Date: Saturday 25th January 2020
Venue: KCOM Stadium
Kick-off: 17:30 GMT
Toys might still be being thrown out of prams but they’ll have
to be put aside for at least 90 minutes this evening, as today’s late kick-off
sees us travel to the KCOM Stadium to take on Hull City in the FA Cup fourth
round.
Aside from inconsistent form, Chelsea remain 4th in
the Premier League but the draw against Arsenal’s 10 men midweek means we’ve taken
just one point from the last two in the league. Hull seem to be having a
reasonable season but come into the game off the back of two defeats in the
Championship.
You’d like to think our players have had enough words with
themselves to properly turn up today but like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates,
you never know quite what you’re going to get from Chelsea.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going
into today’s game, Hull manager Grant McCann, says “We’ll be looking to put a good show on. It’s no secret that
the league is the most important thing for us but this game will be a good
occasion for us so we’ll give it a good go. This is probably a nice distraction because
we’ve lost two games. We can go and
enjoy the game and the occasion and give as much as we can for the football
club to see where it takes them. There
will be some changes, but it will be a strong team going out there.”
Chelsea manager, Frank
Lampard meanwhile, says “We respect
the FA Cup. I do, the players do and this club has been fortunate enough to win
it a fair few times in the modern era so we want to win it again. People will argue whether top four is more
important than the FA Cup but I don’t think we need to get into that one. We’re
professionals so we want to win the game and get through to the next
round.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Hull, Matthew Pennington (groin),
Callum Elder (calf) and Jordy De Wijs (calf) are absent although Stephen Kingsley is a possible return, with Kamil Grosicki also close.
For Chelsea, Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Achilles),
van Ginkel (ACL), Olivier Giroud (ankle), Tammy Abraham (ankle) and Christian
Pulisic (abductor) are injured, whilst Kepa
Arrizabalaga will be rested.
TEAMS
HULL (Possible line-up): Long; Lichaj, Burke, Tafazolli, Kingsley;
Lopes, Kane; Bowen, Irvine, Samuelsen; Eaves
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Caballero; Lamptey,
Christensen, Zouma, Alonso; Barkley, Kovacic, Mount, Pedro; Hudson-Odoi; Batshuayi;
LAST MEETING (FA Cup)
Chelsea 4-0 Hull (16 February 2018)
CURRENT FORM (ALL)
HULL: LWWWLL
CHELSEA: WDWWLD
OTHER STUFF
- Hull have won none
of their 10 FA Cup games against Chelsea (D3 L7).
- Chelsea are
unbeaten in 15 games against Hull, in all competitions.
- When playing
outside the top-flight, Hull have been eliminated in their last 13 FA Cup ties
against top-flight opponents since winning 1-0 against West Ham United in
February 1973 as a second tier outfit.
- Chelsea have
progressed from 49 of their last 51 FA Cup ties against non-Premier League
sides
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Hull 0-2 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Hull 1-3 Chelsea
