Capital One Cup Match Preview: Shrewsbury Town v Chelsea

Chelsea face Shrewsbury Town tonight

For the second round running Chelsea are playing lower league opposition in the Capital One Cup when we travel to Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night.

Just two days have gone since the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, but Jose Mourinho is likely to make several changes to avoid fatigue.

Players like Mohamed Salah, Nathan Ake, Kurt Zouma and Petr Cech are expected to start alongside John Mikel Obi and Andre Schurrle, who both are working their way back to match fitness after injuries.

Chelsea team news

Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta are both suspended and miss out, while Diego Costa and Loic Remy still are injured.

The match could mark the return of Ramires though, who was thought to feature against Manchester United, but in the end didn’t make it in time for that match.

Oscar and Zouma scored the goals in the 2-1 win against Bolton in the third round of the Capital One Cup.

About the selection headache ahead of the match, Jose Mourinho said:

We are in a difficult situation because of the Man United game on Sunday. We’ve only had one day to prepare but when you look at the players who didn’t play – Schurrle, Salah, Zouma, Ake, Mikel – these boys are obviously going to have to play. After that I have to play with players that played the game against Man United.

Shrewsbury team news

The League Two side are in good shape ahead of the visit from the Blues, and are lying fourth in the league, three points off leaders Luton, after four wins on the spin.

Micky Mellon’s side came from behind to beat Portsmouth at the weekend, and their hopes of an upset will be improved by the return of captain Liam Lawrence.

Also striker Andy Mangan is fit again from injury but is expected to start the match on the bench from the home side.

Shrewsbury have beaten Blackpool and Norwich in the Capital One Cup this season, as well as Premier League opposition in Leicester.

They will be well up for the match and have installed temporary seating to bring the capacity up to 10,000.

The stats

John Terry played when the teams last met back in 2003 when Chelsea came out as 4-0 victors.

Shrewsbury last beat Chelsea in the 2-0 win in 1983, but the Blues have not lost in the League Cup against lower league sides since 1999.

The match kicks off at 7:45pm on Tuesday.

We predict a 3-0 win and progression to the next round.

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