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In for a Hiding? Chelsea FA Cup Replay Preview
After Saturday’s disappointing draw with Derby County, Birmingham City have to raise their game for the visit of a Chelsea side that is in turmoil and maybe ready to show the world that the sacking of Villas-Boas was the right move by Abramovich.
Chelsea
Since the original tie was drawn at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea has not been a happy place. Two away defeats to Napoli and West Bromwich Albion sandwiched a home win over Bolton and evidently Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s patience ran out with his young Portuguese manager. Chelsea will have former the WBA management team of Roberto Di Matteo and Eddie Newton in the dugout at St Andrews, and RDM has already said that he’s sure of his team for the tie.
Bosingwa definitely misses out through injury, as do John Terry and Ross Turnbull; Ashley Cole is a doubt after picking up a knock at the weekend. I’ll be interested to see if RDM goes with giving Torres the chance of a couple of easy goals against what could be a makeshift defence or sticks to the more dependable talisman Drogba.
Birmingham City
It really is down to the bare bones for this one for Blues; Steven Caldwell, David Murphy, Stephen Carr and Keith Fahey will all definitely miss out with injury. Curtis Davies is rated at 50-50 and no less than five players are ineligible (Erik Huseklepp, Peter Ramage and Andros Townsend are cup-tied, Caleb Folan and Cian Hughton cannot play as they were not eligible for the original fixture). With this the case Blues have had to draft into the squad Enric Valles, Jake Jervis, Callum Reilly and American youth international Will Packwood; Jack Deaman is on standby.
Colin Doyle will more than likely be given the nod between the sticks as he has been in cup competitions this year; full back could be tricky with the possibility of either Spector keeping left back and someone being shuffled into the right back slot, or someone like N’Daw, Gomis or maybe even Valles being asked to play left back. Having gone through the squad, I suspect everyone named in the provisional squad will get a slot either in the team or on the bench and Deaman will come into the 18 should Davies not recover from his illness.
I forecast nothing but a Chelsea win; the only question is how brutal it’s going to be. I have a vivid memory of the 7-0 tanking we took from Liverpool a few years back in this competition and I hope it’s not that bad; similarly, Blues can’t afford too much in the way of injuries (especially defensively). Any other time I’d be right up for this one; at the moment, I’m cursing my addiction to Blues and spending £20 on a night that is probably going to be very miserable.
Tags: Andros Townsend, Caleb Folan, Callum Reilly, Chelsea, Cian Hughton, David Murphy, Enric Valles, Erik Huseklepp, FA Cup, Jack Deaman, Jake Jervis, Keith Fahey, Peter Ramage, Stephen Carr, Steven Caldwell, Will Packwood
11 Responses to “In for a Hiding? Chelsea FA Cup Replay Preview”
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Surprised you begrudge spending £20 on a ticket. I agree it will be a makeshift team but it is a chance for some of the younger players to see how they shape up against top players. I’m actually looking forward to the match, I expect us to lose but I’m more concerned with the Coventry match myself. I think we will give a good account of ourselves and I don’t think it will be a drubbing. If it is it will not have any impact on the league.
Oh ye of little faith,,,,,,miracles do still happen !,,,,,,,,we have not had ours for this year yet,,,,,they usually happen for us around this time of the year for Blues and us fans [not that I am holding out for one tonight ]!! ]
Why is Fraser Kerr not included in the permutations for the team,,,,does he not play r/b or c/h ?
im looking forward to penalty shoot-out….
ooop’s sorry… ‘the’ penalty shoot out.
Lets hope history repeats itself .
Cast your minds back to 1968 6th round FA cup almost 50.000 packed into St Andrews.
The mighty Freddie Pickering 1.0 to the Blues.
No one gave little second division Birmingham city a chance against 1st division high fliers Chelsea.
So have a little faith,you never no!
Spent 2 days sedated in a military hospital in Germany after Fred scored,,,,,,bloke next bed to mine was not allowed out of it due to frostbite of both feet, disobeyed orders ran for the nurses because he thought I was having a fit !,,,,,,,,pumped me full of sedatives for two days before anybody asked what caused the excitement !!,,,,,most upset,,,,lost my ration of beer for those two days,,,never had a chance to celebrate the win,,,,,,,,home on leave for the next round though
come on without,come on within youve not seen nothing like Fred Pickering!What we wouldnt give to have him on our side tonite!we dont need a pen shoot out,were nackered as it is.sorry but i agree keep it under 5!!and roll on the sky bluesKRO
An old cliche, but the first goal will decide it. If they get one early doors, I cannot see us coming back. If it’s scoreless by half time then a little bit of frusration might sneak in and, well, you never know. But anything less than a 3-0 defeat will feel ok.
Yesterday i was predicting we would win this one,but looking at the players unavailable im beginning to doubt my forecast.
Im not sure whats wrong with Cutis,it says he is `ill` but looking at the unavailables it might be advisable to give him a few cups of extra-strength lemsip & paracetomol & get him out on to the pitch.
With the defence all over the place i can only see a comfortable Chelsea win. Its a pity because Blues will need a strong defence and it wont be there, mind you we have lapsed at the back in the past 2 games so we will see. Non League teams upset the odds in this competition so lets hope Blues give it a go and upset the odds tonight.
Sadly I agree with you and cannot see anything other than a Chelsea win. I wasn’t as brave as you and kept my £20 and will watch it on the box instead.