Stamford Bridge is the venue for an FA Cup mismatch on paper on Saturday afternoon, as Chelsea and Morecambe square up to one another in the third round.
Enzo Maresca's men are bidding to atone for recent wrongs in their first FA Cup encounter of the season, as a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace last weekend stretched their winless Premier League run to four matches.
Meanwhile, their League Two opponents have already seen off Worthing and Bradford City in the 2024-25 tournament, but they also have bigger fish to fry domestically, sitting in the bottom two of the fourth-tier table.
Here, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at the head-to-head record and previous meetings between the two sides.
© Imago
Head-to-head record
Previous meetings: 1
Chelsea wins: 1
Draws: 0
Morecambe wins: 0
When Chelsea and Morecambe cross paths on January 11, it will be almost exactly four years to the day since they first met in a competitive contest, having also faced off in the third round of the 2020-21 FA Cup.
A match played at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no fans present at Stamford Bridge to witness the demolition job Frank Lampard's men inflicted on the Shrimps, who succumbed to a 4-0 defeat on that occasion.
Mason Mount and Timo Werner were on target in the first half of that third-round tie, before Callum Hudson-Odoi and now-Arsenal man Kai Havertz rounded off the scoring in the second 45.
It has been all change in the Chelsea ranks since that comfortable win over the Shrimps, as Ben Chilwell is the only player from that matchday squad still at the club, and even he has been ostracised from the camp under Maresca.
Of course, fellow full-back Reece James was also in the Blues' first team at that time, but the injury-plagued defender missed that third-round triumph with one of the many hamstring problems he has suffered down the years.
For Morecambe, their Stamford Bridge beatdown in 2021 came during Adams's first stint in charge of the club; the Shrimps boss has since taken charge of Bradford City and Ross County either side of another two spells with the League Two side.
Defeat to Chelsea four years ago has contributed to Morecambe losing all three of their previous FA Cup matches against Premier League teams by a score of 10-1, and the Shrimps are still yet to make it past the third round of the tournament.
In contrast, the Blues have won 35 of their last 36 FA Cup clashes versus teams from a lower league, and since the competition's current format came into effect in 1925, they have advanced from 80% of their third-round games, more than any other side to play at least 10 matches at this stage.
Previous meetings
Jan 10, 2021: Chelsea 4-0 Morecambe (FA Cup Third Round)
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Ben Knapton
