The initial reaction of many when Saints drew Chelsea at St Mary's in the FA Cup was that at least we will be able to concentrate on the League, but it's not that cut and dried.

Those that see Chelsea's victory in the FA Cup at St Mary's as a mere formality on January 5th should perhaps look at the fixture list that the London club have in the four weeks leading up to the game, they start off with a Champions League fixture on Wednesday and then in the next month have to squeeze in five Premier League fixtures, a Capital One Cup quarter final at Leeds and a trip to Japan mid December for the World Club Championship where they will play at least one game and if they win that a second in the final.

So by the time Chelsea arrive at St Mary's they will have played a minimum of 8 games perhaps 9 with a lot of travelling thrown in, of course they have a big squad, but it will be pushed to the limits by this gruelling schedule and that will probably mean that it wont be anything near a full first team that begins their defence of the trophy at Saints.

For our part we only have to play 5 games in the same period and instead of a long haul flight to Japan we have a two week break mid December in which to charge our batteries and that will be of great benefit to us with a busy Xmas schedule coming up.

So Saints can beat Chelsea in the Cup and this could be a good thing, I have never subscribed to the idea that going out of the cup lets you concentrate on the League, in these days of big squads, it gives you a chance to play a few fringe [players and get competition for places hotting up and if you win games you instill a winning mentality, it certainly did for us ten years ago as our Cup run focused the side in both that competition and the League.  

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simmo400 added 12:32 - Dec 3 Dream on Nick. Saints were in awe of Liverpool so what will we do against the bright lights of Chelsea ?
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A1079 added 22:11 - Dec 3 I can't see it happening Nick. We seem disinterested in the cups and when it comes to playing top sides we seem to fall short. We should be interested in this cup, and like you, I don't think you should put all your eggs in one basket, because you are likely to come out of it with egg on your face. To just concentrate on the league is short-sighted.
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