Third round gluttons Chelsea to decimate helpless Rams

Derby may be flying high in the Championship, but toppling a force of Chelsea’s stature will prove a task too tough for the Rams.

The Blues’ odds for victory look very fair at 9/20, while there surely won’t be many takers on the host’s gargantuan 6/1 price, or even the 7/2-rated draw for that matter.

Under Steve McClaren, who holds a 3-1 aggregate lead over Jose Mourinho in their two managerial meetings to date, the east Midlands outfit have plundered 10 victories from 14 second tier games in a surge towards the upper echelons, failing to pick up maximum points only twice at Pride Park.

Chelsea, aside from their superior playing staff, are FA Cup fiends, winning three of the last five instalments of the competition and only failing to reach the semi finals once in that time. Their recent third round exploits are equally impressive, with a list of adversaries despatched by heavy margins and they’re likely to add Derby to that list.

They’ve bagged at least four goals in each of their previous four third round matches, seeing their backline breached only once in return. Three of these games were against lower league foes and such mercilessness is likely to rear its ruthless head once more.

The west Londoners have won six of their nine cup games this season without conceding a goal, heaping value on the 29/20 that says they win to nil once again here. In combination with the third round ravenousness they’ve exemplified in recent seasons, this looks almost as enticing a punt as the 11/10 that says they’ll win the game with a one-goal handicap applied to their final score.

It pays out at 11/10 and would have rewarded backers handsomely in Chelsea’s past four matches at this stage, as would the even more fancily priced two-goal handicap punt, which pays out at 13/5 in this instance.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date

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