Chelsea vs. Luton Town FA Cup 4th Round Preview
We go again!
Chelsea welcome 13th placed Championship club Luton Town at Stamford Bridge on Sunday for the 4th round of the FA Cup. Luton sit 6 points from 7th at the moment as they stand an outside shot at making a play off place. Luton have gone through a resurgence in recent years as they were promoted from League Two in 17/18. In 18/19 they gained a second successive promotion to enter the Championship from League One and have since remained there. This season Luton have won 9 drawn 6 and lost 10 in the league. Luton beat Reading 1-0 in the last round and have since won 1 and lost 2 of their games.
Chelsea go into this game having beat Morecambe 4-0 in the last round. We then went on to beat Fulham but lost to Leicester during the week with the pressure back on Lampard after a short reprieve. It's safe to say that Chelsea go into this game in a cloud of rumours, and bad reviews with the team having put in another lacklustre performance against Leicester and looking out of it. The press conference on Friday saw Lampard come out swinging as he pulled no punches and reiterated his desire to turn it around. Lampard was asked a quiet nonsensical question about when he thought the new signings would reach their potential. The question really had no answer and the journalist himself got flustered after asking it. Lampard then asserted himself when asked about player confidence as he criticised journalists for writing articles that would obviously damage any players morale and a certain confirmation bias used when writing them. Lampard's defending his players and no one can really blame him for that and if journalists can write such scathing pieces about players and managers then they should know that it can reach the point when a the player or manager answers back. There weren't any other major questions asked but quotes in the embargoed section have Lampard speaking about just winning games for now and showing the drive and hunger in game. Lampard has also defended Kai Havertz once again and said that he will be a top player without a doubt but needs time.
Chelsea Team Preview
Kepa should return in goal for this game and I expect, Rudiger and Christensen to also feature as the centre backs. Azpilicueta and Emerson should start as the full backs. I would actually switch to a more simple 4-2-3-1 for this game with Gilmour and Kova as the two CDM's. Pulisic, Havertz, and Hudson-Odoi to play behind Werner. Just something different and really if those front 4 can't finish goals I don't know what will at this club. The 4-3-3 isn't working at the moment and literally a minor tweak can switch things up. We could also play a 4-4-2 with Giroud and Werner up front but I think that less plausible. Chelsea as usual will have plenty of possession so we shouldn't really need that extra player in midfield. 4 quality players should be enough to break the lines and finish off chances. We had a strong lineup against Morecambe and we should have the same in this game as we look to continue to game momentum.
Luton Town Team Preview
Luton under their manager Nathan Jones are quiet flexible when it comes to formations. I think for this game they will stick with a 3-5-2 of sorts to sit back and defend and counter when given the opportunity. Dewsbury-Hall a loan player from Leicester is one to keep an eye on in the midfield while James Collins is their top scorer with 9 goals this season. Luton don't seem to score many or concede many so it is set up to be a smash and grab type of game.
Starting XI Prediction
Chelsea and Lampard just need to get the results, but hopefully we can field some of our starters in this game and the attack can continue to form chemistry for the next few games. COME ON CHELSEA!!!