The road to Wembley starts with a nice home tie against Championship side Pompey, whilst the visitiors are once again looking for new owners their form has improved of late.
Blues will be without Didier Drogba and Saloman Kalou who have left for the African Cup of Nations.
John Terry could miss the ties as he is struggling with a knee injury.
Andre Villa-Boas will see this as a competition that has to be won, but he is likely to give some of the younger players a chance to play.
Pomey welcome back Greg Halford and Joel Ward from suspension but Luke Varney is struggling with a knee injury, but they welcome Ricardo Rochaback back after missing the last two matches through suspension.
Recent meetings
The two teams met for the 2010 FA Cup final when the Blues 1-0 win, on that day Drogba scored the only goal of the game and Frank Lampard even missed a penalty.
Pompey managed a draw at home back in February 2008 but you have to go back to 14th December 1960, for when today’s visitors last beat Chelsea.
Betting
As expected you won’t get much of a return on a Chelsea win (2/9) but you can get 10/11 on the Blues being the only scorers and the same odds for both teams to score.
Daniel Sturridge has enjoyed third round day over the last couple of years and he’s favourite to open the scoring at 7/2, meanwhile Fernando Torres is 4s and Juan Mata is 6s.
This fixture traditionally provides lots of goals, if Chelsea get off to a good start then the goal should flow – For over 4.5 goals you can get a tasty 12/5.
By Scott Balaam
Twitter @AStamBridge2Far
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