Chelsea are pushing towards a domestic double this weekend, as they seek an FA Cup crown to add to the Premier League title they have already secured in Antonio Conte’s first campaign in charge at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues were often overlooked during pre-season when pundits and fans gave their assessment of the year ahead, with both Manchester sides looked as favourites for Premier League glory and many tipped Chelsea for a transitional season under Antonio Conte.

Untested in English football, it was a huge challenge for Conte and things didn’t start off well in the first few months, where there was even suggestions the Italian could leave, but his side stormed back with a defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium being the turning point in their campaign.

Following that 3-0 loss, Chelsea switched to a three-man defence and haven’t looked back since; with Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill excelling centrally whilst Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso impressed in the wide areas.

Chelsea stormed to the top of the Premier League standings and with months to go in the season it looked like the title race was done and dusted- with even a late slip-up from the Blues not being enough for Tottenham Hotspur to overhaul the deficit.

Throughout the campaign, Chelsea haven’t really been under too much pressure as they quickly established a safety net between them and their rivals, with the general consensus being that others underperformed and Chelsea took advantage.

However, this weekend Chelsea are ranked as clear favourites ahead of an Arsenal side that finished fifth in the Premier League standing and has endured a wealth of problems to their defensive line, as Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel Paulista are all set to be absent this weekend.

Since the semi-finals where Chelsea beat Tottenham and Arsenal beat Manchester City, Chelsea have been considered to be destined for the FA Cup against a Gunners outfit that has significantly underperformed this season.

Arsenal really don’t have too much to lose heading into the game as the fans have already lost faith in the board, manager and a lot of players, so the pressure is on Chelsea to perform- and it’s the first time we’ll see how Conte’s side will react.

The performance from the Blues will also give a big indication as to what we can expect to see from Chelsea next season, as the defending champions will find themselves under an intense amount of pressure- and no side this decade has successfully defended their league crown.