Lincoln City head coach Michael Skubala has set his sights on a Carabao Cup upset against Premier League giants Chelsea.
The Imps have enjoyed an excellent start to the season and stretched their unbeaten run to 10 games in all competitions with an impressive 3-1 win over Luton Town yesterday. The three points saw the East Midlands-based outfit temporarily top League One before results later in the day saw them drop to third.
Their recent impressive form has seen them arguably scrape points, most notably against Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic. However, they were by far the better team against an underperforming Luton side and thoroughly deserved the maximum haul.
League Exploits Take A Back Seat
Lincoln are now looking to become the second Lincolnshire side this season to cause a major upset in the Carabao Cup. Bitter rivals Grimsby Town famously knocked out 20-time English champions Manchester United in the previous round, with Skubala now hoping to repeat the process.
The former Leeds United coach was in a jubilant mood after yesterday’s victory, where his team could have been forgiven for having one eye on the tie. However, speaking after the game, the head coach said that wasn’t the case but now his sights are fully focused on beating the current World Champions:
“Before this game there was no mention of Chelsea, but now we’ve got the three points we have to recover quickly and get ready for an exciting game on Tuesday.
“Of course it’ll be hard and we know their quality, but we’ll put a team on the pitch that we think can win the game. We truly believe at home we can cause damage and hurt anyone.”
Chelsea are expected to heavily rotate the team which lost at Manchester United on Saturday, although will still possess a host of multi-million pound superstars. This could see summer signing Alejandro Garnacho come in for his first start since joining from the Red Devils.
Writer’s View
Chelsea are the heavy favourites coming into this game, but Lincoln won’t mind one bit being the underdogs. Enzo Maresca is not likely to underestimate his opponents, especially having witnessed what Grimsby achieved on their own patch against Manchester United in the second round. Still, the Imps are one of the most in-form teams in the country and possess enough attacking talent to hurt the Blues. That, coupled with a rocking Sincil Bank, could lead to a difficult night for the World Champions.
