LONDON — Mauricio Pochettino famously dismissed the domestic cup competitions during his time in charge of Tottenham as little more than a distraction, but they are providing a soothing balm for what has been a painful Premier League campaign for his Chelsea team.
For Blues fans, the prospect of a cup run is the one thing seemingly keeping their faith from bursting at the seams. So much so that you could clearly sense the relief they felt when a four-goal blitz in the second half eventually saw Chelsea outclass Championship side Preston North End at Stamford Bridge to book their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
It is often said that a cup triumph can galvanise teams, particularly those operating under new leadership offering novel ideas and a fresh approach. There is perhaps no other club in the world so in the thrall of anything new and shiny, irrespective of its quality, than Chelsea. Ever since the Todd Boehly-led Clearlake Capital consortium purchased the club in 2022 and invested more than £1 billion on young talent, there are remarkably few points of reference left in this corner of west London.
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It’s a club and a team that has been distorted, reshaped, and amortised into an unrecognisable version of what went before. Who do the fans identify with anymore? Why does the club want to let Conor Gallagher leave? When did they sign Lesley Ugochukwu?
Here, though, Pochettino opted to hand academy graduate Alfie Gilchrist his first start for the club and handed the captain’s armband to Levi Colwill. In the absence of match-winning quality from their expensively assembled teammates, particularly during a slow burning first 45 minutes in which Chelsea failed to score for the consecutive 11th match, the Chelsea youth products provided steel and determination in an old-school FA Cup fixture which needed exactly that.
Gilchrist was excellent during his 61 minutes on the pitch. Colwill, meanwhile, has that rare Rio Ferdinand-esque gift of gliding across the pitch towards an opposition attacker like a figure skater before clattering into them with the force of a freight train.
