Some breaking news: John Terry is to leave Chelsea. Full story here
Chelsea were far too good for MK Dons in the end. Oscar’s hat-trick did most of the damage in what was a bizarre first half littered with fine saves and terrible misses. The second period was a little calmer but the Blues were always in control and progress to the fifth round. Join me here right now for the draw! Bye, and thanks for reading.
Updated
Full-time: MK Dons 1-5 Chelsea
Jon Moss blows his whistle and that’s that.
90 mins: There will be one more minute for MK Dons to endure.
89 mins: Willian takes a whack on the toe and he’s down on the ground in a bit of pain.
Updated
87 mins: It’s a record attendance tonight at Stadium MK, by the way, of 28,127 – higher than the number that attended their League Cup win against Manchester United last season.
85 mins: Powell jinks into the box and lets fly, and his low shot is saved by the feet of Courtois.
82 mins: Pass, pass, pass, pass. Chelsea are set on cruise control. Suddenly Fabregas launches a ball forwards and Baba Rahman is in behind the Dons defence, but he’s tugged back by Spence who is booked. Forster-Caskey tries another long-range effort at the other end but it flies over the crossbar. Local boy Daniel Powell replaces Curruthers.
79 mins: Traore probably should have his second but slips as he shoots in the box and his effort bobbles wide.
76 mins: Willian lines up a tempting free-kick but can only hit the wall. Dean Bowditch, who hasn’t seen much of the ball up front for MK Dons today, is replaced by Nicky Maynard.
74 mins: Fabregas takes a pass from Pedro in the box and tries to squeeze the ball past Martin from a tight angle but the goalkeeper traps it between turf and shin pad.
72 mins: Pedro dribbles through the middle and feeds Ivanovic out on the right, who drills a low cross to nobody when Pedro was screaming for a return pass.
70 mins: Loftus-Cheek brings the ball down brilliantly with his chest and starts moving Chelsea forwards again. They win a corner which Willian whips in, but the danger is dealt with.
67 mins: Jonny Williams replaces the quietly impressive Josh Murphy on the wing for MK Dons.
65 mins: Good news for MK Dons: Oscar and Hazard are off! Bad news for MK Dons: Pedro and Willian are on!
63 mins: Hazard gamely chased a high ball all the way to the byline where he kept it in and looked for a team-mate. Bertrand Traore promptly arrived and Hazard fed the forward who swept the ball first-time into the far corner with his left foot from around 10 yards. A very well-taken goal by the 20-year-old.
Updated
GOAL! MK Dons 1-5 Chelsea (Traore, 62)
Lovely finish from the substitute and he opens his Chelsea account.
Updated
61 mins: Murphy wants a penalty from a robust Rahman challenge but Jon Moss isn’t interested, and rightly so.
60 mins: The Dons keep coming forwards but they are a little short of ideas when they arrive in the final third. Hall tries an effort from range and Courtois tips over.
57 mins: Hazard collected a return pass on the run and seemed to get a bit of a raking down the back of the calf by Potter in the area. Oscar wanted to take the penalty from Hazard but captain, leader, legend John Terry settled the argument, and Hazard slotted his first of the season. Costa is replaced by Bertrand Traore.
Updated
GOAL! MK Dons 1-4 Chelsea (Hazard pen, 55)
Hazard steps up and cooly passes the ball into the bottom-left corner, sending Martin the wrong way.
Updated
55 mins: Hazard breaks into the box and Potter clumsily catches the winger... Penalty to Chelsea!
53 mins: Hazard and Oscar work a nice one-two on the edge of the area but the Belgian can’t take control of the return pass.
51 mins: Costa chases a long ball over the Dons defence but Martin rushes out of goal and just nips in to grab the ball before the striker could get there. The frantic first half has been replaced by a more steady and methodical second, this far anyway.
49 mins: Better from the hosts who work down the left and earn a corner. Murphy bends a dangerous ball to the penalty spot but Ivanovic is able to clear unimpeded.
47 mins: MK Dons start the second half a little less gung-ho than their strategy for the majority of the first. This might just be the way to go. The game’s tempo has slowed a little though, so there isn’t much to report.
Peeeeep! The players are back out and the second half is under way. The MK Dons official twitter feed described Chelsea’s first-half performance as ‘clinical’. Interesting interpretation.
Applause from the home fans as the players head off. Dons have played some good stuff but @ChelseaFC have been clinical. 1-3 #MKDvCHE
— MK Dons FC (@MKDonsFC) January 31, 2016
Half-time entertainment
An MK Dons FA Cup tie is always valid excuse to wheel out Dele Alli’s first professional goal. He’ll make a decent player one day.
VIDEO: Check out @Dele_Alli's stunning first senior goal - one of the Dons' stand-out @EmiratesFACup moments... pic.twitter.com/jGsfr3yFvz
— MK Dons FC (@MKDonsFC) January 27, 2016
Re J’s email (see 2 mins), apologies for letting a game of football get in the way of a good MBM. Back on topic... does Oscar look a bit like Danger Mouse? Only when he smiles, obviously. Danger Mouse always smiles.
