Wednesday night’s Champions League game in northern France extended the winning run for Thomas Tuchel’s side to five games, our best series of victories this season. Take out the Carabao Cup final which was lost on penalties, we have not tasted defeat since our Premier League visit to Manchester City two months ago.It is the type of form that earlier in the season had Blues fans licking their lips at the thought of multiple trophy success and with one cup already in the cabinet and another that slipped from our hands at the last hurdle, Chelsea have the opportunity to reach a third semi-final in 2021/22 when we visit Teesside this Saturday tea-time.

How we got here

When the words Chelsea, Middlesbrough and the FA Cup are grouped together, for supporters of a certain age, one set of images tends to dominate.Twenty-five seasons on from one of our most famous finals in the competition, when a long silverware drought was ended against a Boro side about to drop out of the Premier League, we now face them amidst a campaign when they are challenging hard to be promoted back into the top flight.Managed by former Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder, Middlesbrough’s thirst for a return to the Premier League has been emphasised by the way they knocked out Tottenham in the previous round of the FA Cup and Manchester United on penalties before that. Mansfield were their third-round victims.In contrast to the Blues’ Carabao Cup campaign which pitted us against Premier League opposition all the way, Chelsea have so far knocked out a non-league, a League One and a Championship side in Chesterfield, Plymouth and Luton.

Chelsea team news

It was goals from Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku that turned a losing position into a winning one at Luton in the last round and with those strikers our joint top scorers in the FA Cup this season (with two apiece) and neither a starter in our away European match during the week, they may be in line for increased action this weekend.

Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi trained ahead of the Lille game but did not travel, and are rated doubtful for today’s game, as in Andreas Christensen.The Dane was the one new concern coming out of Wednesday’s Champions League trip, having been forced off during the first half, but Tuchel has the numbers available for each area of the pitch to select whichever one of his formations he wishes this weekend, whether it be the 3-5-2 that started the Lille game, the 3-4-3 that it switched to for the second half, or if he prefers a four-man rearguard.The last line of defence in two of our three FA Cup games this season was Kepa, with Marcus Bettinelli keeping goal in the other while Edou Mendy was away in Africa. There must be a good chance Kepa will get the nod again for this quarter-final.

Others relatively rested at Lille, either by remaining on the bench or playing no more than a half, were Malang Sarr, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount (who impressed as a half-time sub and was the creator of Azpi’s winner) and Hakim Ziyech.Harvey Vale was an unused sub too. The 18-year-old has earned the trust of Tuchel sufficiently to be brought into the action when we were still losing 2-1 at Luton in the last round.Against a buoyant Boro side that will be roared on by the Riverside crowd scenting another Premier League scalp, our head coach knows exactly what we need in our final game before an international break – and that’s a strong performance from a strong side.

Familiar faces

The days of Juninho, Paul Gascoigne and Fabrizio Ravanelli may be long gone, but Middlesbrough still have a team big on experience. The likes of Jonny Howson, Sol Bamba, Lee Peltier and Neil Taylor are all well into their 30s and have been there and done that over many years in the Championship, in addition to spending time in the top flight.

However, it is two young talents who have the fans most excited. Winger Isaiah Jones’ nine assists so far in his first full season with the senior team have been vital, while striker Folarin Balogun is looking like an astute addition following his loan move from Arsenal in January. Those with good memories may recall that Balogun came off the bench to make an 11-minute cameo for the Gunners against Chelsea in our 2-0 Premier League victory at the Emirates Stadium back in August.Another name on the Middlesbrough squad list which may be familiar is that of Duncan Watmore. He rose from non-league to become an important player for Sunderland in the Premier League, before a recurring serious knee injury restricted him to just 12 league starts over the next three years, as they dropped down the divisions. Having been offered a lifeline at the Riverside Stadium, though, he has been a key player for Boro over the last two seasons.Striker Andraz Sporar and midfielder James Lea Siliki are back in their squad after illness.

When is the FA Cup semi-final draw

Chelsea are familiar with the quarter-final stage of the competition, having reached it more than any other team since the old Wembley Stadium stopped being the cup final destination in 2000. If we can go one stage further this Saturday (there are no replays) and make it to a fifth FA Cup semi-final in six seasons, we would find out our next opponents when the draw takes place at approximately 5.30pm on Sunday, before the Nottingham Forest versus Liverpool quarter-final.Ours is the only quarter-final scheduled for Saturday. Sunday begins with two all top-flight encounters – Crystal Palace hosting Everton and Manchester City travelling to the South Coast to take on Southampton.Forest are the other Championship side joining Middlesbrough at this stage and they welcome Liverpool to the City Ground for the fourth of the four ties.

Previous FA Cup meetings

This is the fourth time Chelsea and Middlesbrough have met in the FA Cup, with the Blues triumphant in the last three meetings in the competition.However we initially tasted defeat in the third round in 1993, losing 2-1 at Middlesbrough’s old Ayresome Park home despite taking the lead with just over 20 minutes remaining. This was during the final throes of Ian Porterfield’s time as manager, a second cup exit in a week and part of a 12-game run without a win that cost the Scot his job.We more than made up for that defeat the next time we faced Boro in the FA Cup. It was, of course, in the 1997 final, when 80,000 fans saw Chelsea lift a major trophy for the first time in more than a quarter of a century. You would hope they were all in their seats promptly for kick-off, as Roberto Di Matteo took just 43 seconds to fire us into the lead with a spectacular strike off the underside of the crossbar, which at the time was the fastest goal ever in an FA Cup final at Wembley.

Eddie Newton added a second late on, from close range after Gianfranco Zola deftly kept Dan Petrescu’s cross in play, in a victory which proved the Blues were becoming a force to be reckoned with. Ruud Gullit became the first foreign manager to win the FA Cup as he continued the modernisation of the club begun by Glenn Hoddle, signalling there were still more exciting times ahead for the Blues.In the 2002/03 third round, we held on for a 1-0 victory in freezing conditions on a badly damaged Stamford Bridge pitch thanks to Mario Stanic’s first-half goal, but it probably should have been more comfortable. We had been in full control until Blues goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini was effectively thrown into the back of his own net by Boro striker Dean Windass, prompting a melee involving a number of players on both teams.

The referee gave Chelsea a free-kick and, bizarrely, Cudicini a red card, although nobody seemed quite sure why. As a result, Ed de Goey came on for the last 25 minutes to make his final appearance for the club, providing us with the parting gift of an impressive late save to deny future Blues man Geremi and maintain our slender lead.The most recent FA Cup meeting came almost exactly a decade later, when we travelled to the Riverside in the fifth round, and was slightly more straightforward, despite coming at a time when the pressure was rising on interim boss Rafa Benitez, who gave a spiky rebuttal to the criticism he had faced in his post-match press conference. The situation was not helped by the frantic fixtures schedule, which resulted in Benitez making eight changes, including handing captain John Terry just his fifth start in more than three months.

It was two more of the players introduced by Benitez who got the goals, although it was not until well after the final whistle that Fernando Torres was officially credited with the opener, seemingly knowing little about it when Ramires’ shot deflected off him on its way in. Victor Moses got the second from close range, although much of the credit went to substitute Eden Hazard, who had been sent on in an effort to kill the game off against stubborn opponents and avoid any chance of further fixture congestion, with just three days until our next Premier League match.