In a stalemate at Stamford Bridge, abolitionists campaigning to stop FA Cup replays discovered strong evidence to support their argument.
Despite an abundance of good intentions, Chelsea’s final-third poise was as frequent as rocking horse droppings in a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa. Scrapping replays is a good idea if it helps to clear out the fixture list, but it does not solve profligacy on its own.
Mauricio Pochettino and Unai Emery might have kept their players till midnight, but in the absence of anyone who could find the back end of an elephant with a carpet beater, a Spaghetti Junction sequel was always the most likely scenario. If Chelsea are to achieve Poch Spice’s goal of two Wembley finals this season, they must go the scenic way.‌
And for 6,000 traveling disciples from the land of strangled vowels, their journey through Friday night traffic was not in vain. Chelsea may be forgiven for being nervous before their second floodlit cup encounter at Stamford Bridge this week, after thrashing Middlesbrough with six goals 72 hours earlier to reach the Carabao Cup final.
They lost defender Levi Colwill to injury in the warm-up, and they were fortunate not to fall behind within 12 minutes when Douglas Luiz was punished for handball after bundling in Moussa Diaby’s deflected shot. Good old VAR – you can always count on interfering officials to ruin a football game.
Chelsea would have easily defeated Boro without it, but they were now grateful to nit-pickers John Brooks, Simon Hooper, and Matthew Wilkes for stepping in. According to the letter of the rules, they were probably correct on this occasion, but only Blues keeper Djordje Petrovic appealed for handball before the Stockley Park prefects intervened.
Chelsea failed to capitalise on their reprieve, with Cole Palmer intercepting Clement Lenglet’s sluggish ball and Emi Martinez smothering the England winger’s attempt. Chelsea dominated the wide spaces, making several trips inside the Villa box. Raheem Sterling didn’t just have Matty Cash on toast for 45 minutes; he also offered the Polish full-back as bruschetta, but they had nothing to show for their territorial dominance.
