While most people will be watching the Champions League on Wednesday night, Chelsea’s attention will be on their 3rd round Carabao Cup tie against fellow Premier League side and old rivals Leeds United. There’s always an expectation of a fiesty game between these two. They famously met in the 1970 FA Cup final, which Chelsea won after a replay. The replay is notorious for being one of the roughest games of all time. Michael Oliver reviewed the game under modern standards in 2020 and determined he would have given out 11 red cards. The actual game saw just a single yellow. Chelsea reached this stage with a comfortable 2-0 home win against League 1 Luton Town, while Leeds qualified by dispatching of Premier League rivals Nottingham Forest for the second time in a week. Despite recent success in European and World competitions, Chelsea have not won a domestic trophy since the FA Cup in 2018, an unacceptable drought for a club of this size. The Blues have lost their last 7 domestic cup finals since then, which includes 3 in this competition, so correcting that will be a major goal for Xabi Alonso. If you think Chelsea’s drought is bad, Leeds’ is a lot worse. Their last domestic cup triumph was the FA Cup in 1972, and their sole success in this competition came in 1968. Chelsea will be looking to bounce back after suffering a first defeat of the season on Sunday at Arsenal. Leeds are still unbeaten in all competitions following Saturday’s draw with Brighton, and will hope to continue that record at Stamford Bridge. Given the strength of the opposition and the importance of the competition to both teams, I don’t expect to see too much rotation from either side. The sides met 3 times last season, with a different Chelsea manager in charge of each. Leeds beat Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road in December in what would end up being one of Enzo Maresca’s last games in charge. In February, Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea squandered a 2 goal lead at home to draw 2-2 (I thankfully missed that game as I had a prior commitment to be in a table quiz). Caretaker boss Callum McFarlane finally managed to get the better of Leeds in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, with a narrow 1-0 win in April. Can Chelsea’s blistering attack take them through, or will the defensive problems rear their head again?