On Wednesday, Chelsea travel to Elland Road for the quarterfinal of the Capital One Cup against Leeds, in a match that's certain to have all the makings of a great Cup tie. The history and rivalry between these two clubs dates back almost half a century, with the most notable encounter being Chelsea's victory over Don Revie's high-flying Leeds side of the 70's. The match ended a 2-2 stalemate, but the replay proved victorious for the Blues, as goals from David Webb and The King finished Dirty Leeds off for good





With all the "big" teams now out of this competition, Chelsea will feel they have a real opportunity to get some silverware into the cabinet, regardless of the regard this trophy is typically held in. Leeds, too, will be feeling they're in with a definite chance. Having failed disappointingly at their chance to win the club's first ever Club World Cup, and with a myriad of key players unavailable, Chelsea are very much on the backfoot at the moment. The Yorkshire club, likewise, have been on something of a run of late, having beaten all of Huddersfield, Leicester, Crystal Palace, and Millwall in the last several weeks after a prolonged rocky period, and are certainly gaining momentum, and will doubtless go into this match feeling confident.





Chelsea are rocked by a plethora of unavailable players out due to either injury or suspension. And even among the ones that are available, many will be playing their 3rd match in 6 days. Absent for the Blues are Daniel Sturridge, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Oriol Romeu, John Mikel Obi and Ramires - which leaves the squad with only 2 available center-backs, 1 available first-team CM, and 1 "striker" (and I use the term as lightly as possible), who himself will be playing his 3rd game in less than a week.

So what is a likely formation for this game?


?

We really should win the COC considering we have lost 3 finals this season. Lets not keep that run going.

This would be my line-up. I'd also include Blackman if I were personally picking the team, but that's never gonna happen. I know Feruz is also unlikely, but I really think with Flopnando playing literally every game this season and for almost 90 mins in almost all of those games, plus the fact that this would be his 3rd in 6 days, he really should be benched to give a promising youngster a chance to impress.
Not holding my breath though. Sigh. I long for the day a Chelsea manager has the balls to use a youth/reserve lad or two every once and awhile and give them some chances here and there to prove if they're first-team material.

I predict we're gonna have a strong line up..

ShedEnd1905 wrote:


This would be my line-up. I'd also include Blackman if I were personally picking the team, but that's never gonna happen. I know Feruz is also unlikely, but I really think with Flopnando playing literally every game this season and for almost 90 mins in almost all of those games, plus the fact that this would be his 3rd in 6 days, he really should be benched to give a promising youngster a chance to impress.
Not holding my breath though. Sigh. I long for the day a Chelsea manager has the balls to use a youth/reserve lad or two every once and awhile and give them some chances here and there to prove if they're first-team material.

This except Feruz is super and unlikely and no way Hilarious or Turnbull should be in goal, id rather have Torres there ffs . If all our dreams come true and Torres si benched hopefuly Sturidge is fit (anybody know whats doing with him?) or is not Marin up top

Last I heard Sturridge is coming along fine and could be available. He wasn't fully fit by the time the team left for Japan hence the exclusion

I think we'll put out a strong lineup, mostly because Rafa seems to enjoy smoking mountains of weed. (he then gets the munchies, hence why he is fat)

Just win.

Cech, Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Luiz, Bertrand, Lampard, Oscar, Moses, Mata, Marin, Torres.

Practically full strength....in the Capital One Cup....with a load of fixtures coming up in the next 2 weeks....

most attacking lineup i have seen since Pep's 1 CB 3-4-3 formation vs you guys at the camp nou

Aaaaaaaaand they scored.

Cant watch the game because ive got to leave home in about 20min so ive only just looked at line ups etc now and all i can say is that this really is a chefs special

Excellent win.

Now for the draw

Hazard is starting to piss me off these days, the *bleep* does he think he is? Xavi?? GTFO, used to piss me off when Malouda and Anelka did the same things.

Swansea in the semis, first leg at the Bridge.

Definitely the toughest draw we could have gotten, but I'd rather have them over 2 legs than in a one-off Final.

Abramovich wrote:Hazard is starting to piss me off these days, the *bleep* does he think he is? Xavi?? GTFO, used to piss me off when Malouda and Anelka did the same things.

What's he doing? Only managed to catch the highlights

He was going proper deep like near our down D to get the frigging ball and play it like hes a DLP or Xavi just piss off back near the other side of the pitch.

Abramovich wrote:He was going proper deep like near our down D to get the frigging ball and play it like hes a DLP or Xavi just piss off back near the other side of the pitch.

Errr....even if he might have been instructed by Rafa to do so?

Am sure when Rafa told him to play behind Torres, one of his instructions would have been drop super deep and play useless 5 yard passes whilst your there even though Oscar and Lampard are on the field.