It will be Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and others at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday but for the warm-up act it was a struggling Hull City from the Championship fielding a makeshift team in an FA Cup fifth-round tie that was over within half an hour for Antonio Conte’s team.
This was not a great night for the Cup, especially when Nigel Adkins made seven changes from his previous Championship team and a side already suffering around 12 injuries and ineligible players were taken apart with four Chelsea goals in the first half. You only need to know that two of Adkins’ regular back four are Chelsea loanees Michael Hector and Ola Aina, both unable to play in this tie, and a third Chelsea man Fiyako Tomori was also absent for the same reason.
There was a first Chelsea goal for Olivier Giroud since his arrival from Arsenal last month, and there were moments when the Brazilian Willian gave Hull a reminder of what the quality was like in the Premier League – including a goal within 106 seconds of the kick-off. Willian scored twice before half-time and there was another from Pedro, with Hull looking every inch a team who were trying to get in and out of west London with the minimum of embarrassment.
Conte gave a debut to his other January signing, the left-back Emerson Palmieri from Roma, and later he brought on another debutant, Kyle Scott, a 20 year-old from the academy who has largely been making up the numbers in the first-team training sessions. There were two 17 year-olds on the pitch for Chelsea in the second half, with Ethan Ampadu starting the game at the centre of a three-man defence and Callum Hudson-Odoi, the academy’s latest hot prospect, a replacement for Pedro.
FA Cup Ten things to look out for this weekend FA Cup fifth round: 10 things to look out for this weekend Pogba problems, Conte’s priorities, the tie that neither team wants to win and why Leicester should be aiming for Wembley Kelechi Iheanacho and Danny Simpson, Wigan’s Dan Burn, Jarrod Bowen celebrates, Paul Pogba, Coventry City’s Tom Bayliss and Carlos Carvalhal. Photograph: Composite/Action Images, Getty Images and Rex Shutterstock
1) Are Leicester City genuine contenders?
Of the remaining teams in this season’s FA Cup, it could justifiably be argued that only one is in a position to give the competition their full and undivided attention. Whether it’s chasing other domestic or European titles (or several in the case of Manchester City), a Champions League or play-off place, or simply battling against relegation, no fewer than 15 of the 16 clubs have more pressing concerns , while Leicester City have no such distractions. Safely positioned in mid-table and just five points shy of the 40 that probably won’t even be required to guarantee safety, they may well secure theirs in consecutive league matches against Stoke, Bournemouth and West Brom. With that in mind, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that it would be a gross dereliction of duty if Leicester did not go all-out to win the FA Cup for the first time, having lost the most recent of their four final appearances in 1969. They have rested key players in previous rounds, but with a home draw against Sheffield United and a quarter-final place up for grabs, Claude Puel ought to wheel out this heaviest artillery. With so many high end Premier League sides left in the competition, there would be no shame in not winning the competition, but as things stand it would be remiss of them not to give it their very best shot. BG
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2) Hull down to barest of bones
Nigel Adkins is probably without more players than he can call upon. Three of his squad, Fikayo Tomori, Ola Aina and Michael Hector, are ineligible to play against Chelsea, their parent club while Seb Larsson is suspended and there a handful of injury doubts too. Therefore the onus will again be on the impressive Jarrod Bowen, the 21-year-old who netted at Nottingham Forest in the previous round. The striker, who joined the club from Hereford in 2014, has scored 13 goals this season and has been one of few highlights amid the doom and gloom of Hull’s disastrous season, with the club fighting to stay in the Championship. He has quickly won several Premier League admirers too. A trip to Chelsea will likely prove testing for an out-of-sorts Hull team but Bowen, at least, is sure to relish rising to the challenge. BF
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3) Blackman faces tall task of keeping out Leicester
Jamal Blackman does not turn 25 until October but already has quite the CV, and doubtless a trophy cabinet to match. The 6ft6in Sheffield United goalkeeper, on loan from Chelsea, picked up a Champions League winners’ medal in 2012, after being part of Roberto Di Matteo’s successful squad in Munich. The same year he lifted the FA Youth Cup with Chelsea and last year was part of the Wycombe Wanderers team that ran Tottenham almightily close in a 4-3 defeat at White Hart Lane in this competition. Since progressing through the Chelsea academy, he has been loaned to Middlesbrough, Östersunds and beyond. Most importantly, he has impressed for the Blades this season and another strong display on Friday night, when they travel to Leicester looking to shutout Kelechi Iheanacho and co on home turf, will only enhance his development. BF
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4) Has Sanchez created a Pogba problem?
José Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba has become a simmering problem for Manchester United. Subbed off in his last two starts, both defeats, benched in the game between that, a 2-0 home stroll past Huddersfield, has an £89m signing become dispensable? A suggestion made by L’Equipe on Thursday was that Pogba holds regrets about re-joining United in the summer of 2016. Pogba played his best football on the left of a midfield trio for Juventus but Alexis Sánchez’s arrival on the left wing has Mourinho reluctant to leave that side of his defence unprotected. Sánchez’s demands to play every game, including cup matches, caused problems with Arsène Wenger, and whether Mourinho is similarly indulgent at Huddersfield will be telling. And where might that leave Pogba? From a choice of left midfield, sitting deeper or substitute, Pogba’s favourite position seems the least likely Mourinho option. Resting Pogba altogether from action at the Kirklees Stadium might be the pragmatic, expedient decision. JB
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Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexis Sánchez does not like being rested, as Arsène Wenger found. Photograph: Chris Brunskill Ltd/Getty Images
5) A tie both teams will be happy to lose?
In an episode of the criminally under-rated sit-com Malcolm In The Middle entitled Water Park, the titular character’s older brother, Francis, incurs the wrath of his Marlin Academy superior Commandant Spangler when the military veteran discovers he has been letting him win at pool and is in fact an accomplished hustler. To cut a long and convoluted story short, the pair end up in a titanic battle, featuring a dizzying array of outrageous trick-shots, to see who can lose each frame of 8-ball in the most spectacular fashion. While we are not suggesting that either West Brom or Southampton would deliberately tank their chances of advancing to this season’s FA Cup quarter-finals, it is this scene – minus the skill and technique – that springs to mind while pondering what might unfold between these two relegation-threatened Premier League sides when they face each other this weekend. BG
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6) Are Conte’s eyes on FA Cup prize?
If Antonio Conte actually wants to stay in the Chelsea job – and the outward signs are that he is not bothered either way – then Monday’s 3-0 victory over West Brom gave welcome respite. With reports of Luis Enrique being a shoo-in for his role, the FA Cup, should he last as long as May, could be an ideal way to wave off to those fans who still sing his name in the Stamford Bridge stands. For a manager of such standing, it is curious that Conte is still yet to celebrate victory in a knockout competition. His team selection against Hull might indicate how serious he might be about breaking that duck, though with Barcelona next week in mind, Friday is almost certainly a night for the fringe performers. The likes of Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley, players whose presence at Chelsea appears to bemuse their boss, seem likely to be given a low-key chance to shine against Championship strugglers. JB
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Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despite his team’s troubles, Conte remains popular with fans at Stamford Bridge. Photograph: Craig Mercer/CameraSport
7) A Carvalhal reunion at Hillsborough
Swansea’s surprise managerial appointment, Carlos Carvalhal, gets a quick return to his former stomping ground of Hillsborough, where he will stand in the adjacent technical area to his former club’s equally surprising choice of successor, Jos Luhukay. Sheffield Wednesday’s new manager had not got off to the best of starts, but a maiden league win against Derby County on Tuesday night will have silenced any hoots of disapproval from Owls fans. Lucas João scored either side of half-time in that win, prompting Derby manager Gary Rowett to describe him as unplayable. A peripheral figure in Wednesday’s squad during Carvalhal’s reign, the 24-year-old appears to have hit his straps at exactly the right time to show his former manager exactly what he can do. BG
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8) City an unwelcome distraction for Wigan
Wigan have wobbled since toppling West Ham in the previous round, losing to Blackpool and Southend so the visit of Manchester City – although a free hit – is the last thing Paul Cook’s promotion chasers need. The Liverpudlian manager joked this week that he has asked the Football Association whether they can tackle City with 14 men. After hitting seven past Oxford before Christmas, they were seven points clear of third place but now have Blackburn Rovers breathing down their necks. These kind of games tend to go one of two ways; they either galvanise a team before the run-in or act as a distraction, leaving them devoid of all legs. Bristol City, for example, are still recovering from doing battle with City over two legs. After facing City, they face three league games in eight days. So, what will be the lasting effect of Wigan’s joust with City on Monday night? BF
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9) Locadia ready to make Seagulls bow
The lowest ranked side left in this year’s competition, Coventry City sit 63 places below their hosts, Brighton, on the league ladder. Despite a lowly League Two status inflicted upon them after years of hideously neglectful ownership, an incredible 28,343 supporters turned up at the Ricoh Arena to see them lose against Accrington last weekend following a successful promotion run by the club to help take the usual bare look off a stadium that usually struggles to attract crowds of more than six thousand. An insipid midweek defeat against Colchester, their third on the spin, has derailed Coventry’s promotion push and the absence through injury of their captain Michael Doyle, who will be forced to sit out their trip to Brighton this weekend. Few beyond Brighton fans would begrudge the 1987 FA Cup winners a place in the quarter-finals but unless they massively improve on recent performances, the Amex Stadium is where this year’s fairytale journey will end. Those same Brighton fans will be keeping their eyes peeled for a first sighting of their record signing, the Dutch striker Jürgen Locadia, the £14m January acquisition from PSV Eindhoven who has recovered from a hamstring injury and looks guaranteed to feature in Chris Hughton’s match-day plans. BG
