One could argue that in terms of a global audience, this might be a rather high profile FA Cup fifth round matchup. Wrexham may be from the lower leagues, but they have a relatively large following in the United States thanks to the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ docuseries that has followed the team’s acquisition by Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac (née McElhenney) and their subsequent rise up the pyramid. And it’s not been just all glitz and glamour and Hollywood fakery. In fact, they’re going for their fourth
successive promotion, something that’s never been done before in English football history.
Despite that attention, neither side are likely to take it too seriously. Chelsea are in the midst a run of massive fixtures in both the Premier League and the Champions League coming up, while Wrexham are embroiled in a classically close Championship fight for the promotion playoff places. They play Hull City, three points and one spot above them in fifth, on Tuesday.
That said, beating Chelsea at the Racecourse would make for some amazing television.
Date / Time: Saturday, March 7, 2026, 17.45 GMT; 12:45pm EST; 11:15pm IST
Venue: Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, Wales
Referee: Peter Bankes (on pitch); Paul Howard (VAR)
Forecast: Cool; chance of rain
On TV: BBC One (UK); none (USA); Sony TEN 2 (India); SuperSport MaXimo 2 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: BBC iPlayer (UK); ESPN Select (USA); Sony LIV (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Wrexham team news: In a notoriously competitive Championship, Wrexham managed to establish themselves initially by being very hard to beat: only the top three teams have lost fewer matches all season. Lately however, they have been turning those draws into wins, making their promotion playoff push and looking to complete their historic rise from non-league to Premier League in just four seasons.
They’ve had plenty of financial backing to make that happen of course, but they’ve also made some shrewd transfer decisions along the way, putting sentimentality aside as necessary, and upgrading the squad to keep moving up the divisions. It would be fascinating to see them deal with the challenge of staying in the Premier League, and hopefully we’ll get to see it someday soon.
There have been a few constants as well, including defender Max Cleworth (a Wrexham academy product) and goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo (who first joined in League Two on loan from Arsenal before making the switch permanent), and perhaps most importantly, manager Phil Parkinson, whom we might remember as the manager of third division Bradford City back in 2014-15, when they beat the Premier League champions-to-be at the Bridge, 4-2 in the FA Cup. That match was thankfully not televised, but it does have its own whole Wikipedia entry as one of the greatest upsets in the modern history of this competition.
Among last summer’s key arrivals were leading goalscorers Kieffer Moore (veteran of one Premier League campaign with AFC Bournemouth), Nathan Broadhead (was with Ipswich Town in the Prem as well), and attacking midfielder Josh Windass (son of Dean), plus midfielder George Dobson and defenders Dominic Hyam and Callum Doyle, the latter out of the Manchester City academy. Midfielder Ryan Longman is another key player, and product of the Brighton academy. Don’t let BlueCo see!
Wrexham do have a few injury concerns of note, including knocks to Dobson and Broadhead, a hamstring concern for right back Issa Kaboré, and longer-term absences for the likes of Ben Sheaf, Matty James, Liberato Cacace, and Lewis Brunt.
“When players are out, it presents an opportunity for somebody else to step in, and as we’ve done this season already, we’ve adapted players […] That underdog fighting spirit has got to be there because we know we’re up against a team that are Club World Champions and they’ve got a lot of talent. However, It’s all about us giving a really good account of ourselves, and we’ll see where that takes us on the night.”
-Phil Parkinson; source: Wrexham AFC
Chelsea team news: Chelsea’s own injury situation is actually pretty good, all things considered. Levi Colwill has been out all season, but everyone else is either back already or getting close to returning — including Jamie Gittens, Dário Essugo, and Estêvão. It’s unfortunate that young Steve-o will miss out on this one, but it’s important that his hamstring injury doesn’t linger beyond these few weeks.
Head coach Liam Rosenior is still quite likely to rotate heavily and give minutes to players who haven’t seen much action lately, such as Liam Delap, Benoît Badiashile, or the returning Roméo Lavia. Youngsters Jesse Derry and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen have also traveled with the squad, so ideally they’d get a few minutes as well.
Perhaps the most watched decision from Rosenior will be in goal, where Filip Jörgensen was given a surprise start on Wednesday and where we now supposedly have an open competition between him and Robert Sánchez.
Previously: We’ve played Wrexham twice in recent summer friendlies in the US, in 2023 and 2024, but we haven’t played them competitively since the early 80s: six times in the league (three shared seasons in the old second division) and three times in the FA Cup. Amusingly, all three FA Cup matches occurred as part of one (1) Round 4 matchup: the initial game that ended in a draw, the replay that also ended in a draw, and then finally a 2-1 win for the Blues at the Racecourse: Micky Droy and Alan Mayes with the goals.
