After Chelsea failed to overcome a bog-standard Norwich City side at Carrow Road with what surely ranks as the Blues’ most lacklustre performance of the season, the replay will take place at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday January 16 at 7.45pm.

‘It’s a pity because we wanted to win the game; instead we have to play another game,’ said a downbeat Tony Conte, with considerable understatement.

The extra game is being sandwiched in between other fixtures… unless it ends up being televised, in which case it could be played at midnight on Mars, the way the all-powerful TV interests rig things to suit them.

Nobody likes a 0-0, but this FA Cup tie was so dull it ranks alongside recent Sam Allardyce Everton performances.

It’s just as well that Chelsea have pinched a bargain-basement Ross Barkley from the Toffees… he’d have been driven mad by the negative tactics currently employed to keep Everton in the top flight. The fact that he was snapped up for half of the £30million fee being proposed a year ago is a bonus.

The Chelsea choir are now preparing suitably taunting ‘Ross Barkley; he’s one of our own’ chants to hurl at Merseyside.

Ticket information about the Chelsea v Norwich replay at www.chelseafc.com

Featured: Fans walk past the old back wall of the Shed at Stamford Bridge – an incredible distance from the pitch