Chelsea vs Leeds United Preview: McFarlane's Wembley Audition, Rosenior's Sacking & Calvert-Lewin's World Cup Stage
On Wednesday the 22nd of April, the day after Chelsea lost 3-0 at Brighton, Liam Rosenior was sacked. A hundred and seven days into a six-and-a-half-year contract. Five straight Premier League defeats without scoring, the first time Chelsea have managed that since 1912, and the travelling support had been chanting for his dismissal long before the final whistle.
Four days later, Chelsea play an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. The man picking the team is Calum McFarlane, Chelsea's Under-21s head coach, a 40-year-old whose senior managerial record before last week consisted of two games in January. He is on the touchline because nobody else was available in time, and because a club that has cycled through five permanent managers in four years has no shortlist and no lead candidate.
The fall that finally cost him his job
The numbers Rosenior left behind do not belong to a team anywhere near the top five. Across the last eight league game-weeks Chelsea have taken five points from 24, second-worst in the division behind Tottenham. The three defeats before the sacking told the same story on loop: Manchester City 3-0, Manchester United 1-0, Brighton 3-0. Three games, zero goals.
The last Chelsea side to fail to score in five top-flight matches was playing in the First Division in 1912.
Rosenior, after the Brighton defeat, called the performance “indefensible” and said he was no longer willing to defend it. The club made the same judgment inside 24 hours.
Forty-eight points from thirty-four games leaves Chelsea eighth, after Bournemouth overtook them on the night of the Brighton defeat. A maximum finish of sixty points will not get them back into the top five, and Liverpool sit seven points ahead in fifth with a game in hand. Champions League qualification is functionally gone. The FA Cup is what is left of the season.
The strange part is that this is the same group that was fifth in the Premier League in early January, beating a Barcelona side unbeaten at the Camp Nou 3-0. Nine of the players torched at Brighton started that night. The squad did not come apart; the structure around it did.
The man who picked up the pieces
McFarlane's CV is a youth coach's CV.
Calum McFarlane: The Coaching CV
Senior managerial games before this week: 2
Manchester City academy
Southampton U18s & U21s
Chelsea U21sWhen Maresca left on the 1st of January, McFarlane was the nearest set of hands in the building. He took a senior squad to the Etihad with 48 hours' notice and walked out with a 1-1 draw, Enzo Fernández equalising in stoppage time. Three days later Chelsea lost 2-1 at Fulham after Marc Cucurella was sent off inside 22 minutes.
The squad he is picking from on Sunday has Cole Palmer and João Pedro as fitness doubts, Estêvão ruled out for the rest of the season, and Robert Sánchez in goal because Filip Jörgensen is recovering from groin surgery.
A draw, a defeat with a red card attached, a 4-2-3-1 in both. That is the full senior sample.
McFarlane told the press on Friday he did not yet know whether Palmer or Pedro would feature. “They both trained today and are in a good place. We don't know yet, but we have another day tomorrow to have a look at them and then make a call.” Estêvão, the teenager whose goal and assist at Port Vale made him the youngest player to do both in an FA Cup tie for a Premier League side since Saka in 2020, is out for the rest of the season.
If he wins on Sunday, McFarlane becomes the first English coach to reach an FA Cup final since Frank Lampard in 2019-20.
The team Chelsea have to beat
Leeds arrive at Wembley on a seven-match unbeaten run with four clean sheets inside it, and a manager whose job is not being discussed. Daniel Farke's side have already beaten Chelsea this season, 3-1 at Elland Road in December, and came back from two down at Stamford Bridge in February to draw 2-2. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, top scorer with twelve goals across all competitions, was on the scoresheet at Elland Road and has scored from the spot in both regulation time and the shoot-out across this FA Cup run.
The contrast with Chelsea is why the bookmakers' price on Leeds has shortened through the week. Farke's team is functioning. It defends in a back three, shifts to a back four when the game asks for it, and has everything Chelsea do not.
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Chelsea FA Cup goals in four rounds this season. Four or more in every tie.
There is a caveat. Leeds have conceded eleven goals from the ninetieth minute onwards this season, more than any other Premier League side across all competitions. At Bournemouth in midweek Leeds needed a ninety-seventh-minute Sean Longstaff equaliser to take a point. They survive these moments; they do not always close them out. If McFarlane can keep the scoreline level into the final twenty minutes, a Chelsea side that has scored twenty FA Cup goals in four rounds, four or more in every one, has the profile to punish the team that fades late.
0
Goals Leeds have conceded from the 90th minute onwards this season, more than any other Premier League side across all competitions.
What they'll look like on Sunday
Chelsea are expected to set up in the same 4-2-3-1 McFarlane used in January, though the front four depends on Palmer and Pedro's fitness tests on Saturday. If both play, Palmer shifts to the right flank to free Pedro in the number ten role behind Delap. If neither makes it, Enzo Fernández pushes higher with Neto and Gusto on the flanks, and a striker question nobody has a confident answer to. Neto, if selected, makes his hundredth Chelsea appearance in all competitions.
