Chelsea find their edge ahead of FA Cup final against City
At Anfield, with the season sagging and the narrative already written, Chelsea finally snarled back.
Six minutes in, they were staring at another grim chapter. Ryan Gravenberch stepped inside and curled Liverpool in front, the kind of early punch that has floored this Chelsea side too often in recent weeks. Seven straight league defeats loomed, an unwanted piece of English football history, with an FA Cup final on the horizon. The backdrop could hardly have been darker.
Then came resistance.
Enzo Fernandez’s free-kick, drifting through a crowded area and into the net, did more than level the score. It changed the mood. The goal steadied a team that has spent the spring wobbling, and it gave shape to something Calum McFarlane has been hunting since he stepped in as interim head coach: a platform, a structure, a reason to believe Manchester City can be more than a formality at Wembley.
Marc Cucurella, pushed high and aggressive as a wing-back, felt it too.
“I think the effort today was really good,” he told TNT Sports. “I don't think it was probably our best moments, but we showed if we play together then we have a good level.
“We are happy that we showed we're a really good team if we put in the effort and fight together. Hopefully we can win a bit of confidence from this game because next week we have a massive game.”
For weeks, confidence has been in short supply. Chelsea slid out of the Champions League race with barely a murmur. Liam Rosenior left amid whispers that the dressing room had tuned out his ideas. Nottingham Forest, fighting for their lives and heavily rotated, came to Stamford Bridge and won 3-1 in McFarlane’s first league game, a result that underlined how far standards had dropped.
McFarlane’s first job was simple: stop the bleeding. At Anfield, he did more than that.
Chelsea were applauded off by their travelling support, a small but significant detail for a team that has tested its fanbase’s patience all season. The performance also hinted at something more valuable – a tactical route into a season-defining FA Cup final against City.
McFarlane ripped up his previous blueprint and went with a back three for the first time in his interim spell, only the fourth time Chelsea have used it all season. Under Rosenior, the shape had looked awkward, producing two defeats against Premier League opposition and an unconvincing FA Cup win over Wrexham. Enzo Maresca never touched it in his 18 months in charge. There was no evidence this was the answer.
The players provided it.
Levi Colwill, starting for the first time in 10 months since the FIFA Club World Cup final, brought instant calm. He took the ball, demanded it again, and stitched together Chelsea’s build-up from deep. His presence, alongside the recalled Wesley Fofana, gave the back line a different authority.
“I thought Levi was the best player on the pitch,” McFarlane said. “He gives you the ability to play out from the back, he's a leader and that was his first 90 minutes in a long time.”
Colwill’s return came with a familiar rhythm: Fofana alongside him, a partnership that clearly suits both. On the other side, Jorrel Hato was back too, one of the few to emerge with credit from Chelsea’s recent slump. Between them, the three centre-backs offered something Chelsea have been missing – stability and clarity.
That platform changed everything further up the pitch.
The system unleashed Cucurella on the left. No longer chained to his own penalty area, he drove high and hard at makeshift right-back Curtis Jones, repeatedly exposing Liverpool’s reshuffled flank. On the other side, the shape protected a squad stripped of natural width. Four senior wingers were missing, two 17-year-olds – Mathis Eboue and Ryan Kavuma‑McQueen – filling out the bench. This was not a night for orthodox wide men. It was a night for improvisation.
Cole Palmer, battling through a barren spell of 10 club games without a goal, flickered back into life. He linked play, found pockets, and thought he had finally ended his drought, only for a marginal offside against Cucurella to scrub the effort off. Still, it felt like a step in the right direction, a reminder of the player who lit up Chelsea’s winter.
The context around all this remains harsh. Chelsea’s Premier League campaign is still a long way from the expectations set by their hierarchy. Fifth place has slipped beyond reach. They have gone 14 league games without a clean sheet, their worst such run since 1979, and they have just one win in their last 11 top-flight matches. Those numbers do not lie.
Yet the cup tells a different story.
Chelsea can point back to last summer and a Club World Cup campaign that saw them beat the champions of Spain, Italy, England and France before overcoming Paris St‑Germain in the final. This is a squad that, for all its flaws, knows how to rise for a one-off occasion.
McFarlane has already shown he can coax that side out of them. The 1-0 win over Leeds in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley was tight, tense and nervy, but it proved his team can handle the pressure of a knockout stage under the arch.
Against Liverpool, he found something else: a structure that fits the players he has left.
The injury list has forced his hand. With the flanks depleted, the back three and wing-backs offered a practical answer. It also dovetailed with a welcome wave of returning quality. Reece James stepped back onto the pitch for the first time in almost a month, a substitute cameo that will be monitored closely this week. The club hope Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto will be available to face City too, adding incision to a team that has often lacked it.
After the Forest defeat, McFarlane chose not to lash out. He asked for a reaction instead. At Anfield, he got one.
“We got the reaction we wanted and hopefully we can build on that,” he said. “It was a good point and a good performance. It was a game that could have gone either way. We had moments to win it, which was disappointing in that respect, but it was a much‑improved performance and I'm pleased.”
That last line matters. Pleased, but not satisfied. Chelsea had chances to take all three points. They did not take them. Against City, those margins will be even thinner.
Still, the mood music has changed. The back three has a leader again in Colwill. Cucurella looks liberated. Palmer is edging back towards his sharpest self. The fight, so obviously absent in recent weeks, has reappeared.
City will walk out at Wembley as favourites. They usually do. But Chelsea now head there with something they did not have a fortnight ago: a clear idea of who they are, how they want to play, and a performance under pressure that suggests this season might yet end with their hands on a trophy rather than their heads.
