Possible Upsets In the FA Cup?

The 5^th round of the FA Cup gets under­way this Sat­ur­day and Sun­day and the ques­tion is will there be any upsets or will it be busi­ness as usual?

Wat­ford v Chelsea — Vic­arage Road

Just last week I would have said there was no chance of Wat­ford pulling an upset but I’m not sure. With Chelsea play­ing poor foot­ball and Sco­lari being sacked just 4 days before the match how will Chelsea react? Will they come out and have a hang­over or will they take any anger over their man­agers dis­missal out on Wat­ford? The tal­ent gulf is clear between the two clubs but that doesn’t always guar­an­tee a vic­tory. Wat­ford does have the home pitch advan­tage which will help boost them. How­ever, I still think Chelsea will squeak by Wat­ford 2–1 but it won’t be pretty.

Derby County v Man­ches­ter United Episode III  “Revenge of the Rams?”- Pride Park

This will be the third time Derby and United have faced off this year, with Derby tak­ing the first leg of the Car­ling Cup 1–0 and United tak­ing the tie and sec­ond leg 4–2. I give Derby a 15% chance of spring­ing the upset on United. Derby are play­ing good foot­ball right now, Rob Hulse and Kris Com­mons are on hot streaks and Com­mons has showed he not intim­i­dated by United. Pride Park will be a sell out and the Rams fans will be loud and in full sup­port of Derby. How­ever United are full of tal­ent and if they play like they can, Derby wont stand a chance. I think Derby will do well but I expect United to take this 3–2.

Swansea City v Ful­ham — Lib­erty Stadium

This is a bat­tle of two teams who are per­form­ing above expec­ta­tions in their respec­tive leagues. Swansea City is show­ing it can han­dle life in the Cham­pi­onship with no prob­lems while Ful­ham are hav­ing a good year after barely escap­ing rel­e­ga­tion last sea­son. Swansea isn’t afraid of any team and they will be play­ing at home which will help Ful­ham dis­patched non-league Ket­ter­ing Town while Swansea strug­gled to beat non-league His­ton. I think Ful­ham will take this tie but it depends on which Swansea team shows up that will deter­mine the score, my guess 3–1 Fulham.

Black­burn Rovers v Coven­try City — Ewood Park

I sense an upset here, Black­burn are not play­ing well at all while Chris Cole­man has Coven­try doing well in the Cham­pi­onship. Black­burn strug­gled to get past fel­low BPL team Sun­der­land while Coven­try like­wise had issues with BSP Torquay. I think out of all the ties this one has the best chance for an upset. Cole­man has Coven­try believ­ing they can win and Black­burn are hav­ing a bad sea­son. My guess 2–1 Coventry.

Sheffield United v Hull City — Bramell Lane

The sur­prise pack­age of the BPL trav­els to a solid Sheffield United squad. While United are play­ing well and on track for the CCC play­offs, Hull are hav­ing a mag­i­cal sea­son in the BPL. They are not afraid of any­one which has con­tributed to their suc­cess. Hull takes this 1–0 in typ­i­cal Hull fashion.

Arse­nal v Cardiff City 4^th Round replay — Emi­rates Stadium

Cardiff did well to hold Arse­nal in the first match but I think Arse­nal will show their class in the replay of the tie. The tal­ented young­sters Wenger has at his dis­posal is fright­en­ing. Arse­nal to advance 4–2.

Sadly I see this week­end as a con­tin­u­a­tion of busi­ness as usual for the FA Cup. Other then Coven­try spring­ing an upset on Black­burn I think it will be a clean sweep for the BPL Clubs. I hope and would love to be proven wrong and of course Lets Go Ewe Rams!!

Tagged as: cardiff city, coventry city, derby county, FA Cup, Sheffield United, Swansea City, watford