Chelsea boss on preparation for 'very good' Leeds United and tactical timeout ruckus

Chelsea interim boss Calum McFarlane said they ignored their Brighton performance to focus solely on a 'very good' Leeds United in preparation for an FA Cup semi-final victory

The game was won in the first half when the Blues capitalised on a Pascal Struijk error to put together a lightning-quick attack that ended with Enzo Fernandez' header and the ball in the back of the net. Leeds missed golden chances through Brenden Aaronson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin and dominated the second half without finding a way past Robert Sanchez.

Chelsea snapped a rancid run of form, which had cost Liam Rosenior his job and brought McFarlane to the fore.

"It was important to get the win, it was important to break the form we were in," he said. "I thought we were confident we would do that today, it completely changes the feel in the group and gives us confidence going into the next five games.

"We want to win every game for the fans in every competition. It's unfortunately not worked out like that this season. We want to do it for ourselves, the fans and the club. Massive competition the FA Cup and we want to win the final and every game remaining.

I said to him at the end 'you like scoring at the back post for me' and he just laughed. The timing of his runs, his ability to get height on his jump, his heading technique is good. He's got so much talent and fight, he's massive for this group."

Chelsea were coming off the back of a 3-0 capitulation against Brighton, which was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to the ownership's contentment to leave Rosenior in post. But McFarlane said that game played no part in how they prepared for Wembley.

"We haven't even looked at the Brighton performance, we solely focused on Leeds, what they do, their strengths, where we can expose them," he said. "I thought we did that really well in the first half. They're a very good side, they make it very tough and that's all we focused on."

According to the caretaker, one of his most difficult decisions when it came to team selection was at centre-half, where he picked Tosin Adarabioyo specifically to go up against Calvert-Lewin.

"I decided to go with Tosin mainly due to the Dominic Calvert-Lewin threat and possibly being the best match-up," he said. "You make decisions as a manager and I thought Tosin was exceptional today."

The Blues, like a number of other teams this season, provoked the ire of Leeds United players, staff and fans with a second half tactical timeout. Leeds had their opponents under the cosh when Fernandez appeared to tell his goalkeeper to go down. As Chelsea gathered around McFarlane, Leeds skipper Ethan Ampadu joined the huddle and there was some pushing and shoving.

"I'm unsure about the ruckus, I used it as an opportunity to speak to the players, we had some information we needed to get on," said McFarlane.