Half-time: MK Dons 1-3 Chelsea
Oscar’s hat-trick puts Chelsea in total control at the break in what has been a remarkably open, slightly farcical and thoroughly entertaining half.
Updated
45 mins: Oscar dribbled down the left and then changed direction, cutting inside along the box. He was under pressure, but only the sort of light badgering that you or I might buckle under, not a real professional footballer. Oscar is unmoved and carries the ball all the way to the centre of the pitch before curling a well-placed finish beyond Martin.
GOAL! MK Dons 1-3 Chelsea (Oscar, 44)
Oscar goes on a lovely weaving run before bending the ball into the far corner for his hat-trick.
Updated
43 mins: It’s an incredibly open end to the half with MK Dons pinching the ball, streaming forwards, losing the ball and having to stream all the way back again. Will Karl Robinson tighten things up in the second half? If things continue like this his side could be on the end of a real hiding.
40 mins: In keeping with the game, Oscar passes the ball off the field under no pressure. At the other end Forster-Caskey finds himself in space 25 yards out but his shot flies just over.
38 mins: Oscar fancies a hat-trick but his effort is a little speculative and Martin catches it easily enough. “How many goals do you reckon the Dons should be down by now?” wonders JR in Illinois. “Three? Four? They are pants. Though I would love it if they didn’t I can’t see a way Chelsea aren’t going to score a bunch here pretty soon.” Four, minimum. Some amazing saves combined with even better misses have made this fun to watch though.
Updated
36 mins: Chelsea fans are in good voice. Kevin Porter has emailed in with some interesting TV commentary on the mistake for the opening goal which I had noticed too: “Mark Lawrenson: ‘I say this without any disrespect. That’s the case of a player doing something he isn’t capable of. He’s a head-it, kick-it centre-half. He’s not really a player’. You left yourself nowhere to go when you want to be disrespectful, Mark.”
It was like listening to someone tell a lie which just gets worse and worse until they realise they’ve been rumbled.
Updated
33 mins: This time Chelsea make no mistake. Ivanovic passes in from the right to Loftus-Cheek, who has been fairly quiet up to now. He takes a couple of touches before timing a perfect pass for Oscar’s sprint into the box, who fires first-time past Martin into the top-left corner. A nice move and, despite everything, a deserved goal.
GOAL! MK Dons 1-2 Chelsea (Oscar, 32)
Some slick passing and Chelsea are back in front.
Updated
30 mins: On reflection Oscar did laugh a little, though I would laugh if Costa was staring at me. This is an odd game. MK Dons only seem to have about four players in their own half at any one time, which doesn’t seem right. Terry is booked for a mistimed challenge.
27 mins: A moment later Hazard squares the ball for Oscar who is definitely going to score this time. It’s an open goal. He is going to score. That is until Costa arrives on the scene, sliding in like a hero when it wasn’t necessary and poking the ball just wide. He sits up and laughs. Oscar isn’t laughing.
25 mins: Well, well, well. Well. Hazard is put clean through and he must score, but under no pressure strikes his shot too close to Martin who parries it on to the post. A terrible miss/brilliant save.
Updated
23 mins: The ball ran invitingly for the midfielder 25 yards from goal and he decided to have a go. What followed was a massive chunk of fortune as the ball crashed against Matic, spooned up over a stranded Courtois and nestled perfectly in the far corner. A total fluke and totally unsavable.
GOAL! MK Dons 1-1 Chelsea (Potter, 22)
Now then! A long-range swipe takes a huge deflection and the Dons are level.
Updated
19 mins: Chelsea are straight back on the ball and look in complete control, that is until Rahman runs it out of play.
17 mins: McFadzean collected the ball from a thrown-in near his own box and attempted a reverse pass towards his goalkeeper. What followed was an ugly miskick and Costa reacted first, driving towards goal, drawing out Martin and squaring the ball to Oscar who passed it home beyond the defender on the line. After holding on for this long that was a scruffy way to concede.
Updated
GOAL! MK Dons 0-1 Chelsea (Oscar, 16)
Huge mistake from McFadzean, and Chelsea lead.
Updated
12 mins: Ivanovic swivels and shoots and Martin makes another good save, this one with his feet. A moment later Chelsea stretch MK Dons with some wonderfully quick and fluid football, but when Hazard sets up Oscar in the box the midfielder fires wide from eight yards with the goalkeeper well out of position.
9 mins: The set-piece is teed up for Carruthers to hit but his low effort is blocked by the Chelsea wall.
8 mins: Costa takes a heavy touch and Murphy pounces, carrying the ball 60 yards through the middle of the pitch before John Terry trips him on the edge of the Chelsea box. Free-kick 20 yards out...
6 mins: Chelsea have flown out of the traps and MK Dons are clinging on right now. This time Oscar has half a sight of goal but his sliced effort bobbles wide.
@LawrenceOstlere John obi Mikel just threw Mourinho under the Guus. Heh.
