“Expectancy is on Chelsea,” Wolves skipper says ahead of FA Cup tie

Wolverhampton manager Paul Lambert has two FA Cup upsets under his belt already this campaign. He knows Chelsea bear all the pressure in today’s fifth-round tie.

Paul Lambert held nothing back in his assessment of Chelsea relative to his Wolverhampton side. With over 35 places separating the two sides in the English pyramid and the weight of history greatly favouring Chelsea, Lambert is not self-deprecating when he casts Wolves as the underdogs.

Lambert sized up Antonio Conte’s squad depth and saw no vulnerabilities. If one world-class player is unavailable or having an off-day, Conte has many more at his disposal.

"You look at their players and every one is an international, everyone on their bench is an international… If Pedro doesn’t play then Willian comes in, or Cesc Fabregas can come in. They have got no weaknesses at all. – SkySports"

Lambert’s comments are at once an honest appraisal, a way of relaxing his squad and heaping some pressure on Chelsea. Despite their struggles in the Championship, Wolves have already dispatched two Premier League clubs from the FA Cup.

Liverpool paid the price for heavy squad rotation in the fourth-round, as Wolves saw them off 2-1. The Blues have substantially more depth than Liverpool, but Lambert is still hoping that the gap in quality between the starters and the back-benchers will be enough of an opening for him to exploit.

Lambert praised Burnley’s performance in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea, but does not plan to imitate their strategy. He implied that Wolves will aim to press Chelsea and regain possession, rather than play defensively behind the ball. This would be a near-fatal strategy against Chelsea’s Premier League XI.

But the FA Cup squad will not have the same speed, precision or internal rhythm – largely due to lack of experience playing together. A few errors and a few lapses in concentration will be all Wolves need to put the Blues on the back foot.

“We will need to punch above our weight and stay in the game as long as we can. We will have to do what we are good at and not get drawn into playing Chelsea’s way,” Lambert said.

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Antonio Conte has warned repeatedly about the dangers of complacency. The draw at Burnley was a bit of a wake-up call that Chelsea cannot underestimate lower-half teams. Ambition, opportunism and discipline are every bit as dangerous from a bottom-half – or lower-tier – team as they are from a top-four contender.