With a new cup campaign beginning tomorrow for the Blues, club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton complete their thorough third-round preview…
WE HAVE HISTORY
Chelsea and Derby have been drawn against each other on four previous occasions in the FA Cup with honours even in terms of wins and losses.
On 9 January 1988 Chelsea travelled to the Baseball Ground with young manager John Hollins (pictured below left) under immense pressure. Newspapers were already suggesting only victory in the FA Cup could save his job after a disappointing league campaign.
The Blues had not won for 10 games and the most recent victory on the road had come at Manchester City in the little-regarded Simod Cup way back at the end of September. No Chelsea player, not even Kerry Dixon, had hit the net for four games and he was among those icons strongly rumoured to be leaving the following May for a little over a million pounds.
Although they were five places lower in the Division One table than the 11th-placed visitors, Arthur Cox’s side were rated 11/10 favourites to progress by bookmakers – they had won the corresponding league game 2-0 six weeks earlier, Gordon Durie missing a penalty that would have opened the scoring.
There were several thousand away fans behind the goal to see their heroes turnout in the all-red change strip used that season. The pitch can best be described as diabolical and this was a game that exploded into life early on. Chelsea winger Kevin McAllister (pictured below right), found by a searching Joe McLaughlin header, beat veteran Peter Shilton after five minutes to register his third Chelsea goal.
The Rams’ David Penney equalised with a sliding finish after the same interval. It stayed poised at 1-1 until straight after the break when Dixon, who was back to his bustling best, pounced on a misjudgement by Mark Wright to sneak in and put the Blues ahead with a low left foot drive that squirmed under Shilton.
With Mickey Hazard dominating midfield Chelsea were good for the advantage, but County still had chances. Then substitute Roy Wegerle made the result secure by hitting his second goal of the season, Hazard intercepting a Derby free kick with his head to set the South African off on a 40-yard run to goal.
Roger Freestone brilliantly saved John Gregory’s late penalty kick and the game finished 3-1. However, Chelsea bowed out to Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 0-2 in the fourth round, and Hollins was replaced at the helm by Bobby Campbell a few weeks later.
Chelsea have played six times at Pride Park, all in the Premier League, winning three, drawing two and losing one.
Our last visit there was on 24 November 2007 with Chelsea winning 2-0. The teams that day were:
Derby (4-5-1): Bywater; Griffin, Moore, Davis, McEveley; Fagan (Earnshaw 84), Oakley (c) (Feilhaber 83), Leacock, Jones, Barnes (Howard 74); Miller.
Chelsea (4-3-3); Cudicini; Belleti, Ben-Haim, Terry (c), A Cole; Sidwell (Essien 74), Mikel, Lampard (Pizarro 89); Wright-Phillips, Shevchenko, Kalou.
Scorers: Kalou (17), Wright-Phillips (73). Sent off: Essien (90+2). Crowd: 32,789
Chelsea v Derby in the FA Cup
4th round, 25 January 1947, Stamford Bridge
Chelsea..………………….2 Derby County.…………..2
Williams 26 Stamps 20
Lawton 70 Carter 89
Att: 49,484
4th round replay, 29 January 1947, Baseball Ground
Derby County….……….1 Chelsea………………………0 (after extra time)
Stamps 99
Att: 19,079
3rd round, 10 January 1953, Baseball Ground
Derby County….……….4 Chelsea………………………4
McLachlan 35 Bentley 58
Parry 44 Parsons 70
Lee 67 Armstrong 76
McClaren 69 McNichol 78
Att: 24,867
3rd round replay, 14 January 1953, Stamford Bridge
Chelsea..………………….1 Derby County.…………..0 (after extra time)
Parsons 98
Att: 38,115
4th round, 29 January 1983, Baseball Ground
Derby County….……….2 Chelsea………………………1
K Wilson 20, 89 Fillery 80
Att: 23,383
3rd round, 9 January 1988, Baseball Ground
Derby County 1-3 Chelsea
Derby Manager Arthur Cox
Peter Shilton, Ross MacLaren, Michael Forsyth, Geraint Williams, Mark Wright, Paul Blades, Nigel Callaghan, David Penny, Philip Gee (Andrew Garner), John Gregory, Brian McCord (Michael Lewis).
