While there will not be a full attendance at Wembley on Saturday, it will be the first time that Thomas Tuchel, Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech will have played with the physical presence of Chelsea supporters cheering for them.
It will be Chelsea’s 15th appearance in an FA Cup Final and they have lifted the trophy eight times so far.
Their previous appearance came last season when, despite taking the lead in the fifth minute through Christian Pulisic, Frank Lampard’s men were beaten 2-1 thanks to a combination of Arsenal and referee Anthony Taylor.
If Chelsea win the trophy against Leicester City, Tuchel will become the first German to have managed a team to victory in the competition.
A win for The Blues will alleviate much of the pressure on the manager to ‘deliver’ and will help them to feel confident going into their last two league fixtures, one of which is against Leicester.
The defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday evening leaves Chelsea’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League in the balance.
However, should the FA Cup be secured, Chelsea supporters will be looking back to 2012 when, after a mid-season change of manager, Robbie Di Matteo led his players to a double of the FA and European Cup.
With Chelsea facing Manchester City in Porto in a fortnight’s time to play for Europe’s ultimate club prize, supporters are hoping for a case of déjà vu.
Meanwhile, Leicester City’s final record is one of misery having played in four and lost all of them.
However, earlier this season, Chelsea travelled to the King Power Stadium and were defeated 2-0 in a match in which they looked uncharacteristically downhearted.
Despite that, I’ll be backing Chelsea to win the game within 90 minutes at 1.90 and I’ll also be placing money Kai Havertz to score anytime at odds of 3.30 with our friends at FansBet.
About the Author
Londoner David Johnstone is a home, away and European away Chelsea supporter and has missed just six matches since 2001 (although he’s quick to state there are plenty of other supporters with better attendance records than him).
He has been involved with the fanzine scene at Chelsea since around 1991 and started the ‘cfcuk’ fanzine in 1999 which was, until Mr Abramovich bought the club in 2003, named ‘Matthew Harding’s Blue And White Army’.
David was also responsible for forming both the Chelsea Supporters’ Group and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust which are the main two bodies that represent the followers of Chelsea FC and take their concerns to those running the club.
A founder of the highly regarded Chelsea FanCast weekly podcast (but is no longer involved) and responsible for the crowd surfing banners and supporter displays that are seen in the Matthew Harding Stand at Stamford Bridge on matchday.
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