It might be argued that the worldwide break was a welcome one for Chelsea and their head coach Liam Rosenior. His gamers travelled to affix their respective nationwide groups looking for to overlook 4 straight losses in all competitions.
It is the primary time since Could 2023 that Chelsea have suffered such a prolonged dropping streak and a reset, or no less than a refresh, seems vital.
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Again-to-back Premier League defeats by and – video games the place Chelsea failed to attain and even impress – have been straddled by a humiliating 8-2 mixture thrashing by Paris St-Germain within the Champions League final 16.
Rosenior’s final victory got here on this competitors at Wrexham and a house quarter-final towards League One’s backside facet Port Vale ought to present the proper tonic to the membership’s present malaise.
This quarter-final represents one thing of a free hit for the Staffordshire facet and so they have already defeated Premier League opponents Sunderland to succeed in this stage. Nonetheless, the event will likely be tempered by the very apparent menace of relegation and by the point they return to EFL motion towards Rotherham on Tuesday night time they might be as much as 20 factors from security with eight video games remaining.
Chelsea’s cup file can also be worthy of envy and so they’ve progressed from 64 of their earlier 66 FA Cup ties towards decrease league opposition, solely dropping to Barnsley at Oakwell in 2008 and Bradford Metropolis at house in 2015 throughout that run.
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That is a 97% success charge for the Blues in these fixtures and chance suggests a twenty eighth FA Cup semi-final and a go to to Wembley for Rosenior and his facet.
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The hole of 62 league locations between Chelsea and Port Vale is the third largest at this stage of the competitors because the begin of the century. Solely versus League Two Grimsby City in 2023 (76 locations) and towards Nationwide League Lincoln Metropolis in 2017 (88 locations) had an even bigger gulf and each of these ties resulted in a 5-0 victory for the top-flight facet
Chelsea are vying to succeed in the FA Cup semi-final with out dealing with a top-flight opponent for the fourth time within the competitors’s present format (from 1925-26). It might be the joint-most of any facet, degree with .
Joao Pedro has scored seven objectives in his previous seven FA Cup video games. Six of those objectives have been because the begin of 2023-24, with no participant netting extra within the competitors throughout that interval