Only one week after Leicester City restarted their Premier League campaign, the attention diverts to England’s most gracious competition, the FA Cup.
Brendan Rodgers and his Leicester City side host Chelsea on Sunday in the quarter-final of the FA Cup, the third time in eight years the clubs have met at this stage of the competition. Can Leicester continue their unbeaten run against the London side.
Disappointing draws to Watford and Brighton have cause discussion on the chances of Champions League qualification, especially due to Chelsea and Manchester United’s positive restart.
However, Foxes fans can relax about their side’s league form on Sunday as the opportunity of reaching a first FA Cup semi-final for the first time since 1982 is among them. Their opponents? Chelsea.
Frank Lampard’s side have reduced the gap between the sides with four wins in their last nine Premier League games, which arguably isn’t great. However, it betters Leicester’s form recently and they now sit one point behind Brendan Rodgers’s men.
The history between the two teams in this competition has been a regular sight for both sets of fans. In 2012, Chelsea defeated Leicester, who were in the Championship at the time, 5-2 at Stamford Bridge in the quarter-final.
Two years ago, Pedro’s extra-time winner sent Antonio Conte’s side through to another FA Cup semi-final at the expense of Claude Puel’s City, Chelsea’s last victory over the Foxes.
Leicester City and Chelsea’s form
Right now, a lot has changed on both sides in many ways. A victory for the Foxes will breathe confidence going into the remaining seven Premier League games and will make up for the semi-final heartbreak at Aston Villa in January.
Leicester City’s recent displays have been criticised for months now. After previously winning eight straight Premier League games, City have struggled to reach the same heights of the first half of the season.
Since the turn of the year, the Foxes have won six in the previous 16 games (three of them have been to Championship opponents in the FA Cup). Despite being unbeaten in the last four, the two draws post-lockdown have caused signs that the pressure is getting to the youthful squad.
Chelsea, on the other hand, are in the best form of their season so far. Following the 2-0 home defeat to Manchester United on 17th February, Lampard’s men have defeated Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester City.
In fact, Thursday night’s 2-1 victory over Man City crowned Liverpool champions and restored their five-point advantage over United in fifth-place. One point now separates the Blues and their East Midlands rivals for a Champions League spot.
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.