Saturday’s defeat in a West London derby with Brentford has confirmed that Chelsea are still in the midst of a crisis, even if it appeared they had begun turning a corner in recent weeks.
Yet another humbling by the Bees at the Bridge means they were sent crashing back down to earth, having now lost all three Premier League West London derbies at home against Thomas Frank’s men.
Chelsea’s win over Brighton & Hove Albion in the last round of this competition started a three-game winning run for Mauricio
Pochettino, before then drawing 2-2 with Arsenal in a game where they were in the ascendancy.
However, a mere 12 points from 10 matches means Pochettino’s side find themselves back in the bottom half, and they must ensure this does not become a banana skin of a cup tie which could heap even more pressure on the Argentine.
Chelsea did look uninspiring in limping to victory against AFC Wimbledon in round two, but the club have only lost to lower-league opposition once in the last 15 years – against Bradford City in the FA Cup in 2015.
One ominous sign is that they have often struggled to get past this stage in recent years, suffering elimination at the fourth round in four of the last eight seasons.
Those cup wins have been littered with goals too, as the 2002 winners are the competition’s top scorers, having beat Walsall
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4-3 in round one, Harrogate Town 8-0 in round two and fellow Championship side Cardiff City 5-2 in the previous round.
The fourth round is as far as Blackburn managed to get last season though, when they were knocked out by another Premier League opponent – eventual semi-finalists Nottingham Forest.
The last time Rovers managed to progress further than this stage was back in 2011-12, when they eventually succumbed to Cardiff in the quarter-finals
