MY ACCOUNT
Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder believes FA Cup rivals Chelsea will believe “the world’s against them” after owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government.
An FA Cup quarter-final at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday evening sees Chelsea go up against a Championship team who have knocked Manchester United and Tottenham out of the competition already.
Wilder, who previously managed in the Premier League with Sheffield United, will have Middlesbrough’s players geed up for the occasion.
But he suspects Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea will also be determined to deliver a big performance, suggesting they have developed a “siege mentality” since the club sank into crisis.
He also believes the London club as a whole have woken up to the reality of their situation, having been roundly mocked for suggesting the Middlesbrough game be played behind closed doors.
On the pitch, Chelsea’s players have shown focus since the club’s crisis surfaced, beating Norwich City, Newcastle United and Lille in consecutive games.
“I’ve not taken too much notice about all the stuff that’s happened over the last week and a half. This is an outstanding team in every aspect of the game. A squad I would imagine is worth about a billion pounds,” Wilder told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“They’ve got world-class players and a world-class manager, regardless of all the stuff that’s been going on. They are still in the hunt for a top-three finish and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup.
“Their mentality I imagine should have been strengthened, with a little bit more of a siege mentality, that the world’s against them, and they will certainly want to progress in the cup.”
Chelsea were set to travel north by bus, rather than taking a private jet, with belt-tightening measures having been drawn up since the club was placed in special measures.
Abramovich has been sanctioned over links to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and the club have been barred from selling tickets or merchandise.
When Chelsea requested that the Middlesbrough game be played without spectators for the sake of “sporting integrity”, the London club faced ridicule and soon backed down.
Wilder was baffled too, saying: “I think like 99.99 per cent of people who love the game, [I thought] ‘What is going on?’,” he said.
“A bit of head scratching at the time. It was a decision that was met universally with displeasure. I don’t know another word to use, it was baffling.
“There was a quick turnaround in terms of what they wanted to happen, maybe checking themselves a little bit, getting a grip of themselves and saying, ‘Well really this shouldn’t happen’, and coming to a sensible conclusion.”
Since recording back-to-back Premier League wins over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in February and August 2006, early in the Abramovich era, Middlesbrough have lost each of their last eight matches with the Blues in all competitions without scoring a single goal.
Middlesbrough will be appearing in their first FA Cup quarter-final since 2016-17, when they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City. They have been eliminated at this stage on each of the last four occasions they have reached the final eight, since making the semi-finals in 2005-06 under Steve McClaren.
Wilder suggests Middlesbrough have only “a puncher’s chance” ahead of the visit of the third-placed team in the Premier League.
“But we want to give it a good go,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the biggest upset in cup history, but we are certainly up against it.”
