The FA Cup reaches the quarter-final stage and Chelsea welcome Leicester to Stamford Bridge.
The Last Eight
As Leicester stutter in their race to win the Championship, the distraction of the FA Cup may be a rather unwanted one.
Focus Sits Elsewhere
After Chelsea got the better of Newcastle on Monday night, their chances of finishing in the European paying positions have increased by some magnitude and with the Blues still in the FA Cup, they also have a second potential route to the continent.
Before this weekend’s action, Mauricio Pochettino’s men find themselves lying 11th in the Premier League table and four points behind West Ham in seventh. However, the Stamford Bridge outfit have a game in hand and further berths past the Hammers may still be handed out.
A wretched season for Chelsea still has the potential to end on a high note and after already reaching Wembley this season, the task at the weekend will be to book another date there via this season’s FA Cup semi-finals.
If they are to return to the home of English football, then a modicum of revenge will be restored from their 2021 final defeat and although the prospect of a Wembley return should appeal to Leicester on paper, they do have more important matters on their mind.
Matters that come in the shape of their promotion bid and if you were to preview the same two teams a month ago, you would be more tempted to back Enzo Maresca’s men to pull off a relative upset and reach the last four.
Now though, they have failed to win four of their last six league outings and with no Championship activity to worry about this weekend, their worry is that they end up being second in the table by the end of this week.
If Leeds manage to do the business at Millwall later this same Sunday afternoon, it will put the Elland Road outfit top of the second tier – albeit having played a game more than the Foxes but as we all know at this stage of the season, momentum is absolutely vital.
A commodity that Leicester had in spades at the beginning of the campaign and most of what had followed since. However, there is always the time where each club goes through a rut in terms of performance and the King Power Stadium outfit are going through theirs at the worst time.
With a 46-game regular season to contest in the Championship, the last thing they need is to then unlock two more in the playoffs by finishing third. Therefore, the last thing they really need is further progress in this season’s FA Cup.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and with Chelsea finding some form of late, I envisage that form continuing on Sunday. With that in mind, I am backing the home win and both teams to score at odds of 15/8.
In addition to this, I am going to back Jamie Vardy to get on the scoresheet once again. However, it is only going to be a consolation this time around and if the 37-year-old does score the last goal within 90 minutes, the reward is a tasty price of 10/1.
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