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.
Four first-half goals put Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-finals, while Jamie Vardy’s clever header ensured Leicester joined them in the last eight
Coventry City Coventry City travel to Brighton for a free hit in the FA Cup Coventry City may be desperate for promotion but they do not intend to be pushovers at the Amex Stadium Tom Bayliss (right) is likely to be one of eight graduates of the Coventry academy in the squad that travels to Brighton for the FA Cup. Photograph: Dennis Goodwin/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock
Mark Robins says he does not want to use the word but it keeps coming up: Coventry City, according to their manager, are “desperate” to climb back up the divisions in the Football League. Desperate to match the expectations of their support. Desperate that a squad of young players, many of them graduates from the club’s academy, prove themselves capable of achieving success. Perhaps the only thing he is relaxed about is facing Brighton in the FA Cup.
“There’s no better game for us really,” Robins says before Saturday’s south coast encounter. “Honestly, I wish I could play, I really do. We know Brighton are a good team. Just to put it in a little bit of perspective they’re going to start their record £14.1m signing [Jürgen Locadia]. So the difference between the sides is there for everybody to see; we all know that. But that’s where the interest and the excitement comes from. Our players don’t get to play in these stadiums very often. This is one chance to go away and play in a top, top stadium against a Premier League team.”
The fifth-round tie is a free hit for the Sky Blues. They are the lowest-ranked team left in the competition and have knocked out top-flight opposition in the shape of Stoke City. If they go one better and beat Chris Hughton’s team then great, but the priority remains as it has always been: promotion from League Two and one step back along the path to restoring the club to the higher echelons of English club football.
“The thing for me,” says Robins, “is that while everyone is desperate to do well – desperate might not be the correct word to use – we’re professional enough to know that just because you click your fingers it doesn’t mean that you get success. You’ve got to build for that. Success will happen, but it will happen when everything comes together and everything aligns.
“There’s been a lot of challenges for us this season in terms of the mental side. But also physically. We’ve lost key players when we were building the squad in the summer. We’ve lost players to injury and to illness. So then you’ve got to try and change things and find another way to win.”
That other way has been to draw on the academy players. In a division that can put a premium on physicality, it is unusual for a League Two team to try to play passing football with teenagers. But that has been the Coventry way this season. Robins estimates there may be as many as eight graduates in the squad that travel to the Amex Stadium, foremost among them the midfielders Tom Bayliss, 18, and the 20-year-old Jordan Shipley.
Bayliss caught the eye against Stoke and scored in midweek at Colchester but Coventry went on to lose 2-1, a third defeat in succession that has taken the steam out of their promotion effort. With 14 games to go, they are ninth, three points behind last year’s FA Cup sensation Lincoln, who occupy the final play-off place.
“I thought after Tuesday night we would have to work hard to get them up, but they’ve been brilliant,” says Robins. “They have stepped up and are doing a fantastic job in the circumstances. So whatever happens for the rest of the season we will be having a right good go to try and achieve our objectives. Nobody would expect any different, and obviously there’s realism there as well. But these lot are capable of doing what they want to do and achieving what we need to achieve.”
FA Cup fifth round: 10 things to look out for this weekend Read more
Robins says the club are in a much healthier position than they were a year ago, during an unsuccessful battle against relegation from League One. That change in atmosphere, and the blooding of youth, appears to have also energised the support. Long in decline since a crass intervention by the club’s owner saw Coventry temporarily relocate to Northampton’s ground, gates at the 32,000-capacity Ricoh Arena average 8,800 (the highest in the division). And when the Sky Blues travelled to MK Dons in the fourth round they took 7,833 fans, more than the home side could muster. Their allocation for the Amex is sold out too.
“We want to – I was going to use desperately again – we want them to be proud of the team,” Robins says. “That’s basically what the club is, the support. So we’re trying to do everything within our power to move forward and we’ve got a platform for that now. Sometimes we’re falling short – that’s the nature of where we’re at. There’s also a challenge in playing for Coventry because there is a level of expectation there.
“I think desperation is part of that, and we’re desperate to get back up to where the club belongs.”
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Mauricio Pochettino has defended his argument that the FA Cup is not a major trophy.
Pochettino claimed Tottenham’s draw at Juventus in the Champions League sent shockwaves around the world but winning the FA Cup would go largely unnoticed.
The Spurs boss has yet to win a trophy in his managerial career and this week TV pundit Roy Keane claimed it was “embarrassing” that the Londoners and Liverpool had gone potless for so long.
But Pochettino, whose side face Rochdale in the FA Cup tomorrow, said: “Of course that result at Juventus changes everything, the perception across the world.
"The draw with Juventus was massive. It was seen around the world because people watch the Champions League.
(Image: 2018 Getty Images)
“It’s the best competition in the world.
“To win domestic cups would be fantastic for our fans but nothing really changes after that.
“Yet after our performance against Juventus, we have a lot of new fans. That is the truth. People have been calling me from Argentina and everywhere and saying ‘Wow, Tottenham, Tottenham, Tottenham.’
"Our fans were excited. Nearly 3,000 were there and that shows what they think about that competition.
“Our aim is to set a foundation that Spurs fans can enjoy for the rest of their lives. Three and a half years ago the club wasn’t in a position to compete in the best competitions.
(Image: UEFA)
“That was the reality. Now we have started to change that image of Tottenham.”
Pochettino, still on a high after the performance in Turin, said that success in the FA Cup or League Cup does not make a manager any more immune from the bullet.
“In the last 10 years there have been many coaches who won trophies like the FA Cup or League Cup and yet six months later they were sacked,” he said.
Tottenham’s last trophy was the League Cup in 2008 – they beat Chelsea 2-1 after extra time – but the victorious manager Juande Ramos was axed just eight months later.
Now, though, the pressure is on Pochettino to deliver a trophy, especially amid talk that some of his star players could be tempted to leave north London this summer if silverware remains elusive.
(Image: Getty Images)
Pochettino is likely to give new £25million signing Lucas Moura his first start at Rochdale, hinting that Harry Kane, who scored Tottenham’s opener against Juve, could miss out because of injury.
Pochettino has apologised to Rochdale for questioning their pitch – which has now been relaid at a cost of £500,000 – and also said the cup tie could be harder than Tuesday night’s draw at Juventus.
“First of all, I want to apologise to the people in Rochdale and the chairman and the people who took my comment the wrong way,” he said.
“It will be tough against Rochdale. It will be a tougher game than Juventus or Arsenal because the challenge is to stay motivated for the game. It is a massive challenge for us to stay at the same level.”
And as if worrying that his rather dismissive comments about the FA Cup were disrespectful, he added: “When Tottenham play it is about the competition and the FA Cup is an important competition.”
