For Leicester City, this weekend brings the quest for the club’s first FA Cup title, as well as the first trophy in a half-decade. Yes, it’s already been five years since the Foxes defied 5,000-1 odds to lift the 2015/16 Premier League trophy, which was the club’s fifth top flight piece of silverware (one Community Shield, three EFL Cup titles).
The 140th FA Cup finale will feature Leicester making their fifth appearance, against southwest London giants Chelsea. Let’s take a look at the underdog’s team news.
FA Cup Final FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday May 15, Wembley Stadium, 5:15pm GMT
Team News: Chelsea Leicester City
Starting XI Predictions: Chelsea Leicester City
Chelsea FC news and notes: go here
Odds: Chelsea win 4/9 Leicester City win 7/4
TV, Streaming Info: BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate
Series history: Chelsea wins 57 Leicester City wins 27 Draws 34
Team News
Jonny Evans is still recovering from a heel injury, and faces a race against time to be fit for the final. After Tuesday’s win over Manchester United’s B Team, Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers said:
“We’re just going to assess it over the next few days. It was just too big a risk for him this evening, he’s still in pain, but he’s very determined to be out there at the weekend for us, so we just have to assess that over the next two or three days…We’re hopeful. He’s a warrior, Jonny, he’s a tough guy.
Sometimes you can have an injury and play with it, but this is one where it’s at the bottom of his foot and he can’t put pressure on his foot.”
There are no other fresh injury concerns, but Harvey Barnes, James Justin, Wes Morgan and Cengiz Under are all out of commission for this one.
Leicester City Starting XI Prediction vs Chelsea FA Cup Final
Kasper Schmeichel; Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Wesley Fofana; Timothy Castagne, Ricardo Pereira, Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans; James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho, Jamie Vardy
FA Cup Prediction: Chelsea 2, Leicester City 1
The Foxes have reached the FA Cup final for the first time in 52 years, but we think Chelsea will be the ones adding to the trophy cabinet.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.