Chelsea: Remember the FA Cup? The Blues earn a favorable draw

It’s almost time for the return of the FA Cup and as Chelsea enters the competition in the third round, it draws a dispensable opponent.

In a season where Chelsea—amongst other European teams—have played as many as three matches in the span of a week, it’s easy to get lost in the chaos of the fixtures. One competition that found itself on the back burner in the eyes of many fans is the FA Cup. Between England’s top flight and Europe’s premier continental competitions, supporters of big clubs have let the magical memories of the cup fade.

The Blues were able to make it to the final last season before a series of injuries saw them fall to their north London foe, Arsenal. The odds were stacked against Chelsea, but Frank Lampard’s side was still determined to earn the manager his first trophy back at his former club. Another run at the FA Cup trophy begins soon though as the third round draw saw the Blues learn their inaugural opponent of this year’s tournament. Stamford Bridge will be the venue hosting the match between Chelsea and Morecambe FC.

If you’ve never heard of Morecambe, you aren’t alone, not many know much about the clubs deep in the trenches of English football. While teams like Arsenal were drawn tougher matchups than most (Newcastle), others—like Tottenham (at Marine)—got lucky. That’s the magic of the cup after all, right? Chelsea wasn’t quite as fortunate as Spurs, but the Blues will welcome an easily conquerable adversary.

Morecambe currently plays in the fourth tier of English football. The Shrimps sit 14th in League Two, having won just one of their last five domestic matches. Despite having been around since 1920, Morecambe’s highest finish in English football was a fourth place finish in the aforementioned division during the 2009-10 season. The club went onto lose in the semifinal of the promotion playoff that same year. While the Shrimps don’t have much silverware to their name, they are one of the only teams across England’s top four divisions to have never been relegated; quite the feature for a group that has been playing football for 100 years.

Morecambe will have its hands full when it travels to Stamford Bridge in January though. Luckily for the Shrimps, the Chelsea fixture is squeezed between two matches where they face opposition lower than themselves in League Two—Bradford City and Walsall. It doesn’t make the daunting task of taking on the Blues any easier, unfortunately for Morecambe.

For Chelsea, this not only represents a likely free pass into the fourth round of the FA Cup, but it also gives Lampard the rare opportunity to completely rotate mid-season. The coaching staff will get the unique chance to assess some fringe players in the middle of the transfer window, all while playing in a meaningful match. No disrespect meant to the Lancashire side, but this is set to be a walk in the park for the Blues. When the FA representatives drew Morecambe as Chelsea’s opponents, nobody was worried and rightfully not. All things considered, this match is exactly what it’s meant to be, a worry-free game in the opening stages of England’s most prestigious tournament.

Let’s all hope that Morecambe one day becomes the answer to a trivia question that reads “who kicked off the FA Cup campaign that saw Lampard win his first Chelsea trophy?”, as anything else would be a slight disappointment at this stage.