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After beating Stoke 1-0 on Sunday, Chelsea earned themselves a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup. There was much talk in footballing circles about how disappointing the fourth round draw was, with only one all-Premier-League clash (which we just played), but this round looks to be rather more explosive. The top four were all drawn together -- Liverpool have to travel to the Emirates, while the Blues managed to get themselves the most difficult draw possible: Manchester City away.
Obviously this is a fairly major blow to our chances of advancing to the quarterfinals. City have been one of the top teams in the country and have been absolutely devastating at home. We might have already topped them at Stamford Bridge, but so far the only side to have taken anything off them at the Etihad are Bayern Munich, and I'm inclined to believe that we're not quite at that level yet.
So, what does Jose Mourinho think of all of this? Considering his complaints after previous draws, which mostly involved wondering why we're almost always the away side (five out of six so far this year), surely there'd be some sort of epic rant?
Nope:
Jose: 'Our priority is to improve and the best way to improve is play against Man City twice in 15 days away from home.' #CFC
— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) January 26, 2014
Jose: 'We are ready to go to City and enjoy it. We will go there with a good attitude and we have nothing to lose.' #CFC
— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) January 26, 2014
The funny thing is he's probably right. This is the toughest fixture on the domestic schedule, and we're getting a double dose of it inside 15 days. There's no way a team striving to get better should be shy of matches like this, and even if we lose them we'll learn a great deal. And if there's any team capable of going to the Etihad and getting a result at this point, it's Chelsea.
Yes, it would have been nice if Watford had done us a favour and held onto that 2-0 lead they opened up against City on Saturday, but if we want things done right, we'll have to do it ourselves. And if by some chance we do actually win this tie, having beaten the best will make it all the sweeter.