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10) A shop window for Rochdale’s relegation-threatened journeymen
Rock bottom of League One, nine points from safety and with just one win in the third tier since late November, Rochdale welcome Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday as they attempt to make the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. They have played in the fifth round twice before, going out to Crystal Palace in 1990 and Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2003. Sunday’s visitors to Spotland get a considerable amount of stick for being relentlessly fawned over without ever actually winning any silverware, while Rochdale have quite literally never won a trophy on which the word “Lancashire” was not engraved. A team comprised of jobbing low-end journeymen who look destined for relegation could ask for no better shop window to showcase their talents and will be relishing the prospect of getting stuck into a Tottenham team that showed little or no appetite for a similar kind of scrap against Newport County at Rodney Parade. For Tottenham, this is quite the return to earth after their midweek adventures in Turin and romantics will be hoping Keith Hill will have his team primed to ensure their opponents landing is anything but smooth. BG
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FA Cup fifth round: Rochdale v Tottenham Hotspur Venue: Spotland Date: Sunday, 18 February Kick-off: 16:00 GMT Coverage: Watch live on BBC One & the BBC Sport app from 15:35 GMT, live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sport and follow text updates on the BBC Sport website.
"When we travelled down to Millwall in the last round, he was doing his homework on the team coach."
Rochdale boss Keith Hill is talking about the League One club's 16-year-old midfielder Daniel Adshead, who could face Tottenham in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday.
Born in 2001, the Manchester schoolboy became Dale's youngest ever debutant - aged 16 years and 17 days - when he faced Bury in the EFL Trophy on 19 September.
Adshead, who has been linked with Arsenal and Chelsea, has since helped the club reach the FA Cup fifth round for only the third time in their history.
He is so young, child protection regulations mean he must get changed before and after games away from his team-mates.
And, no matter what the result on Sunday, he will be back at Gorton's Wright Robinson College - where he is deputy head boy - on Monday.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know Dan's got a great future in the game," Hill, who gave England defender John Stones his debut for Barnsley in 2012, told BBC Sport.
"People forget he's only 16. He's making a lot of progress for someone still at school.
"He got on the pitch against Millwall in the FA Cup, he played 64 minutes against Doncaster in the third round, and he'll probably be involved as a substitute against Tottenham.
"When he is involved with the first team he misses a few days of school, but when we travelled down to Millwall he was doing his homework on the coach.
"There are a lot of sharks in the football world. I treat Dan like I would do one of my own children."
'We hope to see Dan in school on Monday'
Adshead, who is preparing for his GCSEs, is surrounded by seasoned professionals - including 33-year-old defender Jim McNulty.
The former Brighton player said: "While the rest of the players are on the team coach wearing the latest headphones, Dan's getting stuck into his school work.
"I wasn't too aware that he has to get changed away from everyone else until there was a situation in a league game at Doncaster in December.
"Dan had made his league debut after coming on as a substitute. We lost the match and Dan was sitting there waiting to get changed. I said to him: 'Dan, come on, don't worry about it, get your head up, just get in the shower, and let's go.'
"He said: 'I'm not disappointed, I just can't get in the shower.' He explained why and I thought, 'oh my word'. It actually dawned on me how young he is.
"He has to have his own room on away trips, he needs his own changing area and separate shower."
Martin Haworth, deputy headmaster at Wright Robinson College - whose former pupils include ex-Manchester United and England midfielder Nicky Butt, said Adshead was due at school 15 hours after the Spurs tie.
"We'd hope to see Daniel back at school on Monday as long as he is in bed for a reasonable time - and not out celebrating," he told BBC Sport.
"The beauty of it is Daniel wants to be in school. He likes coming to school and embraces school life. He'll either be at football or in school because he's successful at both."
Henderson - 'Rochdale's Harry Kane' This is Rochdale's sixth game in this season's FA Cup. They have beaten Bromley (4-0), Slough (4-0), Doncaster (1-0) and Millwall (2-2, 1-0) to get this far. Captain Ian Henderson, 33, has scored five of the 12 goals. Henderson, who played for Norwich City in the top-flight in 2004-05, has four goals in his past four appearances. Tottenham have progressed from 16 of their past 17 FA Cup ties against lower-league opponents, losing only to Leeds in the fourth round in 2012-13. They have not lost to a team from the third tier or below in the FA Cup since a 2-1 defeat at Port Vale in January 1988. Rochdale goalkeeper Josh Lillis was in goal when Harry Kane, then aged 17, made his debut for Leyton Orient against Dale at Spotland in 2011. "If I'm being honest, I don't remember it," he says. Lillis is the son of former Manchester City player Mark Lillis, who is assistant to John Gregory at Indian Super League team Chennaiyin. Dale have lost their past six FA Cup ties against top-flight opposition since beating Coventry City 2-1 in January 1971. They lost 3-1 at Wolves in their last fifth-round appearance in 2003.
