibernian an opportunity to exorcise demons in fairytale fashion. Not since 1902 have the club claimed the cup, a ludicrous record given their historically prominent standing. Six years earlier marked the last time Hibs and Hearts met in the final.

On Saturday the Edinburgh clubs will come face to face at Hampden Park to round off the Scottish season. Hearts are the favourites to lift the cup – a 10-match unbeaten run against their city rivals plays a significant part in that – with Hibs aware of the significance of causing an upset.

Pat Fenlon, the Hibs manager, said: "I'm conscious of that and what it means to a hell of a lot of people – be they Hibs or Hearts fans. It has been so long for the Hibs fans and there are a hell of a lot of stories about people missing out and not seeing it through generations of the same family. It is something I've thought about and that is the real reason I'd like to win it, more than anything else.

"I've had more letters, DVDs and books sent to me over the last two weeks. They are not all about Hibs; there is a bit of motivation, a bit of getting into people's heads. I actually got one in relation to generals in a war. They've come from complete strangers."

Fenlon acknowledges Hearts' status with bookmakers. "I think everybody classes them as favourites apart from ourselves," he said. "We think we are capable of winning the game. Everybody apart from our own supporters appear to have written us off, but that is the way it has been since the start of the season so we just have to live with it."

Fenlon's captain, James McPake, said: "On the day we will not be thinking about that 110 years, we'll just be thinking about that 90 minutes, or 90 minutes plus extra time. That's our chance to wipe away all the 110 years of history and make us heroes at this football club.

"For this football club to win the Scottish Cup would be massive, but for the fans especially, if we could go out and win it against Hearts it would be something they'd talk about for probably the next 110 years."

The Hearts captain, Marius Zaliukas, has talked up the final as the biggest match in his club's history. Fans on both sides apparently agree, with tickets changing hands on the black market for hundreds of pounds.

"I don't think a lot has to be said to the team because everyone understands the importance of the game and we're going to be ready for it," said Zaliukas. "Everyone is buzzing. Everyone wants to win.

"I wouldn't say anyone is nervous. Everyone is excited and just can't wait for Saturday. Everyone is thinking what it's going to be like if we win or if we lose, but everyone is very confident and we're going to go to win. Everyone is going to be involved in history."