Manchester United’s hopes of retaining the FA Cup have been severely dented by the fact that none of their four strikers will be available for their Monday evening trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the quarterfinals.

Coupled with their midweek trip to Russia for their Europa League matchup against FC Rostov, it has almost certainly tipped the scale in Chelsea’s favour. If Jose Mourinho thought that he was going to recover from the 4-0 thrashing suffered earlier this season and inflict some revenge on his old side, those plans have well and truly been scuppered.

For the Special One, his side’s troubles started with Zlatan Ibrahimovic receiving a three-match ban for his elbow on Tyrone Mings. Ibrahimovic has been instrumental in getting them over the line in many a big game this season and his absence will be missed most.

With the others ruled out due to injury and illness, a false nine looks most likely to feature in the Portuguese’s plans this evening. Ander Herrera and Marouanne Fellaini could most likely form an unlikely midfield partnership leaving Paul Pogba to play further forward, offering support to the likes of Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

With the return leg of the Europa League to come barely 72 hours after their FA Cup tie, Mourinho could opt to play Fellaini as the front man, resting one of his attackers and instead looking to close all routes to the United goal. Incidentally, United’s highest number of crosses against any team came at Stamford Bridge earlier this campaign and Jose could look to use the Belgian’s aerial prowess here.

Blues on course for a domestic double

Antonio Conte’s first season in charge of Chelsea couldn’t have gone much better. His team have 66 points from 27 games, and the Italian manager is on course to get more than 90 points in his first season as a Premier League manager.

With a ten point lead in the league, the Blues have all but sealed the league title and can now turn their attention to the FA Cup. Conte has made several changes in the previous round but will stick with his strongest team on this occasion, having more than a week to prepare for this game.

It will also be interesting to see how Conte and Mourinho get along after the latter accused the former of being too brash during his celebration of Chelsea’s fourth goal against United. He has got the better of United once and will look to do the same against a weakened side.

Diego Costa’s return to the team has seen him score in his last three games as he and Eden Hazard will look to run riot against United at home. Chelsea are expected to have a clean bill of health for this game and Conte may tinker with his backline.

Key stats

Head to head: Played 175, Chelsea wins 51, United wins 75, Draws 49

In the FA Cup: Played 13, Chelsea wins 3, United 8, Draws 2

Last meeting in the FA Cup: Chelsea 1 - 0 Manchester United, on April 1, 2013.

Top scorers in the FA Cup: Pedro (4) and Marcus Rashford (3)

Titles: Chelsea 7, Manchester United 11

Previous games in this season’s competition:

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 - 2 Chelsea

Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Manchester United

Expected Line-ups:

Chelsea: Asmir Begovic; David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta; Victor Moses, Marcos Alonso; N’Golo Kante, Nemanja Matic; Willian, Diego Costa, Eden Hazard

Manchester United: David de Gea; Antonio Valencia, Luke Shaw, Erik Bailly, Chris Smalling; Ander Herrera, Paul Pogba; Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan; Marouane Fellaini