Lucky general Ramos wants Spurs to live by sword in final battle

No inferiority complex as Berbatov aims to smash Blues hoodoo

Having laid one of their bogeys in beating Arsenal at last to reach the Carling Cup final, Tottenham Hotspur's players must overcome another one to win it. With a record against Chelsea even worse than against their nearer neighbours, there is a mental battle to be fought if they are not to go under. Fortunately, in Juan de la Cruz Ramos Cano – Juande to his amigos – the squad have a manager and motivator who knows how to take on supposedly superior opposition and come out on top.

A 2-1 victory over Chelsea 15 months ago counts as Spurs' only success in an extraordinary total of 35 League meetings. Throw in two FA Cup games last year – in one of which they tossed away a 3-1 lead – plus a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge last month, and bragging rights have hardly been a matter of contention. One of the most impressive features, however, of Ramos' time in charge of Sevilla was how often he gained the upper hand over the big boys of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

What is the secret? "Above all," he said on Friday, "we have to try to convince the players they're not inferior to Chelsea. It's a game of 90 minutes, 11 against 11. They have a lot of possibilities to win the game. If they play scared, then we could end up losing because of that, so it's up to us to be able to convince them they can win. Sevilla, when we played Real Madrid and Barcelona, were never inferior to them because we had that mentality and we ended up winning those games and winning trophies."

What the manager cannot yet know about his new charges is how they will react in the sort of showpiece final in which he has become something of a specialist. "We don't know the response the players will give because it's a situation we haven't been in. I don't know if they're going to show maturity and I don't know if they will demonstrate their ability to cope under the pressure of the occasion."

It may be a decisive factor against a Chelsea side who have already appeared at the new Wembley twice, enduring extra-time and (in the Community Shield) a penalty shoot-out.

Dimitar Berbatov, the single figure in whom most north London hope is invested, is happy to concede that Chelsea are the favourites, with all the attendant pressure, and he has bought into the Ramos philosophy of a relaxed approach.

"You could say this is the sort of game I came to England for," Berbatov said. "This is a final but I don't want everybody to think too hard and go on the pitch and freeze. It is a game like any other and that is how we must think about it. It is a big game but sometimes you think too much and then do nothing on the pitch."

There have been games where some Tottenham followers have felt that their most gifted player was contributing if not nothing then next to it. Encouragingly, in the two Carling Cup semi-finals against Arsenal, he was superb, even risking his image as Mr Cool to join in the celebrations afterwards.

"That's how I put myself in front of you guys, but inside, like all the other guys, sometimes you get nervous," he said. "But once I get to Wembley I will just try to concentrate. Now we have to work towards the big game and use all our power. It is not going to be easy. Everyone knows that. That's why I like it because then you can measure yourself against the best."

Last Thursday, Berbatov sat out the second 45 minutes of what became an unexpectedly edgy passage over Slavia Prague into the quarter-final of the Uefa Cup, a competition that Ramos has made his own.

Although the manager admits that playing such a game three days before the final was hardly ideal preparation, clinging on for a draw extended his personal record since joining to only five defeats in 27 games.

Any doubt about whether to recall Paul Robinson in goal this afternoon was surely resolved by his match-saving performance. Now his key decisions are whether to risk both Ledley King and Pascal Chimbonda against Chelsea's strong right flank, and whether Didier Zokora or Tom Huddlestone fills the one vacant midfield role.

Ramos' achievement so far, he believes, is to convince the players that "they have the capability to do more than they were doing". There can be little debate about that, as results before and after the change of staff prove. Now a club renowned as Cup specialists – or League failures – are in their first final for six years under a general who will remind them before the game of the harshest truth of knockout football: "It is a bit like war. You either live or die."