Pellegrini: This is better for England

Chelsea thrashed a youthful looking Manchester City 5-1 at Stamford Bridge to book their place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Pellegrini will face accusations of disrespecting the FA Cup, but he won’t care if City can take a step towards the Champions League quarter-finals and win the League Cup.

He added: “You can blood one or two youngsters maybe in a team for one game”.

“We were forced to select that team, we couldn’t play another day and didn’t have any more fit players”, he explained, when asked about his team selection.

“We cannot take the risk”. “We just have to push a little bit more and keep fighting for each other”.

“I think if one team respect all the cups it’s this team”.

“In the two rounds before this, we played against Premier League teams and I picked very strong teams because of all the players we had available at that moment”. Now I can speak, not as a stranger or a foreigner, that many people worldwide are focused on the FA Cup.

“I haven’t seen a better player than that. But we have a lot of positive things about young players”.

“We are just in the fifth round of the competition”.

After an even first half finished 1-1, Chelsea, who fielded a full-strength side, showed their class and blew City away with four goals, despite missing a penalty. “With 13 players [available], not to prioritise, it’s a sensible decision”.

“We tried to do all that we could”.

In the 74th minute, Bertrand Traore is brought down by Martin Demichelis, giving Chelsea a chance to put up a five-spot.

“We played six youngsters against a very good side, that’s why we lost”.

“The score I was unhappy about”.

Moses told the official West Ham website: “Emmanuel is happy and I’m happy for him as well”.

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink stated those responsible “should not come into stadiums”. “The biggest target will be to win the FA Cup”.

Guus Hiddink felt his Chelsea team’s professionalism helped overcome the difficulties of playing against a much-changed Manchester City side yesterday.

“I had good memories of that time, but that’s the past”. We had a hard game against them here. Juventus played their latest Serie A match last Friday, when they drew 0-0 against Bologna. “Reigning Premier League champions Chelsea, a huge 20 points behind shock leaders Leicester, overwhelmed City”.