Chelsea vs Leeds United Preview

After their disappointing weekend loss to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, Chelsea will attempt to dust themselves off and go again when they face Leeds United in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday night.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side became the first English side to lose six consecutive domestic cup finals on Sunday when they were beaten 1-0 by Jürgen Klopp’s side. That result was especially painful for the Chelsea fans who watched as their team were beaten by a youthful, injury-ravaged Liverpool team, leading to Gary Neville calling them the ‘blue billion-pound bottle jobs.’

Although Pochettino dismissed Neville’s claims, stating that his team are still young, he will know there will be no excuses if they fail to win against Leeds United on Wednesday.

Ideally, a return home should boost their confidence as they will have the fans cheering them but Chelsea have failed to win their last two games at Stamford Bridge.

However, to their advantage, they have the superior record in this fixture at home, having won their last five games against Leeds when playing as the hosts. Interestingly though, the two haven’t met in the FA Cup since the final way back in 1970, when the Blues lifted the trophy after bettering the Yorkshire side following a replay.

They will hope they can keep this hold over the visitors and traditionally, this hasn’t been a stage of this competition in which Chelsea have faltered, with the hosts progressing from 13 of their last 15 fifth-round ties.

Meanwhile, Leeds will look to continue their impressive run of form under Daniel Farke when they go to London on Wednesday. The visitors have been playing good football recently with six wins in a row taking their unbeaten run to 12 games in all competitions (W11, D1).

They will back themselves against a battered Chelsea team even as they aim to reach the FA Cup quarter-final for the first time in 21 years. The Whites have gone close to reaching the last 8 stage in that time, suffering eliminations in the fifth round on three occasions – including last season against Fulham (2-0).

Given they have scored 3+ goals in three of their past four FA Cup away games (including extra time), we could witness another high-scoring game at Stamford Bridge.