Manchester City were beaten 5-1 by Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Sunday.
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With City facing Dynamo Kiev in a Champions League round of 16 tie in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday, prior to a Capital One Cup final encounter with Liverpool at Wembley next Sunday, the Chilean controversially rested several first-team players against Guus Hiddink’s team.
City scored through youngster David Faupala in the 37th minute, one minute after Diego Costa took the lead for Chelsea, who won the game 5-1. “We hope to maintain our flow in The FA Cup when we play them there”.
United have drawn three Football League clubs in the Cup already this season but face Premier League opposition in the last eight, provided they overcome the League One side. “We do not think the Champions League is more important than the FA Cup, but we had no choice”.
“Everyone knows the history of this season with Chelsea, that we were down in December and now, step by step, a little bit bigger steps recently we’re climbing in the league”.
Arsenal are yet to book their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, having played out a goalless draw with Hull City at the Emirates Stadium in the fifth round at the weekend.
Chelsea appear in good health, with Cesc Fabregas influential and Hazard performing well in a second successive 5-1 home win following the Premier League defeat of Newcastle.
Although Hiddink was happy with his side’s overpowering performance, the former Netherlands boss did not fail to condemn Manchester City’s attempt at belittling such a prestigious tournament.
“We did the correct thing and made the right decision”, said Pellegrini.
“Those people [who threw objects] must not come into stadiums”.
“But they (Everton) may well remember that game as well and want some revenge”.
“There’s not much left in the league for Chelsea, to be honest”, the Dutchman said. So we must be careful not to devalue it.
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Everton earned a hard-fought 3-1 victory over the London club when they visited Goodison Park back in September, with the return fixture at Stamford Bridge seeing the clubs involved in a high scoring 3-3 draw.
