Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic said all the right things after his side’s surprise setback at home against Arsenal last night. “We’re a confident team,” the American left-sided attacking player said after the Gunners completed a league double for the Blues.
“We had some good results. Unfortunately today didn’t go our way but hopefully this is our last little slip-up. We have a lot to play for.” When people look back at this season, they’ll be shocked to learn that a mid-table team swept a UCL finalist in the league, but that’s football.
FA Cup Final FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday May 15, Wembley Stadium, 5:15pm GMT
Team News: Chelsea Leicester City
Starting XI Predictions: Chelsea Leicester City
Chelsea FC news and notes: go here
Odds: Chelsea win 4/9 Leicester City win 7/4
TV, Streaming Info: BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate
Series history: Chelsea wins 57 Leicester City wins 27 Draws 34
Pulisic is spot on, the Blues have a ton left to play for this season, most notably, two cup finals, with the first coming Saturday at the national stadium against Leicester City.
We saw a lot of squad rotation yesterday in the London derby, and that cannot be discounted when assessing the how and why with that result. We predict that Pulisic, nursing a double knock, features as a super sub off the bench to help close this out. Meanwhile Edouard Mendy, N’Golo Kante, Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount should all go back into the starting line-up.
Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction vs Leicester City (FA Cup Final)
Mendy; Silva, Rudiger, Christensen; Chilwell, Azpilicueta, Kante, Jorginho; Mount, Havertz, Werner
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Leicester City 1
The Foxes have reached this stage for the first time in 52 years, but we think it’s going to be Chelsea who add on to the trophy cabinet.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.