Good evening and welcome to our FA Cup fifth-round clockwatch featuring the ties between Chelsea and Leeds United, kicking off at 7.30pm, Wolves and Brighton at 7.45pm and Liverpool vs Southampton at 8pm. In addition we have a separate blog running for Nottingham Forest vs Manchester United, which you can follow in the traditional minute by minute style.
First up is Leeds United’s first meeting with Chelsea in the FA Cup for 54 years, since the notorious final replay of 1970, still the most popular TV match in British history, commanding an audience of 28 million to watch Chelsea’s victory in extra-time. That was Chelsea’s first FA Cup triumph but they have gone on to win seven more, the latest in 2018 under Antonio Conte. Leeds would have to wait two years to win their one and only Cup and haven’t even made a quarter-final for 21 years. They have won all nine of their Championship games in 2024 as well as a draw and two wins in this competition but have late fitness doubts over their two most productive players, Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville, and face a daunting Saturday-Tuesday-Friday schedule for their next three league games so may feature some of the benched irregulars at the Bridge.
It is 63 years and counting since Stan Cullis led Wolves to their fourth and so far last FA Cup and they haven’t been in a final since, blowing their best chance of a return when surrendering a 2-0 lead with 11 minutes to go in the semi against Watford in 2019. Brighton failed to make their first Cup final return since 1983 only on penalties last season and were beaten in the last four in 2019 as well. Roberto De Zerbi’s side were 4-1 winners at Molineux back in August when Gary O’Neil had barely got his feet under the table never mind made much impact but things have improved dramatically since then with Wolves in ninth only a point behind Brighton in seventh, and they drew last month in dear old Sussex by the sea.
Liverpool, eight-time winners, most recently in 2022, have significant injury problems though Jürgen Klopp said yesterday that Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez, who missed Sunday’s Carabao Cup final victory, had outside chances. Wataru Endo, who played all 120 minutes of the final, is also nursing a knock. Either at the start or at some point, therefore, Klopp will back his kids again just like at Wembley. After a club record 22-match unbeaten run in the league, Saints have lost three of their last four and will surely use this as a free hit before their trip to St Andrew’s on Saturday. They won the Cup in yellow and blue in 1976 but will take on Liverpool tonight either in white and green or all black, emphasising once again the kit manufacturers’ and clubs’ enduring prejudice against yellow which tends to be beloved by fans, as home supporters recalling King Kenny in primrose would tell you.