Chelsea versus Manchester United FA
Cup replay set for Easter Monday.
Chelsea and Manchester United’s FA
Cup quarter-final replay will take place
on Easter Monday at 12.30pm, the
Football Association has announced. The decision means Chelsea’s Premier
League fixture with Southampton,
which had been due to take place on
Easter Sunday, will now take place a day earlier and with a 3pm kick-off
reported the Guardian. Finding a suitable date for the fixture
proved challenging due to Chelsea’s
involvement in the Europa League and
the confirmed FA Cup semi-final dates of 13 and 14 April. It had been expected the FA would wait
to see if Chelsea advance in the Europa
League on Thursday before determining a date, with the club needing to overturn
a 1-0 first-leg deficit to the
Romanians. The rescheduling means Chelsea and Manchester United, who visit Sunderland on 30 March, play their Premier League matches on the same day, but has irked Southampton. A statement on Southampton’s official
website read: “The game had already
been moved once for the purposes of live Sky TV coverage – to Sunday, 31 March– however, the Premier League have deemed it acceptable to move the fixture once more.