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Chelsea, Leicester to battle it out for FA Cup honours

Chelsea and Leicester City lock horns at Wembley this Saturday

Image copyright - Steve Haag Sports

Chelsea and Leicester City lock horns at Wembley this Saturday in the final of the FA Cup. For the Blues, this is the first opportunity at Silverware this season before their Champions League final. The Foxes, meanwhile, will want to cap an excellent season with a piece of silverware.

Two women looking excitedly at cellphone

Victory would be the perfect appetizer for Thomas Tuchel’s blue army as the west Londoners prepare for the all-English UEFA Champions League final showdown against Manchester City in two weeks time.

Leicester – who have had a fine season thus far – will be desperate to crown their campaign with a piece of silverware. 

Let’s get straight into our match preview!

FA Cup Final Preview

Saturday 15 May
Wembley Stadium
18:15

To Win (90 Mins)

Chelsea 19/20
Draw 5/2
Leicester City 28/10

To Lift Cup 

Chelsea 5/10
Leicester City 16/10

Chelsea

Chelsea have completed an astonishing transformation under the tutelage of Thomas Tuchel who arrived at the club just four months ago. 

Frank Lampard surely expected the team he built the previous season, which proudly boasted the likes of Cobham academy graduates such as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Fikayo Tomori and Billy Gilmour, to gel coherently with his expensive new recruits during the second half of the season.

However, under Tuchel’s guidance, this side has definitely surpassed all expectations “Super Frank” and every other Chelsea supporter had for this group of players.

The former Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain mentor has taken the Premier League by storm and is on course to break all sorts of records this season. 

Prior to hosting Arsenal, the Blues have impressively kept 18 clean sheets from Tuchel’s 25-game long tenure.

Also, top-notch talents like Antonio Rudiger, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante have cemented their claim to be a part of Tuchel’s long-term project after finding themselves out of favour under Lampard.

Ben Chilwell will face his former team in a powerful backline consisting of Thiago Silva, Rudiger, James and captain Cesar Azpilicueta in front of the most underrated signing of the previous window, Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

This foundation of the team should secure Chelsea another clean sheet which would leave Timo Werner and company needing just a goal to adorn the trophy with Royal Blue ribbons yet again.

Two women looking excitedly at cellphone

Leicester City

Leicester City may have won the Premier League under Claudio Ranieri but since Rodgers’ arrival in 2019, the Northern Irishman has been just as influential to the club.

Prior to Leicester making their midweek trip to Old Trafford, Rodgers has the most successful win rate (52.8%) in the club’s history.

Winning 56 times in 106 games deserves respect, especially since the level of opposition in my opinion is higher than during Ranieri or Nigel Pearson’s time in England.

The Foxes recently failed to claim maximum points in the league over Southampton and Newcastle but did bag a massive 2-1 against a much-changed Machester United side on Tuesday.

That win helped consolidate their place in the top four and will go some way in giving Rogers’ side the confidence boost they need to get one over Chelsea this weekend. 

Route to the final:

Chelsea:
4-0 (H) – Morecambe
3-1 (H) – Luton Town
0-1 (A) – Barnsley
2-0 (H) – Sheffield United
1-0 (N) – Manchester City

Leicester City:
0-4 (A) – Stoke City
1-3 (A) – Brentford
1-0 (H) – Brighton
3-1 (H) – Manchester United
1-0 (N) – Southampton

Prediction: Chelsea (19/20)

If we look at the entirety of the season, Leicester have been a consistently solid team, although, on current form, there’s only one winner in this contest for me. Unless Kasper Schmeichel channels his “inner-Mendy” and plays an absolute blinder in the Leicester goal to keep his team in the match, Chelsea should have too much quality for the Foxes.

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