28th February, 2024, FA Cup 5th Round
Well that was slightly annoying really! Leeds deserved to win that game against the Billionaire Blues simply because every Leeds player was on top of their game while every Chelsea player struggled to show their quality for long periods. The BBC marked every single Leeds player higher than the best-marked Chelsea player! Let that sink in! We should be very proud of our boys tonight.
In the end, it did come down to quality though – quality of finishing. Leeds had two glorious opportunities in the second half, both falling to Matteo Joseph, at least one of which ought to have given him his hat-trick on the night. We had several other shots too that, with more care, would have done the job for us. At the other end Chelsea really only had three big chances and they buried them all with ease.
It was a magical moment when Leeds took the early lead – the Leeds press was already in top gear as Archie Gray won the ball while Chelsea dawdled on the edge of their own box. It ran to Jaidon Anthony who immediately fed Joseph and he blasted the ball past Sanchez in the home goal.
Two goals born of some rapid-fire close first-time passing by Chelsea had the Blues in the lead inside 37 minutes, both goals coming from our exposed left side with Firpo and Cooper just not sharp enough to cope with the speed of the Chelsea interplay.
But then, for the final minutes of the first half and much of the second half, Leeds were the better side and we deservedly drew level on the hour mark with a lovely move. Ethan Ampadu launched a long diagonal ball over to Jaidon Anthony on the corner of the box, he took one touch to get the ball on his right side and then he picked out Joseph at the back post with an inch perfect cross. Joseph finished like a seasoned pro, heading deftly past Sanchez to send 5,000 Leeds fans delirious!
We should then have gone on to win the game but we fluffed our lines in front of goal too often while Chelsea upped the ante with the arrival of Conor Gallagher and Ben Chilwell into the fray. When Gallagher got the merest sniff of a chance in the dying seconds of the game he was too clever for Junior Firpo and he wasted no time at all in blasting it past Meslier.
It was a shame, but it showed that, as well as you can perform in a game, it is worth nothing if you can’t put the ball in the net. Chelsea, despite a poor performance just had that nous and quality when it mattered in front of goal.
It matters not though, we must merely hope that this defeat is a blessing in disguise in that we can now focus solely on the main prize of promotion. We showed that even without our best XI on the pitch we can test the strongest of sides and make them look very ordinary but now we have to confirm that with our best XI, we can continue to brush aside 12 more Championship rivals in the coming weeks. If we can, then the main prize will be ours. We start on Saturday lunchtime when we face the Terriers of Huddersfield who, looking at their current form, will be no pushovers.
mirates FA Cup Fifth Round
Chelsea 3 (Jackson 15’, Mudryk 37’, Gallagher 90’)
Leeds United 2 (Joseph 8’, 59’)
Chelsea: Sanchez (GK), Gusto (Chilwell 60’), Disasi, Chalobah, Gilchrist (Colwill 74’), Caicedo, Fernandez, Madueke (Gallagher 60’), Sterling (Palmer 74’), Mudryk (Tauriainen 90’), Jackson. Subs not used: Petrovic (GK), Samuels-Smith, Murray-Campbell, Harrison.
Leeds: Meslier, Firpo, Ampadu, Cooper (C), Piroe (Summerville 78’), Anthony, Rodon, Shackleton, James (Gnonto 78’), Gray, Roberts, Joseph. Subs not used: Klaesson (GK), van den Heuvel (GK), Cresswell, Kamara, Bamford, Shackleton, Byram.
Referee: David Coote
Booked: Chalobah, Fernandez, Caicedo (Chelsea) Firpo (Leeds)
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Attendance: 37,892