F.A. Cup is arguably the best and the most historical domestic cup competition in England.
Various teams from different leagues of England take part in this competition to crown themselves as the “Kings of England”.
The competition has now reached its final stages; semi-finals will occur on the 17th and 18th of April, 2021.
Chelsea will face Manchester City while Leicester City will clash against Southampton.
Thomas Tuchel Looks For His First Chelsea Trophy
Chelsea will face Manchester City in the first semifinal, which will take place at the famous Wembley Stadium on the 17th of April, 2021.
Thomas Tuchel, who took over from Frank Lampard mid-season, is looking for his first trophy as a Chelsea manager.
Under Thomas, the Blues have improved quite a lot defensively, which they were lacking during Lampard’s era.
Chelsea is yet to concede a single goal in this competition under Tuchel this season and the German manager looks to keep the record that way.
The best defensive team will face off against the best-attacking team in this competition.
Chelsea have lost only once under Tuchel in all competitions, and that happened against relegation-struggling West Brom 5-2 at Stamford Bridge.
However, after losing the game, a lot of people started to question Chelsea’s form and if they would be able to regain their confidence back.
Chelsea bounced back right away. They beat Porto 2-1 on 2 legs and thrashed Crystal Palace in the London Derby 4-1.
The Blues are in a good run of form and will look to perform better during this semi-final clash.
Pep Guardiola Still Hopes For A Quadruple
No English team has ever been able to achieve the Quadruple in their history. However, Manchester City are in contention to be the first team to do exactly that.
This City team is arguably one of the best teams to ever set foot in the footballing competition.
Under Pep Guardiola, this team has just lost one out of their last fourteen games in all competitions and are at the top of the Premier League with 74 points in 32 games.
Also Read: Can Manchester City Win The Quadruple
Even though they are alive in all 4 competitions: Champions League, Premier League, F.A. Cup, Carabao Cup; they face tough opponents and have to deal with constant fatigue among the players.
City faced their first defeat at the hands of an unlikely opponent; Leeds United. The 10 men Leeds showed exactly why counter-attacking football is one of the best.
The loss didn’t however affect the morale of Man City and they beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 for the second time to take a 4-2 aggregate win and cruise towards the semi-final of the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola’s men will face Paris Saint Germain on the 29th of April for the first leg at Parc Des Princes.
Tuchel: The Rotation Master
A lot of the managers tend to rotate their squad during domestic cup competitions to give chances to either younger players or players who rarely feature in other competitions.
Thomas Tuchel is one of the managers that like to keep on rotating his squad. In Chelsea, he doesn’t have a fixed lineup apart from some players who he believes are keen for optimum performance.
With this in mind, we believe the German will field this lineup against Manchester City at Wembley:
Starting Lineup: Kepa (GK), Hudson-Odoi, Azpilicueta (C), Zouma, Silva, Jorginho, Gilmour, Alonso, Pulisic, Abraham, Ziyech
Subs: Caballero (GK), Rudiger, Chilwell, Emerson, Kante, Havertz, Giroud, Reece James, Christensen
This lineup is however just our assumption based on Thomas Tuchel’s preference and style of play.
How he will put his squad will totally depend on the form and the willingness of the players to improve.
Manchester City: A Team In Desperate Need of Rest
Pep Guardiola and his side are currently fighting for the prestigious quadruple. This means, his side has to be ready to play their full potential in four different competitions.
As a result, the players will face high fatigue when they play continuously without any rest.
So, we believe that for this clash, Pep will field a different team with a lot of changes, keeping in mind the UCL semi-final against PSG.
There has been a rumour going around that young American Goalkeeper Zack Steffen will get the nod to start in place of their number 1 choice Ederson.
Starting Lineup: Steffen (GK), Walker, Laporte, Ake, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Rodri, De Bruyne (C), Sterling, Jesus, Ferran Torres
Subs: Ederson (GK), Cancelo, Stones, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, Foden, B.Mendy
