Chelsea will host third-tier Port Vale at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night for an FA Cup quarter-final match. They want to avoid losing for the fifth time in a row under head coach Liam Rosenior.
The Blues want to shake off a terrible March and start the last part of the season with some momentum on their side. Chelsea are currently in sixth place in the Premier League with 48 points from 31 games. They’ve only won one of their last five games and let in 14 goals in the process. After losing 8-2 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16, they lost two straight Premier League games to Newcastle United and Everton. This left the FA Cup as their best chance to win a trophy this season.
Cole Palmer’s season has been full of injuries, which have messed up his rhythm and hurt Chelsea’s overall campaign. The 23-year-old has scored nine goals and assisted on one in 20 Premier League games this season, but he has only scored once in his last five league games.
Time: Saturday, April 4, 2026, at 5:15 PM BST
You can watch it on BBC One and TNT Sports 1 in the UK, ESPN in the US, SonyLiv in India, and Stan Sports in Australia.
Prediction: Chelsea will beat Port Vale 3-1. Chelsea should move on to the semi-finals because they are much better than Port Vale, even though Port Vale have been playing poorly lately. However, Port Vale’s cup pedigree this season means they won’t go down without a fight at Stamford Bridge.
Ben Waine Put Port Vale On The Verge Of Making History
Port Vale are in the FA Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 1954, when they reached the semi-finals. This is an amazing accomplishment for a team that are currently at the bottom of League One and look almost certain to be demoted to the fourth tier next season.
Ben Waine, a 24-year-old international from New Zealand, has been the hero of their cup run. He scored the winning goal in three straight rounds against Bristol Rovers, Bristol City, and Sunderland. When Sunderland couldn’t clear a corner, Vale Park erupted with joy when he scored a header in the first half against the Black Cats. The third-tier team beat a Premier League team ranked 57 places higher than them.
Before Saturday’s trip to Stamford Bridge, the boyhood Newcastle fan told ESPN:
“The difference in standard is there — the world champions, they play in the Premier League and we are where we are in the league.”
Waine says that Chelsea are under a lot of pressure and that his team have nothing to lose going into the game.