Proceeding its shocking Premier League loss to the Queens Park Rangers, Chelsea will look to recover when they take on Southampton in an FA Cup matchup on Saturday afternoon.

The Chelsea lineup should be stronger with the return of Juan Mata, Ramires, Ashley Cole and Eden Hazard, who was controversially benched against QPR.

According to CaughtOffSide, manager Rafael Benitez stated that he had no qualms about his decision, saying that his team is suffering after a grueling December schedule that also included a trip to Japan for the Club World Cup.

"Fernando is one of the players (who is tired). You can see two or three who have been playing too many games in the last month."

Jack Cork rose in the ranks at Stamford Bridge but didn't make a first team appearance, but remains thrilled nonetheless.

"I'm just looking forward to playing against them really as I never got the opportunity to play with them whilst I was there. It's a shame it's not at Stamford Bridge, but certainly over the last four or five years I've looked at the draw and said please let's get Chelsea."

However, Cork feels as though his former football club is mentally hurting after its upset to QPR.

"I think they'll be out to prove a point. Some people are convinced they played a weakened side against QPR, but whichever side they put out it's never going to be a weak team. Hopefully we could take advantage if they're on the start of a bad run."

For those who have a subscription to Sky Sports, simply log onto www.skysports.com/xtra to watch Chelsea versus Southampton. Coverage of the FA Cup game is set to begin at 3 p.m. GMT on Saturday, Jan. 5.

The probable lineups can be viewed below.

Lineups (Probable):

Southampton:

Boruc

Cork, Yoshida, Fonte, Shaw

Schneiderlin, Davis

Puncheon, Ward-Prowse, Ramirez

Rodriguez

Chelsea:

Turnbull

Azpilicueta, Cahill. Ivanovic, Bertrand

Luiz, Lampard

Moses, Oscar, Marin

Torres

Tags
International Soccer