Leicester v Chelsea preview: Third time lucky for Foxes in FA Cup?

FA Cup journey so far

For Leicester, their FA Cup run began in January with a 2-0 breeze past Wigan Athletic thanks to an own goal and Harvey Barnes. The passage from the fourth road was secured with a 1-0 victory over Brentford at Griffin Park before another 1-0 victory followed, this time against Birmingham City, to set-up the tie with Chelsea before the postponement of the season.

Chelsea were thankful for goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ross Barkley in the opening 33 minutes as they crashed Nottingham Forest out of the cup before Fikayo Tomori scored against his former-side to knock out Hull City. The Blues then knocked out Premier League runaway leaders, Liverpool, 2-0 at Stamford Bridge thanks to goals from Willian and Barkley.

Head-to-head

As stated above, Chelsea have failed to beat the Foxes since March 2018. Since then, there has been three straight draws. The last victory came in December 2019, when Jamie Vardy beat Kepa Arrizabalaga with the only goal of the game.

Before then, City’s last win over the Blues came in the title winning season where Vardy and Riyad Mahrez scored to eventually sack Jose Mourinho.

Since the 5-2 quarter-final for Chelsea, they have defeated Leicester on seven occasions. Their last victory in the league came in 2017 when N’golo Kante scored the winner against his former team to continue Craig Shakespeare’s poor start to his first full season in charge.

If the King Power club manages to defeat Chelsea on Sunday, it will be their first-ever win in the FA Cup over their opponents. The only two times Chelsea have failed to beat City in the competition came in 1946 and 1997, where they went on to win the replay.