Leeds are expected to stick with the 3-4-2-1 that has carried their unbeaten run. Jayden Bogle (foot) and Sébastien Bornauw (ankle) both picked up knocks in midweek and are expected to feature only if their recoveries hold. Ilia Gruev is out for the season with a meniscus injury. Anton Stach, whose availability Farke described on Thursday as hinging on “the next seventy-two hours,” may make it back into training in time. Lucas Perri, the cup goalkeeper, is expected to start.
Predicted Chelsea XI (4-2-3-1): Sánchez; Acheampong, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fernández; Palmer, João Pedro, Neto; Delap
Predicted Leeds XI (3-4-2-1): Perri; Rodon, Bijol, Struijk; Bogle, Ampadu, Tanaka, Justin; Aaronson, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin
The head-to-head that reads only one way this season
Chelsea and Leeds have met six times in the FA Cup and Chelsea have progressed on every occasion. Only one of those came at a neutral ground, the 1967 semi-final at Villa Park, a 1-0 win settled by Tony Hateley, and only one at Wembley, the 2-2 FA Cup final in 1970 that Chelsea won in the Old Trafford replay. The most recent tie was the 3-2 Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge in the fifth round in February 2024.
The live history is sharper. Leeds have not lost to Chelsea this season. The 3-1 at Elland Road in December was earned through their pressing and set pieces; the 2-2 at Stamford Bridge in February was a character test they passed after falling two behind. A team that has solved Chelsea twice already has reason to believe it can solve them a third time.
Leeds have their own Wembley problem to answer.
The last time a Leeds player scored at Wembley was Eric Cantona, completing his hat-trick in a 4-3 win over Liverpool in the 1992 Charity Shield.
Calvert-Lewin, Palmer, and the matchups that matter
Two individual duels Sunday turns on.
Calvert-Lewin vs Fofana and Chalobah. Twelve goals already, a body holding up after two seasons of doubt, and a motivation that goes beyond the cup. He has put himself in the World Cup conversation and Wembley is the stage to finish the campaign. Chelsea's central defensive pairing is not settled and not in form, and Calvert-Lewin is the kind of aerial and physical forward they have not coped with all season.
Palmer vs Ampadu, if he plays. The Leeds captain has man-marked number tens out of matches before and will be the first line of resistance if Palmer is passed fit. The question is whether McFarlane moves Palmer into a wider position where Ampadu cannot follow him without unbalancing the Leeds midfield. That call will tell you more about the interim manager than any press conference line.
What the weekend settles
For Chelsea, the table conversation ended at Brighton. Champions League qualification is gone, the league season is four games of damage control, and the rest of 2025-26 now sits inside the FA Cup. Winning on Sunday takes them to a final on the 16th of May. Losing ends the season with a month of fixtures still to play and a manager search that has not yet begun.
Premier League Standings Snapshot
| Team | # | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 8 | 34 | +8 | 48 |
 Leeds United | 15 | 34 | -7 | 40 |
Chelsea eighth, eight points behind Liverpool in fifth. Leeds nine points clear of the bottom three with four games left.
For Leeds, an FA Cup final would be the biggest day in the club's modern history. A season that was supposed to be about Premier League survival would finish as a cup run that redefined the year. This is their first FA Cup semi-final in 39 years; their last final was in 1972-73. Nine points clear of the bottom three with four games left, only a specific kind of collapse would reverse that. Sunday is not about staying up. It is about what else this season can become.
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Years since Leeds' last FA Cup semi-final. Their most recent final was in 1972-73.
Gillett's first FA Cup Wembley, no grievance either way
Jarred Gillett takes the game as his first FA Cup tie at Wembley, having previously officiated at the 2022 League Two play-off final and the 2024 Community Shield at the national stadium. His card rates are unremarkable, his red-card rate well below league average, and he has handed out five Premier League penalties this season. He has taken Chelsea three times in 2025-26, all wins, and Leeds four times across the Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Brentford fixtures. Neither camp has a complaint about his appointment.
The audition McFarlane did not expect and cannot refuse
There is a version of Sunday where McFarlane's Chelsea come out of Wembley with nothing, the manager search accelerates, and the 40-year-old goes back to the under-21s having done what was asked. There is a second version where McFarlane's Chelsea reach an FA Cup final, and a career spent in academies suddenly has a moment on the biggest stage in English football.
Neither outcome transforms Chelsea's season. A trophy in May would paper over a table position that should embarrass a club of this size and spending; a defeat would confirm a collapse already confirmed at Brighton. For McFarlane personally, though, Sunday is a rare thing in English football. A single afternoon that can rewrite a career. The man who sacked his predecessor four days ago has handed him 90 minutes, plus extra time if it comes to it, to show what he can do when the pressure is not theoretical. That is more than most coaches his age ever get.
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