Antonio Conte's presence at the FA Youth Cup final handed the Chelsea Under-18s side the confidence they needed to go on and secure the title, captain Mason Mount has revealed.
Chelsea's first-team coach joined owner Roman Abramovich to watch the club's youngsters in action as they secured a 5-1 (6-2 aggregate) victory over City to clinch their fourth straight FA Youth Cup.
Also present in west London was Chelsea first-team captain John Terry and club legend Frank Lampard, with the former heading to the dressing room after the win to congratulate the team before Conte made an appearance to deliver a rousing speech to the Under-18s.
Mount, who captains the team, admitted the Italian's presence at the game injected the squad with confidence because it handed the Chelsea youngsters hope that their work in the academy side is being followed closely by Conte.
"It gives us a lot of confidence to see Antonio Conte here watching us," he told Chelsea's official website.
"We are all good players who want to progress further and move up through the club. We’re very happy to be able to show what we can do on these big occasions.
"It was quite a similar final to last season with not many chances but in this second leg we had chances and we took them."
The FA Youth Cup win on Wednesday evening was Chelsea's fifth in six years and continues the club's recent dominance in the competition.
Despite their track record of winning the FA Youth Cup, Mount revealed the Chelsea players still felt intense pressure ahead of the second leg, with the first finishing 1-1 in Manchester, but said the winning mentality within the club helped the team onto the big win over City.
"There is always pressure," he added.
"Last year there was massive pressure and it was the same this year because we didn’t want to lose.
"There is a winning mentality in the Academy and we are brought up to have that as young players.
"We create our own pressure, especially in this competition because we have won four in a row now and hopefully next year we will get that fifth."
