Chelsea 2 Plymouth 1 (AET)
Kepa saved an even later penalty as Chelsea fought back from conceding early on to advance to the
FA Cup fifth round at the expense of a resilient Plymouth Argyle side.
The Pilgrims of League One took us all the way having gone ahead as early as the eighth minute through Macauley
Gillesphey’s header. We hit the woodwork three times before Cesar Azpilicueta impressively drew us level as
half-time approached, his delicate flick a fine way to open his account for the season.
We laid siege to Plymouth’s goal for large swathes of the second half, racking up 35 shots by full-time,
but we could not find a way past Mike Cooper and his disciplined defence. One save from the young Plymouth stopper
to deny Mason Mount was especially eye-catching.
did muster a breakthrough at the end of the first half of extra-time. Sub Alonso was on the end of a slick move to
make it two Spanish scorers today.
Another Spaniard, Kepa, then reproduced his penalty-saving heroics to stop the tie going to a shoot-out.
He guessed correctly to hold on to Ryan Hardie’s spot-kick with just a couple of minutes of the extra 30 remaining.
Credit must go to Plymouth who put in a tremendous showing and ran a very strong Chelsea side close, but it is our
name that will be in the hat when tomorrow’s draw takes place. Before then, the Blues will fly to Abu Dhabi as
attention turns to another cup competition, the Club World Cup.
As promised, Tuchel named a very strong starting XI to get his players back up to speed after a rare fortnight
between games. In fact, Andreas Christensen for Thiago Silva was the only change from the team that so
convincingly beat Tottenham in our last outing, with a back four again the formation of choice.
The Brazilian and Christian Pulisic were absent having been on international duty on the other side of the world
this week, but will join up with the team before the flight to Abu Dhabi.
Kenedy was a substitute following his return to the group. Plymouth’s team contained former Chelsea Academy player
Jordan Houghton.
The Pilgrims navigated some early choppy waters without too much alarm. The travelling support were briefly
worried by a Jorginho daisycutter that skidded wide in front of them, but they were on their feet dancing with
delight in the eighth minute when Gillesphey glanced in Houghton’s inviting free-kick.
We nearly grabbed a second before the break, a tiny deflection taking Jorginho’s shot just wide, and from the
resulting corner we couldn’t force the loose ball in. 1-1 and all to play for on a glorious winter’s afternoon
in SW6.
Alonso emerged for the second half, replacing Christensen. Sarr shifted infield.