The youth cup has been one of the brightest spots of the season for Chelsea fans thus far, as despite being one of the youngest (if not the youngest) side in the tournament they've been generally impressive in their march to the quarterfinal. Forest would be a real test though, as they've been the most prolific side in the tournament so far and were coming off of a demolition of Southampton (one of the top academies in the country).

Ade Viveash kept basically the same side as he played against West Ham. He played Reece Mitchell on the left wing and slid Amin Affane into the advanced midfield slot previously occupied by Anjur Osmanovic. Jamal Blackman arrived a few hours before kickoff after returning from Naples to take his place in the goal.

The game got going in a hurry, and Chelsea was immediately under heavy pressure as Forest was sprinting to close down space and challenge every pass. Chelsea didn't have any real possession early, and aside from a Lucas Piazon curler that struck the post and what should have been a penalty as Piazon was floored in the box, they offered little threat in the early going. They'd soon find themselves in a very familiar position, trailing early as a poor clearance from Adam Nditi was pounced on and David Morgan found the back of the net. This is starting to become routine for the Chelsea youth, and it really does appear to have a lot to do with the tendency of opposing clubs to play ultra high pressure against them early. That style of play has been stereotypical of the English game for an awful long time, so to see it being instilled in the youth of the smaller clubs really doesn't seem shocking. I suppose this is one of the things the FA hopes to curb by installing the EPPP this coming summer, but enough on that for the moment.

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I'm sure most of us would like to move on from the Napoli game as quickly as possible, and luckily for us the always exciting Youth Cup is back in action today. Today will feature a trip to Nottingham Forrest in a tie that would send us through to our fourth semi-final in five years. The lineup will likely be largely unchanged from last week's tie with West Ham if the weekend's youth team and Monday's reserve team were any indicator. Forrest have been one of the most dynamic attacking teams in the tournament scoring 14 goals, although 9 of those goals were scored by deadline day purchase Patrick Bamford.

Chelsea will likely continue in their 4-3-3 formation that they've been using throughout the season. With Danny Pappoe still out injured I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us run the exact same starting 11 out against Forrest. Jamal Blackman may not be available though, as he traveled to Naples with the first team this week. With that in mind, I'd expect something along the lines of the following:

Beeney, Kane, Chalobah, Ake, Nditi, Baker, Swift, Osmanovic, Affane, Feruz, Piazon.

Blackman for Beeney is certainly possible, but I'd be fairly surprised by that move. I've also yet to hear anything about the injury to Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but his return would likely mean Osmanovic starts on the bench. The game will be live on Chelsea TV with coverage beginning at 1:30 EST (and the game kicking off around 2). Have at it, and if you're watching the Inter/Marseille or Bayern/United Basel ties feel free to use this thread as well.

Assuming Chelsea can navigate their fifth round replay against Birmingham City, who managed to hold the Blues to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, they've got what looks like another straightforward draw in the quarterfinals. Another Championship team awaits - it's Leicester City at home.

I don't want to say Chelsea will cruise to a win on March 6th, because I'm nowhere near that confident, but no matter how poorly we're doing of late we're still going to be favourites to advance against Birmingham. If we do get through, it'd be nice to get a straightforward win to take us into the semifinals. On paper, the only other team that can match us remaining in the competition is Tottenham Hotspur (who managed to draw against a League One side today), so we have to take advantage of a fairly kind draw. A couple of trips to Wembley this year would make us all feel quite a lot better about things.

Full draw after the jump...

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So, a 1-1 home draw against a Championship team in the fifth round of the FA Cup isn't exactly what the doctor ordered. However, it's a lot better than a loss, which is what we were looking at after a first half performance that resembled the display at Goodison Park, just against a far worse team.Had this been a league game, I'd have been apoplectic, but in the FA Cup it's not really so bad. The replay is set for March 6th, which is conveniently timed for me to be on a plane to Holland.

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Chelsea starting lineup (4-3-3): Petr Cech; Ryan Bertrand, David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic; John Obi Mikel, Raul Meireles, Ramires; Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, Daniel Sturridge.

Substitutes from: Henrique Hilario, Jose Bosingwa, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Florent Malouda, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou.

Birmingham City starting lineup (4-5-1): Colin Doyle; Pablo Ibanez, Curtis Davies, Stephen Carr, David Murphy; Wade Elliott, Keith Fahey, Margaro Gomis, Jordan Mutch, Nathan Redmond; Adam Rooney.

Substitutes from: Jack Butland, Steven Caldwell, Jonathan Spector, Chris Burke, Callum Reilly, Jake Jervis, Akwasi Asante.

Bertrand escapes the basket!

This might be the most important game against Birmingham City that Chelsea will ever play. It's certainly the most important that I can remember, but considering I have a bad memory and haven't been on the planet that long, that's not really that high a bar. Anyway, Chelsea play Birmingham City in the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. At stake is a place in the quarterfinals, one that looks pretty appealing with the two Manchester sides already out of the competition.

Why is this match so important? As you may have noticed, the Blues aren't exactly in a happy place right now. Since beating Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road in an unimpressive performance, Chelsea are on a run of three draws and a loss, and have dropped to fifth in the Premier League as a result. They need something good to happen, and this game presents us with the chance to either regain some confidence or make everything ten times worse.

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The U18 squad advanced to the quarter-final stage with a second consecutive victory via the penalty spot. Chelsea have been prone to conceding early this season, and looked very conservative during the opening 5 minutes of the contest. They had a very offensively oriented 4-3-3 from the start, but were very slow in their buildup play and seemed more focused on not making an early error than they were in finding the back of the net. They didn't concede early though, and with the way the Youth Cup has been going for them that was real progress.

After the early nerves were settled, Chelsea picked up steam and began to look lethal in the attack. John Swift was literally everywhere, and Todd Kane continued to show that he's going to be a name to follow with his marauding runs down the right. Kane and Swift would both fire good looking strikes at the West Ham keeper around the 10 minute mark and forced a pair of good saves. Shortly after those two blasts the youth would take the lead as John Swift made a deep run into the box and played the ball to an unmarked Lewis Baker who slotted home easily. Just like that it was 1-0 good guys.

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Chelsea have drawn against Birmingham City in the 5th round of the FA Cup, giving the Blues a relatively straightforward home match against a Championship side to get to the quarterfinals of a tournament that we could well be the favourites for at this point. Unlike the last round, there is at most one all-Premier League draw (depending on the eventual outcome of Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough), so it's going to be relatively quiet.

That's ok, though. Better to get a relatively straightforward tie against the likes of Birmingham than to have to travel to Anfield or something. The quarterfinals should be fairly juicy - you'd expect Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur as well as the Blues to each be involved at that stage, but we probably shouldn't be counting our velociraptors before they're hatched.

Full draw after the jump...

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