Scorer: Penny (10)
Chelsea Manager John Hollins
Roger Freestone, Darren Wood, Tony Dorigo, Steve Clarke, Joe McLaughlin (c), John Bumstead, Kevin McAllister, Mickey Hazard, Kerry Dixon, Gordon Durie (Roy Wegerle 52), Clive Wilson
Scorers: McAllister (5), Dixon (46), Wegerle (72)
Referee: Roger Milford
Attendance: 18,753
Other cup meetings
League Cup
1968/69 (3rd round) Stamford Bridge Drew 0-0
(Replay) Baseball Ground Derby won 3-1
1972/73 (3rd round) Baseball Ground Drew 0-0
(Replay) Stamford Bridge Chelsea won 3-2
Chelsea v Derby in all competitions
Games played 104
Chelsea wins 37
Derby wins 38
Draws 29
Biggest win at Derby for each team
Derby 0-4 Chelsea 07/04/2001 (Premier League)
Derby 5-0 Chelsea 24/04/1920 (Old Division One)
DAYS SINCE
Chelsea played at Pride Park: 2,234
Derby beat a top-flight team in the FA Cup: 5,846
Arsenal won a trophy: 3,151
Liverpool won the league: 8,646
TACTICAL BRIEF
Even after the impressive 3-0 win at Southampton Jose Mourinho was urging his squad to become more efficient in front of goal: to ‘kill’ opponents with the first and second chances, not the fifth.
The Chelsea manager’s substitutions changed the game as Willian and Oscar were fresh and able to exploit fatigue in the Saints’ ranks, but the Blues had created several good goalscoring opportunities long before then.
It seems likely that Demba Ba will start upfront against Derby County as he was the only striker not to figure in the festive season league matches. The Senegalese netted four goals in last season’s FA Cup campaign.
Back in early December it had been a switch to 4-4-2 that undid Southampton. It shows the squad’s increasing flexibility that the Blues dominated from start to finish with a 4-2-3-1 then a 4-3-3 formation. Mourinho has indicated he will maintain a strong side for this game while resting some players if he considers it necessary ahead of the first free midweek for a long while.
The Southampton win was achieved without the injured Frank Lampard and Branislav Ivanovic, both of whom Mourinho has ruled out until the end of this month. David Luiz is available for selection this weekend having served his one-match ban and may return to the midfield role he executed so well against Liverpool.
Twenty-year-old Czech defender Tomas Kalas was warming up as a replacement when Cesar Azpilicueta was in the wars at St Mary’s and may see some action this weekend. Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer may stand in for Petr Cech.
Under Steve McClaren Derby play a passing game with many of their attacks originating from the flanks in a 4-3-3 formation. The former England manager likes to use an inverted winger or two to add directness and shooting opportunities.
Fast, gangly Simon Dawkins is a powerful right-footer who likes to cut inside from the left. The forward was bought from Spurs on yesterday (Friday) having impressed during a loan for the previous three months.
On the right, Scots winger Johnny Russell is more of a dribbler and crosser, but wins lots of fouls.
Jamie Ward is a key playmaker capable of playing anywhere across attacking midfield and one of the Rams’ best men on set-plays.
Chris Martin is small for a striker but has good link play, flicks and finishing skills. Tall Irish striker Connor Sammon is one of the names in the Rams’ line-up more familiar to Chelsea fans – he has featured three times against the Blues for Wigan (two defeats and a draw).
In the league defeat at home to Wigan they paid the price for dozing off midway through the second half when a corner was taken short. Perhaps that showed that while talented, they are still quite an inexperienced squad.
The Rams are guilty of allowing opponents too many shooting opportunities and are vulnerable defending set-pieces, particularly in the air. Most of their regular back five boast just handful of games against Premier League opposition – loanee Andre Wisdom was the opposition right-back in Chelsea’s 1-1 home draw with Liverpool last season.
Defensive midfielder John Eustace, 34, might warn his more callow teammates about the dangers of switching off against the Blues having faced us three times since 2000 with Coventry twice and Watford in the 2010 FA Cup. One game ended in a draw but the others were 6-1 and 5-0 thrashings, the latter featuring a clumsy own goal he would not wish to repeat.