Chelsea Away - FA Cup Preview | Leeds...Leeds...Leeds!
Chelsea (A): Preview
After the stunning win over Leicester on Friday night, Leeds have a break from the pressures of Championship football and the relentless quest for promotion. It will be a pleasure not to worry about points and it will be an interesting taste of how these players will react to a top Premier League team. Chelsea are licking their wounds after losing in extra time to Liverpool in the League Cup Final on Sunday and it could not be a better time for Leeds to play them. I can only see a Chelsea win but you never know in the Cup and if Leeds can make it to extra time and penalties hope will spring eternal. After the Friday night victory Farke said there are one or two players struggling with minor injuries. I think he will play the strongest side possible but he says he will not be taking risks with any players that are not 100% fit. If Leeds are relaxed and play well and Chelsea are off colour, as they have been for much of the season so far, then Potch’s boys could be in for one hell of a beating from the underdogs.
“If Leeds are relaxed and play well and Chelsea are off colour, then Potch’s boys could be in for one hell of a beating from the underdogs.”
In 1966 the teams met in an FA Cup fourth round tie, where a crowd of 57,000 saw Chelsea win 1–0 with a goal from Bobby Tambling, a game in which "the young Chelsea team withstood an almost continuous battering from Leeds.” I was there at that match and I remember Leeds were brilliant and deserved to win. That may have been the start of the animosity towards Chelsea …. “we hate Chelsea”. The following season I was there again when Leeds were cheated in the semi-final at Villa Park losing 1-0 in the most sickening of ways. Leeds had a late goal from a Peter Lorimer free-kick special disallowed because the defensive wall was not 10 yards back and the kick was ordered to be retaken. This followed an earlier equaliser that had also been ruled out. We then had the infamous 1970 Cup Final and Cup Final replay as another bitter memory to carry for more than 50 years. I have just had a look at the history books and this is the first time Leeds will play Chelsea in the FA Cup since that 1970 final replay and Leeds have never won a cup tie against Chelsea in history (FA Cup or League Cup). 8 times we have met them and eventually lost every time. Will history repeat itself or are we at last due a change of fortune?
By David Dean