Chelsea captain Terry out of Man City cup game with injury

Hiddink has given the west London giants a new lease of life since his December arrival, and while their Premier League dreams may be shattered, the FA Cup could yet provide some hope this term.

“The priority is always the next game but we are going to make an exception now”, he added.

Managers threatening to play a weakened team in the FA Cup has become a familiar sound in recent seasons and Manuel Pellegrini joined the chorus ahead of Manchester City’s fifth-round tie away to Chelsea on Sunday.

Writing in his blog for Sportlobster, Mills said: “It’s a huge game for Chelsea and Man City in the fifth round of the FA Cup”.

Pellegrini, though, insisted that he is taking the competition seriously. “So regardless of what it brings it is nice to go for the ultimate target, which is the FA Cup”.

In fairness to Pellegrini, his FA Cup dilemma this weekend is not of his own making.

‘But he travelled to Milan, came back the day after, wanted to train and to try his mask the same evening when we were in the hotel.

Defenders Bacary Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala, midfielders Samir Nasri, Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph and Jesus Navas, and striker Wilfried Bony are all sidelined.

“That’s more worrying than one single score”.

“We have just 13 players available to play and have to play the Champions League on Wednesday. If you put one, two or three young players in you have an easier game, that’s not always true”.

Kelechi Iheanacho has scored four goals in the previous two rounds and could be joined in Pellegrini’s line-up by former academy colleagues Bersant Celina and Brandon Barker, while midfielders Aleix Garcia and Manu Garcia are also in the frame having been unused substitutes against Tottenham.

“When the young players have the opportunities they must take their chances and they must take advantage of that”, he said. “After that, we have to play a really important 180 minutes against Kiev”. Manchester City have to play in the Champions League early next week, and there’s still the matter of trying to run down Leicester City in the Premier League while getting back into at least the Top 3 in the process.

Guus Hiddink’s arrival as Chelsea manager has sparked a drastic improvement in a number of the team’s attacking stars.