Excellent stoppage-time goals from substitutes Carney Chukwuemeka and Noni Madueke sealed a 4-2 victory for the Blues and a second Wembley visit of the season after Leicester, who played the final 17 minutes with ten men, threatened to force extra-time.

Chukwuemeka and Madueke's impact was needed after an own goal from Axel Disasi and Stephy Mavididi's stunning strike levelled the contest in the second period. Chelsea had led 2-0 at the interval after Marc Cucurella and Cole Palmer struck.

'Yes, it was harder [than it needed to be],' said the Chelsea head coach after his side's win. 'If we scored with all the chances we created in the first half I think the game would have been finished after 45 minutes. But we missed too many chances.

'Then conceding [the first goal] in the way we did had an emotional impact. That is the magic of the FA Cup – as we saw yesterday with Coventry and that is football.

'But we fully deserve to be in Wembley and we will now go back to Wembley. We are in the FA Cup semi-final, so we are going twice at the moment but hopefully three times (including the final) we can go.

‘But I think this group of players deserve great credit and also the staff. In the circumstance of the beginning of the season, to go twice and fight for cups twice, is massive.’

As was the case in our previous two outings at Stamford Bridge – against Leeds United and Newcastle United – the Blues conceded twice but managed to outscore the opposition.

Pochettino believes his side is still searching for the right balance between defence and attack going forward, but is happy with the threat being posed in the final third.

'We scored five today with the goal of Axel as well,' said Pochettino. 'I think we need to find a collective balance because we have great offensive players.

'They also need to think about defensive actions. There are two phases in football, one with the ball and one without the ball, and when we concede goals it is not only about the goalkeeper or the defensive line.

'We cannot at the moment find this balance. We have young players who need to be more mature and have more energy when we go to press and run backwards.

'That is the reality and that is why it is difficult to find consistency. We need to fix that with time and find the balance in this aspect.'