Chelsea vs Watford- Pre-match Briefing

Credit: This is the Pre-match Briefing ahead of today's FA cup outfit with Watford. It is courtesy of Chelsea club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton and was published in Chelsea official website: chelseafc.com .It is not a property of OSSYsport, I only make it nearer, funnier and s*xier to you :)

CHELSEA vs WATFORD
Date: 4-1-15
Time: 16:00
Venue: Stamford Bridge

Pre-match Briefing:

Chelsea and Watford have been drawn against each other on five previous occasions in the FA Cup with Chelsea progressing in four and Watford once.

Following the last two of these encounters, in 2008/09 and 2009/10, the Blues progressed to the final, beating Everton and Portsmouth at Wembley. The match five seasons ago was at Stamford Bridge.
Carlo Ancelotti's Blues were rapidly out of the blocks against the Championship side, then managed by Malky Mackay. Daniel Sturridge began and ended the scoring with fifth- and 68th-minute goals, John Eustace (own goal), Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard accounting for the other three in a 5-0 thrashing.
Another, more famous meeting actually took place at Thursday's venue, White Hart Lane. The game was a semi-final, on 14 March 1970 in front of more than 55,000 spectators.
Dave Webb had opened the scoring for the Blues after two minutes on a terrible surface, but the plucky Hornets struck back through Terry Garbett. After that it became the Peter Houseman show. The often vilified Chelsea winger scored two himself and set up another for Peter Osgood, who as a result maintained his record of scoring in every round. Ian Hutchinson chipped in too as the Blues ran out 5-1 winners en route to a first ever FA Cup final success over Leeds.

This weekend the Blues are looking to extend our seven-match unbeaten run against the Hornets. Watford last sampled victory in September 2000 in the Premier League, when Allan Smart scored the only goal at Vicarage Road.
Chelsea v Watford in the FA Cup
14 Mar 1970 semi-final at White Hart Lane
Watford…………...1 Chelsea……….….5
Garbett 11 Webb 3
Att: 55,209 Osgood 58
Hutchinson 75
Houseman 73, 79
1 Feb 1987 fourth round at Vicarage Road
Watford…………...1 Chelsea……….….0
Blissett 17 Att: 18,832
3 Jan 2004 third round at Vicarage Road
Watford…………...2 Chelsea……….…….2
Helguson 4 Gudjohnsen pen 32
Mahon 33 Lampard 40
Att: 21,121
14 Jan 2004 third round replay at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea…………...4 Watford……….….0
Mutu 5, 75 Att: 38,763
Hasselbaink 33
Gudjohnsen 84
14 Feb 2009 fifth round at Vicarage Road
Watford…………...1 Chelsea……….…….3
Priskin 68 Anelka 74, 76, 90
Att: 16,851
Chelsea v Watford in all competitions
Games played 26
Chelsea wins 13
Hornets wins 9
Draws 4
Head to head in League and Cup at Stamford Bridge
Games played 12
Chelsea wins 5
Hornets wins 4
Draws 3
Biggest win for each team
14/03/1970 - Watford 1-5 Chelsea - (FA Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane)
05/05/1986 - Chelsea 1-5 Watford - (Old Division One at Stamford Bridge)

TACTICAL BRIEF
Watford are three points behind our recent Capital One Cup opponents Derby County in the Championship table. They have scored three fewer goals this league campaign than the Rams, beaten 3-1 by the Blues on their own soil, and conceded three more.
Their head coach is Slavisa Jokanovic. He made 53 appearances in midfield for the Blues when Claudio Ranieri was in charge between 2000 and 2002. John Terrywas in the team at the time.

Jokanovic's side are playing cannier away from home at present, netting and letting in fewer on the road than at Vicarage Road, and only Bournemouth in their division have won more matches on the road. They usually maintain the same system: 3-5-2, with Troy Deeney (pictured below) and Matej Vyrda upfront.
Jokanovic made six changes at Cardiff on 28 December from the team that lost at home to Wolves on Boxing Day, including top scorer Deeney. The former Villa Academy player, who is now 26, has nine league goals to his name and is not alone among his teammates in fancying his chances from distance, something to which Chelsea will have to be alert.
Deeney's replacement, 24-year-old Nigerian Ighalo is the bustling, combative kind of striker of the type who can cause almost any team problems in the goal area.
In the Championship Watford see a lot of the ball in their opponents' half and wing-backs such as lively Ecuadorian Juan Carlos Paredes are adept at setting up chances with a variety of deliveries.

However the Hornets will be weakened by the loss of two key men for this game. On-loan Algerian midfielder Adlene Guedioura has returned to parent club Crystal Palace and centre-back Sebastien Bassong is ineligible under the terms of his temporary contract at Vicarage Road.
Jokanovic has suggested he will make no allowances for the absentees or the opposition, saying: 'If we decide to wait for Chelsea to attack and hope for a 0-0 then that would be a bad choice. I don't know which players Chelsea will use but I will use my best players to help us in the FA Cup.'
Thibaut Courtois sustained a finger injury at white Hart Lane but it is not yet clear how bad it is. Jose Mourinho will make changes after that defeat but has already made it clear there is little chance of the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Lewis Baker starting against Watford.

Not only does he have senior players who need game time, but Watford are no pushover. He rates them one of the best sides in their division, their confidence boosted by a full end of travelling Hornets supporters.
It is possible Petr Cech will come in for Courtois, Filipe Luis and Kurt Zouma may feature in defence, and John Mikel Obi, as well as Ramires, return to the fray in midfield.
Diego Costa has hit three goals in five games and will always crave more, but other attacking options are Loic Remy, who has played just a few minutes over Christmas, and Didier Drogba, involved in the three late December games.

Drogba is Chelsea's highest scoring current player in this competition with 12 goals, and hit a hat-trick against the Hornets during their brief sojourn in the Premier League in 2006. Skipper Terry, meanwhile, has faced Watford four times previously and helped keep clean sheets on each occasion.