Date: Thursday 11th
February 2021
Venue: Oakwell
Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
Tonight’s game sees us travel to
Oakwell to take on Barnsley in the fifth round of the FA Cup. We faced Barnsley
in the Carabao Cup in September and the 6-0 we won by at home was definitely an
improvement on our 2008 FA Cup meeting when we lost 1-0 to them away.
As last year’s runners-up in the
competition, we come into the game on the back of
three wins and a draw, whilst our opponents are unbeaten in three in the Championship.
Our most recent win came away to Sheffield United, whilst for Barnsley, they
drew 0-0 with Nottingham Forest last time out.
The Tykes won’t make this an easy game
for us but we’re likely to take a strong group of players for the trip. Quite
who might make up that strong group, is anyone’s guess, but they’d better be
robust enough to get the job done on a cold night in Yorkshire.
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into today’s game, Barnsley manager
Valerien Ismael, says
“We know we are up against one of the best teams in world football. But this is an opportunity for our players to
test themselves and to put our own principles on to them, to be unpleasant and
give everything to win.”
Thomas Tuchel, meanwhile, says “This would be huge,
absolutely – the FA Cup is one of the most prestigious in the world. It is
played at Wembley. Even if you were a little boy in Germany with no internet or
no sports channels where you can watch every game like nowadays, you know the
word ‘Wembley’ for sure and the words ‘FA Cup’. You know this is a big, big
game to play and a big goal to achieve.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Barnsley
United, Aapo Halme, Ben Williams and Liam Kitching are all likely to miss out
with injury and Carlton Morris is cup tied. Toby Sibbick and Romal Palmer are
available after recovering from minor injuries and Daryl Dike could make his
debut.
For Chelsea,
Thiago Silva (muscle
injury) remains out, whilst Pulisic missed our last game for family reasons and
it is unclear whether he is available again.
TEAMS
BARNSLEY (Possible line-up): Collins; Sibbick,
Helik, Andersen; Brittain, Mowatt, Palmer, Styles; Frieser, Woodrow, Adeboyejo
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Kepa; James,
Christensen, Zouma, Chilwell; Havertz, Kante, Gilmour; Ziyech, Abraham,
Hudson-Odoi
CURRENT FORM (ALL)
BARNSLEY: WLLWDD
CHELSEA: LWDWWW
OTHER STUFF
- Barnsley
advanced to the semi-finals in 2008 after beating Chelsea at Oakwell.
- Chelsea
have won four of their past five encounters in all competitions
- Barnsley
have reached round five for the first time since 2013.
- A
win would see Chelsea reach the FA Cup quarter-finals for the 15th time since
2000
- Barnsley
have lost their past five FA Cup games against Premier League sides.
- Chelsea
have only lost two of their past 17 games in this competition.
PREDICTION
BBC Sport: Barnsley 0-2 Chelsea
Sportsmole: Barnsley 0-2 Chelsea