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) January 31, 2016
5 mins: Fabregas swings in a deep corner and Martin gets an important fist on it – the goalkeeper has made an excellent start. He is the son of Alvin Martin, incidentally, an FA Cup winner with West Ham in 1980.
2 mins: Hazard spins and drives at the Dons defence before slipping in Oscar. The Brazilian squares the ball to Costa who must score from six yards, but is denied by a quite brilliant reaction stop by the recovering David Martin. Stunning save.
“Is it true that the MBM is going to be largely about MK Dons Vs Chelsea?” questions J over email. “ In that case I might have to leave you at an early point - unless the Dons take the lead. I agree that we don’t want to hear anything else about Murray, but I was looking forward to possible whimsical discussions of how to make toasted cheese sandwiches, which players resemble which Movie characters or perhaps examining whether the continued existence of ‘Panic! at the disco’ has any point whatsoever… MBMs are about so much more than football, although please do reference the game every few minutes for the sake of tradition.”
Updated
Peeeeep! Jon Moss blows his whistle and MK Dons, in all white, get things going against the all-blue of Chelsea. They immediately knock the ball out for a throw-in. Things can only get better.
An array of handshakes done with and this match is ready to go...
Strong words from Jon Obi Mikel in a BBC interview looking back on José Mourinho’s reign: “[Hiddink] is a father-figure to the players, that’s helped the players a lot. The mood is better. This is what he’s brought to the football club. The way he communicates with the players, maybe they felt that’s what they weren’t getting with the previous manager.”
“You are spot on about Andy Murray,” nods Mac Millings on email, “only being judged on the things he can control. Looked at from another angle, Larry Holmes avoided the Ali and Tyson eras, and so his legacy gets short shrift. With no Djokovic, Murray would get little respect if (if!) he had a career consisting of beating up an ancient Swiss and a legless Spaniard.” Great point Mac.
“Should we forgo the foregone conclusion?” Ponders Andrew Benton. “With Bletchley Park just round the corner, do the Dons have the info they need to ‘reroute their convoys’ and ‘launch surprise counter attacks’?”
Guus Hiddink speaks: “[The 2009 FA Cup win] is in the past. The players are very committed to getting a good result today. I think the team needed a little bit of stability [when I arrived]. From there on we have tried to play better and better.”
It’s a strong line-up that Guus Hiddink has gone with at Stadium MK. Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored his first goal for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over Scunthorpe in the third round and the 20-year-old starts this afternoon. He will play off the in-form Diego Costa who has scored six goals since Hiddink took charge, with Eden Hazard also playing from the start.
Firstly, I can’t stress enough that this minute-by-minute report is about the FA Cup fourth round match between MK Dons and Chelsea and not a lot else – but on your point there, Jangomorrel, I think Andy Murray’s generation is out of his hands. His second serve is a thing he can do something about, as is learning that sliding double-handed backhand that Djokovic has mastered, but I don’t think we should hold him accountable for when he was born.
@guardian_sport @lawrenceostlere. Andy murray shouldn't have come in a generation where Djokovic was
— Jang. (@jangomorrel) January 31, 2016
Updated
Everton have progressed to the fifth round with a 3-0 win at Carlisle – you can get the skinny on that one with Nick Ames here.
The teams
MK Dons: Martin; Spence, McFadzean, Walsh, Lewington (c); Potter, Forster-Caskey; Carruthers, Hall, Murphy; Bowditch
Subs: Cropper, Hodson, Kay, Williams, Powell, Church, Maynard
Chelsea: Courtois; Ivanovic, Terry (c), Cahill, Rahman; Matic, Fabregas; Oscar, Loftus-Cheek, Hazard; Costa
Subs: Begovic, Zouma, Mikel, Traore, Pedro, Willian, Azpilicueta
Preamble
On the face of it these two clubs don’t have much in common. Why would they, you ask – they’ve never played each other before and spent the last decade or so on separate footballing planets.
But on second look MK Dons might actually have been existing in Chelsea’s parallel universe. Both clubs had a new beginning, Milton Keynes Dons establishing themselves 12 months after Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea from Ken Bates. Both set out ambitious development plans and made their academy a priority. Both celebrate the success of their messianic manager’s historic first stint, José Mourinho winning Chelsea’s first top-flight title for 50 years, Paul Ince winning the Dons’ first ever league title (both returned for the inevitably underwhelming second go); both have had plenty more highs than lows along the way.
Admittedly, attempting to bring the Champions League trophy to west London isn’t all that similar to trying to bring Championship football to a Denbigh retail park, but in some ways these two clubs, worlds apart, have taken unexpectedly similar journeys to be where they are now. That place is the FA Cup fourth round, where we will find out out if MK Dons can match their furthest run in the competition with an almighty cupset, or if Guus Hiddink can extend his unbeaten start to nine games and continue the pursuit of the one trophy he won in his previous Chelsea life – and perhaps the only one he has a shot at this time around too.
Kick-off: 4pm GMT
Updated