'Two worlds colliding'
Hill, a former defender who played under Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn Rovers, has been managing Rochdale for 10 years across two spells.
He is the sixth longest-serving manager in the EFL and was in charge when Harry Kane, then 17, made his league debut as a 73rd-minute substitute for Leyton Orient at Spotland in front of a crowd of 2,731 in January 2011.
"I don't remember that game too well," said Hill, who has described Sunday's game as a "collision of two worlds".
Hill said: "Poch and his staff are welcome in our management room afterwards. It'll probably be a pie and a bottle of beer. I don't often go out and buy expensive bottles of red wine"
While Spurs counterpart Mauricio Pochettino spent a reported £42m on defender Davinson Sanchez last August, the most Hill has spent on one player at Rochdale is £75,000.
"We are very astute with our money and we live within our means. That shouldn't be overlooked. The football world is in massive debt," he said.
On facing Spurs, the 48-year-old added: "It's probably the biggest game in Rochdale's history from a prestige point of view.
"It's the haves against the have-nots.
"But once the whistle goes it won't be about who has the biggest wage packet. For 90 minutes we are on a level playing field with Tottenham."
Hill's six-year-old son Sidney will be one of the mascots for Sunday's tie.
"He's very proud to tell everybody he supports Rochdale," he added. "But everybody in his school playground doesn't know who Rochdale are. They might do this weekend."
Rochdale's chief executive Russ Green handed out hot drinks to fans who queued in the snow to buy tickets for the Spurs match. The tie is a sell-out at the 10,249-capacity ground
'I was told I wouldn't play again'
Nine years ago, McNulty thought his career was over after a horrific injury resulted in the loss of a kidney. He is now preparing for the biggest game of his life.
McNulty was playing for Brighton against Crewe in a League One game on 28 February 2009 when a challenge left him "throwing out blood at an alarming rate".
"I remember looking down at my white shorts and there was a red circle that was growing bigger and bigger," McNulty told BBC Sport.
"I was told by a doctor after being rushed into hospital I wouldn't play again. It was devastating to hear that. I broke down in front of my family.
"Later, the team doctor contacted some friends in the southern hemisphere, where this injury is a bit more common with rugby players. He told me not to worry and that I could continue my career."
McNulty had two operations in an attempt to save his right kidney and another to "remove the mess that was left".
He added: "Playing with one kidney doesn't impact on me. It's more a lifestyle thing in terms of regular check-ups.
"It probably affects hangovers more than anything else because my one kidney is working doubly hard to get that poison out of the system."
Rochdale have relaid their much-criticised pitch before the match. Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino was concerned the previous pitch (left), which was heavily sanded following bad weather, would leave both sets of players at risk of injury. Rochdale's players trained on the new surface (right) on Thursday.
Will Dale cause a major shock?
Rochdale defender Jim McNulty: "We recognise it's a special game but we'll treat it like any other in terms of preparation. We know all about Tottenham's players from watching Match of the Day, but we'll study them nonetheless.
"There's been a few conversations amongst the players and how the Juventus game in midweek might help us out after the north London derby. Who knows?"
Match of the Day commentator Guy Mowbray: "It's not only the inaugural meeting of the clubs, it's undoubtedly the first time any team's run of fixture venues has read Wembley-Juventus-Rochdale.
"Whatever happens, it's Rochdale's occasion to savour, although their chances have surely lessened with the laying of a brand spanking new pitch. The Spurs spies will have advised of Ian Henderson's finishing and Matt Done's wing play, But in these ties it's usually the top-flight team's temperament that decides matters - and unlike some (not all) Spurs sides of the past, this one doesn't mind a battle."
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Rochdale goalkeeper Josh Lillis: "Anything can happen... it's the magic of the FA Cup. You tend to find teams that struggle in the league tend to do well in the cup competitions. I don't know if it's a mental thing or a break from the league. I imagine it's a trophy Tottenham want to win because fans and owners crave trophies. Whether the big guns play, I'm not too sure. But whoever they put out it will be lovely to test ourselves against them."
Mark Lawrenson, FA Cup winner with Liverpool: "Keith Hill has been at Rochdale for a long, long time. They are not doing particularly well in the league but this will be a massive day for them. However, I think Tottenham, whatever team they select, will have too much for them."
Rochdale manager Keith Hill: "We want to play a certain type of football and want to be seen in a good light. We want the football world to see we are not just a small club and we do the right things."
