Chelsea drawn against non-league Chesterfield FC in FA Cup third round

Chelsea are set to another competition to the already congested fixture list in a month’s time, as we begin our latest FA Cup adventure, in the third round as usual in early January. In fact, the draw for the third round was held just a couple short hours ago.

And fortunately we got just about as favorable of a draw as possible, with a home tie against non-league Chesterfield FC, who were relegated from League Two in 2018 and have been stuck in the fifth tier of the football pyramid ever since — though they are currently leading their division (the “National League”), having lost just 1 game from 17 played so far this season.

We’ve actually played against the Spireites eight times in our history, though none since 1950. We only lost one of those eight meetings, our very first ever, in October 1905. That was in fact the ninth match played in the history of Chelsea Football Club and only the fourth ever at Stamford Bridge.

The darwn in full for the FA Cup third round, with 32 matches to take place between January 7th and 10th, is as follows:

Boreham Wood/St Albans City vs. AFC Wimbledon
Yeovil Town vs. Bournemouth
Stoke City vs. Leyton Orient
Swansea City vs. Southampton
Chelsea vs. Chesterfield
Liverpool vs. Shrewsbury Town
Cardiff City vs. Preston North End
Coventry City vs. Derby County
Burnley vs. Huddersfield Town
West Bromwich Albion vs. Brighton
Kidderminster Harriers vs. Reading
Leicester City vs. Watford
Mansfield Town vs. Middlesbrough
Hartlepool United vs. Blackpool
Hull City vs. Everton
Bristol City vs. Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Morecambe
Millwall vs. Crystal Palace
Port Vale vs. Brentford
Swindon Town vs. Manchester City
Wigan Athletic vs. Blackburn Rovers
Luton Town vs. Harrogate Town
Birmingham City vs. Plymouth Argyle
Manchester United vs. Aston Villa
Wolves vs. Sheffield United
Newcastle United vs. Cambridge United
Barnsley vs. Ipswich Town/Barrow
Peterborough United vs. Bristol Rovers
West Ham vs. Leeds United
Queens Park Rangers vs. Rotherham United
Charlton Athletic vs. Norwich City
Nottingham Forest vs. Arsenal