FA Cup: Shock Plymouth win ends Liverpool's quadruple dream

Liverpool's FA Cup shock exit to Plymouth, Man City scrape past Leyton Orient, Spurs fall to Villa, and top teams eye glory as the tournament heats up

Plymouth players celebrate thier cup win over Liverpool on Sunday, a shock result for the bottom club in the Championship. (Photo credit: Sky Sports)

Stranger things have happened but Liverpool’s ouster from the FA Cup in the hands of Championship bottom club Plymouth speaks so much about the magic of the FA Cup.

Arne Slot’s side had only tasted defeats three times since the start of the season before heading into the seemingly easy tie away at Plymouth Argyle: the home loss to Forest, the loss at Spurs in the League Cup, which was overturned, and the meaningless final group game loss in the Champions League to PSV.

Shouts of an unprecedented quadruple ended in tears for Liverpool on Sunday as the bottom club in the Championship stood firm and ran away with a shock 1-0 win. It’s not all gloom and doom for the Premier League leaders, but they must get a grip before things go south.

Elsewhere in the Cup, Manchester City laboured past Leyton Orient on Saturday, but the scoreline doesn’t tell the entire story. The League 2 side scored a beauty of a goal that was such a shame to have gone down as an own goal and could have doubled their lead after then.

The Cityzens huffed and puffed until Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench to win the game for Pep Guardiola, and you must wonder if Manchester City will ever come out of the woods. The FA Cup represents City’s biggest chance of winning something this season; will they land this one?

For City to win the FA Cup, they will have to get past the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle, and Aston Villa, who are the remaining top sides in the competition; however, luck of the draw can help while they must also find help within their squad to up momentum.

Tottenham Hotspur’s depleted squad got another defeat on the board as their late push didn’t do much to stop Aston Villa from dumping them out of the competition, leaving Ange Postecoglou with just one tournament to fight for in his second season, where he usually wins things.

Aston Villa’s season can get even better with the FA Cup as Unai Emery’s side is now through to the round of 16; four more wins and the Spaniard could be landing his first trophy in England; he is also pushing for the Champions League while also fighting to return to the tournament via the league.