How should Chelsea line up against lower-league Port Vale in the FA Cup?

COBHAM, ENGLAND - MARCH 31: A detailed view of Naomi Girma of Chelsea's boots during a Chelsea FC Women's Training Session at Chelsea Training Ground on March 31, 2026 in Cobham, England. (Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images) | Chelsea FC via Getty Images The international break is over and we are back in action this weekend. I hope you enjoyed your (relatively) Chelsea-free last ten-twelve days.

But even for our present condition, this first match back should be a nice and easy one. It may be the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, but Port Vale are sitting dead last in the third division. That they’ve made it this far is a minor miracle, thanks to favorable draws (all home games and only two teams from the top two divisions) and four straight 1-0 wins in the competition (including against Sunderland in the previous round).

But they will be away for once and surely, even in our current state, we can at least avoid a repeat of Barnsley 2008 or Bradford City 2015. Many of our players saw lots of minutes over the break unfortunately, though as far as we know, no one’s picked up any new injuries. The official website posted a few pictures from training yesterday (Thursday): Enzo was the only conspicuous absentee from them, though maybe he was getting in one more interview about how lovely Madrid is this time of year.

Unfortunately, the break was not nearly long enough to get our injured players back, so the likes of Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, and Jamie Gittens remain out. Levi Colwill’s hoping to maybe play before the end of the season, but certainly not just yet. And Filip Jörgensen is recovering from some sort of surgery.