Chelsea defeated Championship side Barnsley 1-0 on Thursday in their FA Cup fifth round. It was a hard-fought as Tammy Abraham’s only goal in the second half of the game settled the scoreline. Having beaten Sheffield United 2-1 in the Premier League in the previous game, Chelsea tasted yet another victory.
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel put 10 new faces in the starting XI from the previous Premier League match. This caused problems as the team struggled to find the rhythm in going forward. As a result, no great opportunity came in Chelsea’s way and neither did they made any themselves. Tuchel tried to rectify the line-up by bringing Reece James in place of Alonso in the second half and Andreas Christensen came in place of Antonio Rudiger in the backline.
Chelsea pushed a counter-attack as soon as they found the ball. Billy Gilmour took advantage of the space left by Barnsley players and sprinted forward before giving the ball to Reece James. Reece James then delivered a perfect ball to find Tammy Abraham who was there at the right moment to tap it inside and give the Blues 1-0 lead.
Barnsley came very close as Michael Sollbauer almost equalized immediately after coming from the bench in the second half. His efforts were first saved by Kepa and his rebound flick was cleared off the goal-line by Tammy Abraham in the 78th minute with a fully stretched header.
It was Tuchel’s fifth victory in four games in all competitions and this also marked the fourth clean sheet on a row for the team. Chelsea will face Sheffield United in the next round.
