Chelsea’s season hangs by a thread after defeat within the EFL Cup.
They’re wallowing in mid desk within the Premier League, seemingly unable to succeed in larger than eighth or decrease than 14th. Their final hope of glory is the FA Cup, and our subsequent sport in that competitors comes up on Wednesday, earlier than the mud has even settled on the league cup last defeat’s fallout.
On-line betting will inform you that we’re overwhelming favourites for the sport in opposition to Leeds – however we wouldn’t agree in any respect.
We’re at residence, positive. And we did properly on the way in which to the League Cup last by dispatching decrease league opposition alongside the way in which. However Leeds are a distinct matter. They’re a Premier League workforce in Championship workforce clothes. Their entrance line is fearsome, they usually’re filled with confidence and a determined need to show themselves in opposition to the large boys once more.
Daniel Farke’s workforce are flying within the second tier – they’ve gained 6 in a row, and haven’t misplaced of their final 12 video games. They may even probably be extraordinarily assured that their high quality will carry them to computerized promotion, so the FA Cup isn’t one thing they’re trying to throw away – fairly the other actually.
And that’s earlier than you even get to their historic rivalry in opposition to us. We haven’t performed the Whites within the FA Cup for the reason that 1970 last, one of the crucial notorious video games in English soccer historical past. It’s hardly a contemporary and open wound, however all that point has solely added to the buildup.
How will our gamers react to the defeat at Wembley? That’s one other thriller issue when predicting this sport. They might be impressed and motivated to come back out and present all of the doubters that they’re fallacious. However this can be a younger, inexperienced and probably mentally fragile group. They appear to actually like Mauricio Pochettino, however is he going to have the ability to decide them up off the ground mentally after such an apparent bottling? It’s laborious to say.
This workforce is tough sufficient to foretell at one of the best of occasions – the dearth of a constant finisher means we go into each sport not understanding if it will likely be a stroll or a battle. And that goes for each sport, whether or not we’re taking part in Middlesbrough or Man Metropolis.
So the concept that this isn’t a really even sport is simply plain fallacious. If we’re at our greatest, we must always have an excessive amount of for them. However how typically have we been at our greatest this season?
