Hatters boss hopes formbook doesn't go out of the window for his side during Chelsea cup clash

Luton boss Nathan Jones is hoping that the formbook doesn’t go out of the window for his side when they entertain Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round at Kenilworth Road this evening.

Going into the contest, the Hatters are on a marvellous run of results, with 11 wins from their last 15 fixtures, nine in the league, while also knocking out Harrogate and Cambridge in the world's most famous cup competition as well.

Having said that, the Blues' recent form isn't too shabby either with just two defeats in their last 20 outings, including the Premier League and Champions League, one of those coming following a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Saturday.

Ahead of the tie, Jones said: "They’re not in bad form either to be fair, and they’re playing at the absolute top end of football.

"We’re in good form, they’re in good form, it should be a good game.

"They’ll be a real honesty about the game, the manager is very, very good, I know people at the football club who say the manager is outstanding and you’d expect that as he’s one of the top five coaches in the world reputation-wise.

"So it’s going to be a real tough game, but what a great game, and that’s how you have to look at it.

“Yes, we shop in different supermarkets and we haven’t got the resources they have, but this is the cup, this is the FA Cup and it's possibly the most wonderful competition on earth.

"As it pits your Kidderminster's, your Merthyr Tydfil's, your Luton Town's against Manchester City’s, Chelsea's and Liverpool's and that's why its a great competition.

"We've got an opportunity of doing something, but to do something special, everything has to come right.

"They are the current World Club Cup champions, narrowly lost on pens to Liverpool at Wembley.

"As a footballer you crave these games, as a manager you want to test yourself.

"It’s a different kind of game, it’s a midweek FA Cup game which doesn’t happen very often.

"It’s packed into a real hectic schedule and anything can happen but what a wonderful game for everyone to be involved in.

"I think it is a wonderful game for Chelsea because they don’t come to Kenilworth Road very often, they don’t get tested in certain ways how we would like to test them so it’s a wonderful cup tie and English football is what makes it great.

"You can’t have any fear about it, they’ll be nerves because of the magnitude of the game and when you walk out there and you're playing Chelsea, but if I'm honest, we would like to play the Chelsea's, week in week out."

With Luton now up to sixth in the Championship table following Saturday's 1-0 triumph over Derby County, there is a growing possibility that the Blues might find themselves visiting Kenilworth Road in the top flight next term.

That is something Jones would love to see, as he continued: "We’d like to that to be our bread and butter.

"At the minute, it’s a bit of caviar, but we’re trying to strive for it to be our bread and butter.

"Eight years ago we were in the National League but six years ago we were in League Two and so on, so we’re edging closer.

"To be where Chelsea are is a dream for us and we’re edging closer to that every single season so that’s what we can do.

"The club is in a wonderful place, I don’t just mean sixth place in the Championship but I mean the club is in a wonderful place from top and right throughout it.

"There is a golden thread that runs through it, we’re all aligned and that is the beauty of our club.

"I know there were calls at the weekend from a TV programme that we have by far the lowest budget and so on but we don’t rely on budget, we rely on work processes and alignment and we have that which is a real credit to everyone at the club.

“We like testing ourselves against top of the table, against higher league ones, we've always enjoyed that.

"I’ve been very proud of our record and this is another one of those, always with one eye on, god willing, these will be week in week out rivals of ours."

Due to the effects of Covid, there will be no replays in the cup this season, meaning tonight's tie will be decided after 120 minutes and penalties if necessary.

Although Chelsea lost 11-10 on spot-kicks at the weekend, Jones didn't think they would have a hangover from that, adding: "I’m not sure they had too many problems.

"They scored 10 out of 10 and if we scored 10 out of 10 I'd be very happy with it."