Preview: Charlton Athletic vs Chelsea - prediction, team news, lineups

Liam Rosenior’s era as Chelsea head coach begins on Saturday night when the Blues travel to The Valley to face Championship outfit Charlton Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup.

The two teams meet for the first time since February 2007 when Frank Lampard scored the only goal for Chelsea in a narrow 1-0 away win in the Premier League.

Match preview

Not long ago, Chelsea were deemed potential Premier League title contenders and Enzo Maresca was celebrating his November Manager of the Month award. Fast-forward four weeks and the Italian has departed a club who have tumbled down the table following a run of just one win in nine top-flight games.

Under-21s coach Calum McFarlane oversaw the first team snatch a point in a 1-1 draw at Man City last weekend, but a disappointing 2-1 defeat with 10 men to West London rivals Fulham on Wednesday has seen them slip to eighth in the table, four points behind the top four and a whopping 18 points behind leaders Arsenal.

New boss Rosenior, who sat in the directors' box at Craven Cottage alongside co-owner Behdad Eghbali, is the man tasked with turning Chelsea’s fortunes around, and the 41-year-old has described his appointment on a six-year contract as ‘one of the proudest moments of his life’.

Rosenior has left Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg with a 49.2% win record from 63 games and he is now keen to hit the ground running with a Blues side aiming to lift the FA Cup for the ninth time in their history and for the first time since 2018.

Chelsea have remarkably advanced from 61 of their last 63 FA Cup ties against lower-league opposition, including their last 22 in a row, while they have also won their only two encounters with Charlton in the competition, winning in the fourth round in 1962-63 and the third round in 1994-95 by 3-0 scorelines.

Chelsea will travel across the capital to take on an out-of-sorts Charlton outfit who currently sit 19th in the Championship after winning just two of their last 14 league games since the end of October (D5 L7).

Only basement club Sheffield Wednesday have picked up fewer points in that period than Nathan Jones’s men were, who were in and around the Championship playoffs a few months ago and now find themselves hovering just five points above the relegation zone.

Without a win in four, the Addicks lost by a single goal to both Norwich (1-0) and Portsmouth (2-1) before playing out a 1-1 draw with leaders Coventry City - managed by Chelsea legend Lampard - and sharing the spoils with Blackburn (2-2) last weekend.

Charlton - winners of the 1947 FA Cup and runners-up a year earlier - head into Saturday’s clash with Chelsea having suffered elimination in each of their last five FA Cup third-round ties, last progressing to the fourth round in the 2013-14 season when they knocked out Oxford United in a replay.

The Addicks have also lost eight of their last 11 matches in all tournaments against Chelsea (W1 D2), with a thrilling 4-2 Premier League victory under Alan Curbishley in December 2003 representing their last home win over the Blues.

Charlton Athletic form (all competitions):

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Chelsea form (all competitions):

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Team News

Charlton duo Kayne Ramsay and Onel Hernandez are both ruled out with hamstring injuries, while Josh Edwards and Matty Godden are sidelined with respective ankle and knee problems.

Jones is set to stick with a formation including a back three and wing-backs, with James Bree and Tyreece Campbell the most likely pair to operate out wide as Lloyd Jones, Amari'i Bell and either Macaulay Gillesphey or Reece Burke start at centre-back.

Sonny Carey has scored a team-high five goals this season and will be pushing to start in centre-midfield alongside Greg Docherty and Conor Coventry, while Miles Leaburn and Charlie Kelman are expected to continue as a centre-forward pairing.

As for Chelsea, Marc Cucurella will serve a one-match ban after he was sent off in the midweek defeat to Fulham, while Levi Colwill (ACL), Romeo Lavia (thigh), Dario Essugo (thigh) and Mykhaylo Mudryk (suspended) remain unavailable for selection.

Rosenior is set to make a number of changes to the side that McFarlane began with in midweek, with Filip Jorgensen expected to replace Robert Sanchez between the sticks as Jorrel Hato deputises at left-back in the absence of Cucurella.

The new Blues boss will weigh up whether to start captain Reece James or Moises Caicedo in a deep-lying midfield role alongside Andrey Santos, while Joao Pedro has contributed to seven goals (six goals, one assist) in his last four FA Cup starts with former clubs Watford and Brighton, and he could be preferred to lead the line ahead of Liam Delap.

Charlton Athletic possible starting lineup:

Kaminski; Gillesphey, Jones, Bell; Bree, Docherty, Coventry, Carey, Campbell; Leaburn, Kelman

Chelsea possible starting lineup:

Jorgensen; Acheampong, Fofana, Badiashile, Hato; Caicedo, Santos; Gittens, Estevao, Garnacho; Pedro

We say: Charlton Athletic 0-2 Chelsea

Both teams are not in the finest of form heading into Saturday’s contest, but Charlton possess enough attacking threat to trouble the visitors in front of a fired-up home crowd, so could an FA Cup giant-killing be on the cards?

In our view, Chelsea remain firm favourites to prevail and Rosenior will likely name a Blues lineup boasting enough Premier League quality to overcome their second-tier opponents.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.