Noni Madueke, front, celebrates with teammates after scoring Chelsea’s fourth goal (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
A turnaround in a few senses, on the day, and even in decades.
Chelsea’s private equity owners are essentially subjecting the squad to an unseen experiment in modern football recruitment but all it seems to have done for the moment is to return the club to something like the mid-1990s. They are erratic cup specialists, who look like they have potential but so many issues.
This 4-2 FA Cup win over Leicester City put them into their second domestic semi-final of the season. The game was raucous and hugely entertaining, but there were spells when the crowd was raging at Mauricio Pochettino. That was particularly the case when Chelsea dropped a 2-0 lead and two substitutions were questioned – especially when Mykhailo Mudryk was taken off for Carney Chukwuemeka meaning the erratic Raheem Sterling was left on. Pochettino was then vindicated by the outcome. Whatever the thinking, it worked. Chukwuemeka scored the brilliant match-winning goal.
The truth is that it shouldn’t have been required, which will feed into some of the criticisms that the crowd were making. “Criticism” is a mild word.
There had been a long spell when Chelsea looked like they would run away with it, mostly by just running straight through Leicester. Mudryk and Nicolas Jackson had been enjoying what were their best games together, in how they repeatedly drove at the Leicester defence, and kept going.
Marc Cucurella celebrates after putting Chelsea in front (AP)
Cole Palmer slots home Chelsea’s second goal (Action Images via Reuters)
It perhaps shows the extent of Pep Guardiola’s influence on the burgeoning Leicester manager, Enzo Maresca. While the Catalan’s teams now tend to be watertight with players like Rodri, his early career saw opposition sides seek to exploit a notable glass jaw through counters. Leicester have that same vulnerability, and Chelsea were showing that even in the spell when the Championship leaders were on top.
That brief spell was actually ended by one of those breaks, as Callum Doyle took down Jackson for a red card.
Chelsea should really have been clear well before. In the first major moment of the game, which was also the first goal, Jackson humiliated Jannick Vestergaard with the speed of his feet. That put the forward straight through to easily square for Marc Cucurella to tap home the opener.
Chelsea proceeded to create a number of chances through the exact same approach, two of which were wasted by Raheem Sterling. The first was a one-on-one he somehow skewed wide. The other was a penalty – admittedly won by his own ingenuity – that offered the finish that was required for the earlier chance. Sterling tried to slide the spot-kick down the centre, making it an easy save for Jakub Stolarczyk. The wonder was why Cole Palmer didn’t hit it. If you’re going to take the ball off him, you’d better score.
Sterling aims a tame penalty down the middle (Getty Images)
Axel Disasi is consoled by Robert Sanchez after his own goal (Action Images via Reuters)
For all that Sterling’s performance produced laughs from the away end and sympathy from the home crowd – especially when he skied a late free-kick as if it was a conversion – it was actually a more mixed display. His run to set up the second goal was brilliant, fostering chaos in the way he does. It left an easy finish for Palmer.
It should have been an easy game, only for Chelsea to remind just how wildly oscillating this team is with a farcical 10-minute period. Maybe that’s some of the magic of the Cup, or at least the spectacle of it all. Leicester’s first certainly conformed to the latter. Axel Disasi was haplessly caught by Patson Daka, and the Chelsea defender smashed the ball past his own goalkeeper, Robert Sanchez.
The Leicester equaliser went way beyond spectacle. It was fantastic. Stephy Mavididi displayed brilliant feet to put the ball around Malo Gusto, before exceeding that with the finish. The winger curled the ball around the rest of the backline and into Sanchez’s far corner.
Leicester were on the up, and the Chelsea fans were beginning to come down hard on Pochettino. There were roars of disapproval from the stand near the bench, especially at certain substitutions.
Carney Chukwuemeka slots home Chelsea’s crucial third (Getty Images)
Chukwuemeka is mobbed by teammates (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
The irony was that one of them was the winning of the game. It was admittedly aided by Doyle’s red card. That fostered the greater space for Chukwuemeka to play an exquisite exchange with Palmer, the latter backheeling the return to set up the finish by Chukwuemeka.
The goal to secure the 4-2 win was maybe the best of a fine array of finishes, as Noni Madueke weaved his way through the centre to then brilliantly bend the ball beyond and over Stolarczyk.
Chelsea just about got over another obstacle, to reach another semi-final.
