Not me. Our priority is to get top 4 . Crazy season, one to forget, and FA Cup is diminished in the order of things. So here's my team for this game of reduced importance. Kepa James, Tomori, Zouma, Emerson RLC Jorghino, Gilmour CHO Abraham Pedro
I care big time. The F.A. cup is, and was, always my favourite competiton. It has provided us with some of the Club's best moments. Some clubs have disrespected the competiton in latter years but that's their perogative. Watching a Chelsea Captain lifting the cup at Wembley will never be a sight that is diminished in my eyes !
While I like to see us win every game, I think we can afford to rest one or two for this one. Leicester will likely do the same,
Can't agree this year, too many disruptions happening in the game, the transfer market and everyones' virus affected competitions. Top 4 place seems vital for all teams wanting to rebuild or remain at the top level. I think what's left of this season calls for pragmatism above trophies, which is why I suspect we will see most top 4 chasing teams put out weakened sides in the FA Cup. We can still be competitive and all players need game time.
It’s also the 50th anniversary of the club’s first FA Cup trophy in 1970. The club is well up for finishing 3rd and winning the FA Cup. I’ll be watching it live on BT Sport. The bloody BT commentators had better not start talking about Liverpool again as they did when we beat Man City - they ruined the coverage of that game doing that.
Love the fa cup and cups success breeds winner and hunger for more success Ziyech and Werner signed without top 4 guarantee. London and lots of ££££ counts for a lot
Tough going today ! Happy for Barkley...if he could improve on the passing he would be top class. We will have to win the cup the hard way now. We owe Utd a beating this season...no better time to do it !!!
Surely this is the once season when top 4 is not so important as the transfer window is open without the top 4 (or 5) being decided
All depends on your perspective I guess. Liverpool have just walked the PL and demolished every other team. We're battling Leicester, Utd and even Wolves for 4th place., and City have indicated a big rebuild on the way. Utd are steadying after their wobbly season, and unless we really step up , which is exactly what we are doing, then we risk being left behind. Liverpool are the Team to follow, they rebuilt step by step, to the point their squad is almost bullet proof, and all they need do is tweak one or 2 players a year to stay on top. Spurs and Arsenal show what you become unless you keep sight of your goals.
Chelsea seem to, all of a sudden, got a really great blend of experience and youth. The youth are at times still very much youth products. Poor Billy got the harsh realisation of that in the last game. A full season with Frank and I think we’ll be in the running. I fancy a cup this season though. Maybe the league will be a stretch too far next season, but we’ll see.
CP, the transfer window is open now BEFORE the top 4 spots are concluded. Ziyech and Werner have already signed for us. Like I said before, this is the one season that top 4 is not so important due to the corona chaos. We are five points clear in top 4 race, let's beat United and get to a Cup final
I'm with you there, would love to see us clean up Utd AND get to the final, but hope we can do so and not lose sight of 4th or even 3rd place. That's just me,I tend to see the Cups as a time to run out a few fringe players, though I will admit, I probably should give more credit to FA semis. PS Utd are only 2 points behind now we do have a game in hand.
Well there goes our game in hand, a very poor performance from most of the team especially defence who were monstered by Antonio. Only Pulisic and Willian, and sometimes Kante and Alonso, looked like proper players, the rest were scratchy. Kovacic struggled, Barkley confirmed he can't be relied on, Tammy Abraham was poor again, I'm sure he's Carlton Cole in disguise. He just hasn't got a clue on positioning, timing runs or staying onside. He was in good company, the entire teamwork was sluggish and lacking any zip. RLC seems to be either very unfit or very concerned about sprinting, both understandable, but he was a bit ponderous and off the pace the short time he was on. Oh well, you can't win them all, but that result will come back to haunt us, a return to lacklustre form against bottom placed teams.Hoped we'd left that behind.