With Chelsea flying high in the Premier League once more and manager Enzo Maresca overseeing a top four challenge which will hopefully see the return of Champions League action next season, last weekend saw fans distracted with an FA Cup adventure against Morecambe.
The third round draw had given us Stamford Bridge advantage in a tie with struggling League 2 side Morecambe, and although the 44 year old Italian took full opportunity to rotate the starting XI and better share some minutes around, it was a strong match day squad with a very good bench as back up.
Hindsight would show that Chelsea could have taken a few more risks with the game and maybe rested a few more players as we had 28 shots in total over the course of the 90 minutes, and as fans will be well aware we very comfortably came out as 5-0 victors.
Morecambe keeper Harry Burgoyne was impressive and even saved a penalty from Christopher Nkunku, but despite his best efforts between the sticks Tosin Adarabioyo helped himself to a brace, with Nkunku also on the scoresheet with Joao Felix also netting twice.
Having seen some other sides seriously struggle against their lower league opposition over the weekend, Maresca was rightly pleased with a professional and focused showing from his own Chelsea players as we completely avoided a potential banana skin moment after a tough opening half hour, and we will now prepare for a fourth round tie fellow Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion.
Following a poorer festive period, whilst it was not a great performance by any stretch it keeps our FA Cup hopes alive for this campaign and it gets us back to winning ways, so hopefully we will simply kick on again from here.
Chelsea will definitely take the positives though, which includes our third clean sheet since the start of December and getting minutes into both Reece James and Romeo Lavia after their hamstring issues is a definite bonus, as they will be needed as we now edge towards the real business end of the campaign.
Now it is another quick turnaround as we return to domestic league action, and fans can now look forward to another home clash as we welcome Bournemouth to our soil for our midweek encounter.
Many fans will naturally be expecting a win here, but Bournemouth are having a good season of their own and are only three points behind us in the table, so we can expect a tough game as we look to close that gap to Arsenal in second spot.
Over to Maresca.