Tottenham v Chelsea - The Run So Far!

[Tomo 21,681]

Arch rivals Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs go head to head at Wembley for the right to play either Liverpool or Everton in the showpiece final in May.

Both sides have had similar results in the FA Cup so far.

The 3rd round was about as routine as it could get for both clubs, Chelsea beating Portsmouth 4-0 with goals from Juan Mata, Frank Lampard and a brace from Ramires. Tottenham saw off Cheltenham 3-0 at White Hart Lane with goals from Jermain Defoe,Roman Pavlyuchenko and Giovani Dos Santos.

The 4th round saw both sides progress but in unconvincing manners, Tottenham were out played for large parts of their tie against Watford at Vicarage Road but progressed thanks to a long range shot from Dutchman Rafeal Van Der Vaart. Chelsea weren't outplayed in their tie at Loftus Road but the game was very uninspiring and a debatable penalty struck home by Juan Mata saw Chelsea gain revenge for their 1-0 league defeat at the same ground.

The 5th round saw both sides forced into replay's. Chelsea were again poor as they survived in the Cup through the skin of their teeth drawing 1-1 to Birmingham City, Daniel Sturridge sparing The Blues their first FA Cup home defeat to lower league opposition since 1991 by cancelling out David Murphy's close range strike that gave The Bluenoses a shock lead. Juan Mata had a penalty saved by Birmingham keeper Colin Doyle in between both goals.

The replay at St Andrews saw a new man in the dugout, a defeat to West Brom Albion saw Andre Villas Boas sacked as Chelsea manager, his assistant and Chelsea legend Roberto Di Matteo took over on an interim basis until the end of the season. He got off to a great start winning the replay 2-0 with goals from Juan Mata and Raul Meireles, the only downside off the night was Juan Mata had yet another penalty saved by Colin Doyle but this time it didn't cost The Blues and Leicester City awaited them in the quarter final.

Tottenham also took their time securing their place in the last 8, a drab 0-0 draw at Stevenage saw them forced to a replay where they fell behind after 4 minutes when Stevenage's Joel Byrom scored from the spot. A Jermain Defoe double and a penalty by Emanuel Adebayor in between the brace killed a potential upset and set up a quarter final tie at home to Owen Coyle's Bolton.

Tottenham's quarter final tie with Bolton got abandoned after 41 minutes as Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed away from the ball, getting rushed to hospital, both sets of players and fans were unite in stunned silence and Howard Webb ended the match. Thankfully Fabrice Muamba is now on the road to recovery.

The game did go ahead a week and a half later and Tottenham ended up 3-1 winners. Ryan Nelsen, Gareth Bale and Louis Saha getting the Spurs goal with Kevin Davies earning a consolation goal for The Trotters.

Thankfully Chelsea's 5th round tie at home to Leicester didn't have an incident of the same scale, but with the match being a day after the incident there were constant chants of theirs only one Fabrice Muamba from both sets of supporters. Chelsea won the match 5-2 with Gary Cahill opening the scoring and his account for Chelsea and showing his pray for Muamba shirt in celebration, a nice gesture for his striken former team mate. Saloman Kalou quickly added a 2nd with barely 20 minutes gone to give Chelsea a 2-0 lead which they held to the break.

After half time Fernando Torres broke his 24 game goal drought with the 3rd goal. Jermain Beckford, who scored against Chelsea twice for Everton last season, gave the Foxes a glimmer of hope, scoring from the rebounds after the impressive Neil Danns hit the post but that hope was washed away 7 minutes later where the London buses phrase came to mind when Fernando Torres new goal drought lasted all of 18 minutes as he headed in from a Meireles cross. Ex Manchester United youngster Ben Marshall got the award for goal of the day however, with a fantastic strike leaving Petr Cech stranded. Raul Meireles ended the scoring with a good finish from outstanding Fernando Torres's pass.

Off to Wembley!