Chelsea fired warning over Wrexham FA Cup clash after ‘deserved’ slip-up against Burnley

Chelsea have been issued a warning ahead of their FA Cup meeting with Wrexham next month.

The Blues will make the trip to the Racecourse Ground on March 7, and the Red Dragons will hope to spring an upset.

And talkSPORT reporter Ian Stringer believes that Chelsea won’t want to be facing this Wrexham team having watched Phil Parkinson‘s side in action against Ipswich on Saturday.

“This is a cracking game of football and I’ll tell you who you wouldn’t want to be in the next round of the FA Cup….you wouldn’t want to be Chelsea,” Stringer began as the Championship side claimed a 5-3 win over the Tractor Boys to boost their promotion hopes.

“I would not want to play this Wrexham team at the moment.”

Victory in the weekend’s eight-goal thriller saw Parkinson’s team open up a two-point gap over Birmingham City in the playoff race, sitting sixth after 33 games.

And while there are league games to play before the FA Cup clash with the Blues, Stringer believes that Wrexham are ‘unplayable’ when the Welsh side are at their best on home turf.

Wrex-ed

“Yes, they’ve got Portsmouth and Charlton before that FA Cup game against Chelsea,” Stringer continued.

“But one thing’s for sure, and I know I’m not the first to say this and I won’t be the last…

“If you could bottle the atmosphere that they get down here at the Racecourse, when they’ve got their chest puffed out in front of them, it is unplayable.

“Ipswich were okay, Wrexham deserved the result, that’s for sure. But they had to show some serious resilience to come back and win it.”

Stringer’s comments came after Scott Minto tore into Chelsea following their 1-1 draw with Burnley at the same time.

Blues got the blues

The result may have extended the Blues’ unbeaten run to six matches, but they’ve now drawn their last two league games at home to relegation rivals having gone ahead in both.

Joao Pedro fired Chelsea, who were without Estevao, into an early lead, and many assumed it would be a routine three points for the west London side.

However, Liam Rosenior‘s side failed to kill the game off before they were reduced to 10 men in the 72nd minute after Wesley Fofana received a second yellow.

Fofana’s red means he’ll miss next week’s game against Arsenal.

Burnley then struck deep into second-half stoppage time as Zian Flemming rescued what could prove to be a vital point in the Clarets’ battle to beat the drop.

And Minto tore into the Blues, saying on talkSPORT: “Burnley deserve it and Chelsea deserve it as well.

“Chelsea haven’t been good enough. And you know, the start of the game and with the way they’re playing in the first half, it was pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass.

“I talked about how you don’t need Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos playing together because there was no urgency really.

“I also was questioning myself when you asked me about Scott Parker‘s tactics. Got to 75 minutes, Chelsea still hadn’t had a shot on target in the second half.

“But that’s sending off. Just psychologically, around Stamford Bridge changed everything. Chelsea fans seemed to just get really, really nervous.

“The Burnley players seemed to be really happy and Flemming has just come in. It’s a great movement. No one’s picking him up from the edge of the box. No one.

“And it’s therefore it’s a free header. No one’s got close to it. And Rob Sanchez has got no chance at all.”

Chelsea’s point against the Clarets saw them leapfrog Manchester United into fourth place, though Michael Carrick‘s men play their game in hand on the Blues on Monday when they travel to Everton.