Rivalries Renewed - Chelsea (a) Preview

The coverage of the 1970 FA Cup final was one the top 10 viewed television shows of the 20th Century and the final which needed a replay to settle was a cynical affair that created a rivalry that stands to this day. 

Leeds officially bowed out of the Premier League at Stamford Bridge in May 2004 and will return for the first time since on Saturday. That was the Chelsea team in the first year benefiting from Roman Abramovic’s billions whilst Leeds were barely keeping their head above water. 

There has only been one meeting between the sides in between, a 5-1 League cup defeat at Elland Road in 2012 after the whites were leading 1-0 at half time. 

Time has done nothing to dampen the rivalry you feel, not least as this is the latest installment of Frank Lampard v Marcelo Bielsa. 

The obvious talk ahead of this game will be about ‘spygate’ nearly two years ago. Frank Lampard lost any repect from Leeds fans for making a media shitstorm out of what in hindsight wasn’t that big of an incident. It clearly rattled ‘Fat Frank’s’ cage and even more so when Bielsa revealed every detail of his Derby County side to the world in his now famous press conference. Bielsa managed to get under his skin so much the last we saw of him was him dancing on our pitch at Elland Road having had the last laugh in winning the play-off semi final in 2019; and then allowing a member of his team to take a shit on the away dressing room floor whilst singing a mocking/ paypack version of “Stop crying Frank Lampard”. 

For me personally, Im petty. The whole spygate episdode made me bitter about a lot of people in the football world for their uneducated comments on Bielsa. Martin Keown’s xenophobia of people who don’t speak English and Tony Cascarino becoming a doctor and labelling Bielsa ‘austisic’ were cases in point. It caused chaos to our promotion bid that season, caused a lot of stress to us fans with rumours of points deductions etc and I hate Lampard for it. 

Im very excited for this game. We wanted to be promoted to play our real rivals (Chelsea and Man United rather than the lesser Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town derbies), I want to beat Chelsea and I want to make Lampard cry again. 

For the game itself, it represents one of the toughest tests this league has to offer in any season. Chelsea have been allowed to splash the cash again after their transfer embargo and have in usual Chelsea fashion have been spending it like its going out of fashion. Timo Werner looks to be settling in really well now and in Ngolo Kante they have an engine room better equipped than most to deal with Leeds’s energy. 

There will also be the novelty of having supporters in the stadium for the first Leeds game since March 7, with Chelsea being allowed to house 2,000 fans under London’s tier 2 retrictions, although with the social distancing and the fact there will still be 40,000 empty seats hardly encourages a hostile atmosphere, not that there ever is at Stamford Bridge. 

However I am riding on the crest of a wave after our brilliant win at Everton last week and going for a high scoring draw which would be a very good point for Leeds. 

The team that has started the last two games have been exceptional but I am very tempted to start Rodrigo this game. He is a player of similar class to some of Chelsea’s A-listers and watch the match winner at Stamford Bridge for Valencia in a Champions League clash.  

 Prediction: 
Chelsea 2-2 Leeds United   

Preferred Starting X1:

1997-98 - Chelsea 0-0 Leeds 

 Leeds hold on to a goalless draw despite being down to 9 men in the first half.