FA Cup: United, City and Tottenham seek respite in the FA Cup

It’s a weekend loaded with football, especially in England, where there’s no league action, but the fourth round of the FA Cup will take centre stage.

Manchester United will hope to make light work of Leicester City on Friday when they meet in the FA Cup fourth round, are we expecting the magic of the FA Cup? (Photo credit: Opta)

It’s a weekend loaded with football, especially in England, where there’s no league action, but the fourth round of the FA Cup will take centre stage.

For Arsenal, their domestic run has come to an end, and while others are fighting for a fifth-round ticket at various grounds this weekend, Mikel Arteta and his lads have gone on holiday to Dubai and would hope their return will spark great runs as we saw last February.

Tottenham’s Ange Postecoglou promised the fans a silverware at the end of this season; his options are now limited to two after his team got under the hammer of Liverpool, under the lights at Anfield on Thursday night. The 4-0 annihilation overturned the 1-0 deficit and booked a final date for the Kops.

Tottenham is now left with the FA Cup and the Europa League. For the latter, they’re away at Aston Villa, and it won’t be an easy affair. They’re waiting for an opponent in the last 16 of the Europa League as all hopes of a league title died long ago.

For Liverpool, it’s as good as a quadruple shout as things stand. The Kops are in the final of the Carabao Cup, where they will meet Newcastle United; they will travel to Plymouth for the fourth round of the FA Cup and can’t wait to learn who their opponent is in the UCL while they lead the EPL by six points.

Leicester’s City could go from bad to worse as they host Manchester United at the King Power; however, they can take solace in the fact that the Red Devils are also in no man’s land, which means it’s anyone’s game on Friday night.

United’s city rivals, Manchester City, suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Arsenal last weekend and need a win to feel good again; Leyton Orient must feel quite unlucky to have drawn Pep Guardiola’s team at this sort of time.

High-flying Everton is up against Andoni Iraiola’s side at Goodison Park. It’s a game between two teams who are high on confidence; however, the hosts have a game against Liverpool in a few days. The last Merseyside derby to be played at Everton’s current ground, will that play on their mind on Saturday?

Southampton got their first win in forever at Ipswich last weekend, and they will love to improve on that when they host Championship side Burnley. You expect Newcastle to build on their strong win over Arsenal when they go to Birmingham on Saturday.

Brighton will host Chelsea in the final game of the day on Saturday, a huge clash to say the least, with the Seagulls healing from their horrible game at Forest last weekend while Chelsea also needs some wind in their sails with struggles here and there. We hope for the magic of the FA Cup.