The FA Cup

First topic message reminder :

Well, nothing on here much for discussion so thought this could begin.

At the moment Westisbest is probably pulling his hair out, whilst Wigan are marching on towards there second FA Cup in a row.

Chelsea really going for this comp.. Good team out today

1-0

That is superb from Oscar. Amazing goal.

Fulham had to work hard and they have a replay, thats a perfect result

Chelsea through.

Chelsea or Arsenal away.

Or Charlton/Sheffield Wednesday at home.

The nature of the FA Cup and beauty of 'anyone can beat anyone' is truly going away now. Stoke, expect them to go for it, nothing else to win, look to win a cup and they've not even registered a chance you could say coud have leveled the game. That's how poor they were.

Man City V Chelsea.   OOoooooh.... Tasty.

Arsenal v Liverpool. Wow

Hull at home?

Well would of been worse if its away. But still what a rubbish tie.

Two lovely looking ties there

There are 2 good ties in this round. Hopefully an improvement on this years competition as 2 of the 4 top teams have to go out at least. But that means there will be so many poor teams left.

One of Brighton and Hull will go through. Boring. Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton. Poor. Cardiff or Wigan. Poor. Sheff Utd/Fulham or Nottingham Forest/PNE. Poor.

Wigan are holders to be fair.

Just opens up the draw for a potential under dog winner.

Meh. Winnable if we can beat Preston

Championship side though now. That's why it will be poor quality. But I do like to see a very good team and a less of a good team like Fulham/Sunderland/Southampton who could get into Europe by winning the title.

Big teams monopolising cups is more boring tbqh

Indeed, Swansea, Sunderland, Southampton and Everton in particular should see those big teams facing off and be chuffed. Glory just got a lot less difficult. Two huge teams out whatever happens.

Stoke were rather pathetic today. Yes, Chelsea were better in every department and at home, but Stoke could have at least gone for it. I think Stoke only had one decent chance all game; Ireland's effort that hit the side-netting. Why bother if you're not going to give it a go?

As for the draw, I expect Arsenal-Liverpool to be the tie of the round. Mourinho will set Chelsea up in an ultra-negative fashion to combat City's threat. It'll be absorbing, not exciting.

Stoke are just trying to play a brand of football they don't have the quality of player to succeed at. I don't think it is a case of them not trying.

It's just much easier to keep to their long ball style of play. That would be just so much easier for them as I feel, with that system today, they could have got a 1-1 I'd bet because they'll get a lucky break somewhere for a good shot. But I can see what he is trying to do Hughes, but he doesn't have the resources to do it and Stoke's system under Pulis worked fine. Got them to the FA Cup Final and a solid mid table position. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

It's at the Etihad? Only one winner there then you'd think.

FootballLight wrote:It's just much easier to keep to their long ball style of play. That would be just so much easier for them as I feel, with that system today, they could have got a 1-1 I'd bet because they'll get a lucky break somewhere for a good shot. But I can see what he is trying to do Hughes, but he doesn't have the resources to do it and Stoke's system under Pulis worked fine. Got them to the FA Cup Final and a solid mid table position. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

The counterpoint would be that Stoke were going nowhere with that system and Hughes has a andante to try and get them to the next level.

I think they went as far as they could with the long ball, fair play to them for trying to change.

The problem, as you alluded to, is that you need quality once you pass your way into those advanced positions and they have none.

Stoke need quality passing out of there own half first before we can even talk about from advanced positions. Defend first. They were giving the ball away in there own half and haven't got the quality to make it effective.

Teams like Swansea can deal with that, but haven't quite got it in the advanced areas. But aat least they are not playing the low percentages

Stoke like many other bottom half teams should never even try against the big teams only against the lesser.

Jeas have I been brainwashed by pulis 

I thought they passed it alright, got their wingers 1 on 1 a few times and got a few overloads.

Of course they are going to give it away in their own half on occassion, they are lacking in quality.

FootballLight wrote:There are 2 good ties in this round. Hopefully an improvement on this years competition as 2 of the 4 top teams have to go out at least. But that means there will be so many poor teams left.

One of Brighton and Hull will go through. Boring. Sheffield Wednesday or Charlton. Poor. Cardiff or Wigan. Poor. Sheff Utd/Fulham or Nottingham Forest/PNE. Poor.

What I don't understand is why there is no seeding for the draws so that we get the better teams playing each other at the business end of the cup as opposed to the early rounds. I understand it is a tradition but all these teams have a place in the pyramid from last season and could be easily seeded. United and Spurs are already out and two of either Chelsea/Arsenal/man city/ and liverpool will be gone leaving a lot of weaker teams in the 6th round and beyond. I am not English so maybe people can explain the reasoning for no seeding in the FA cup draw, because it seems to me to knock out a lot of good sides early.

Would destroy whatever magic is left in the FA Cup.

Tradition. History. Heritage.

Leave well alone.

Its not a competition about the best being handed passage through. You win by playing whoever is drawn against you, tough or easy. That's why other competitions dont have the "magic" of the cup

Yeah also you won't get the buzz of the draw.

WHAT AN UPSET!!!

Full credit to Nigel Clough and his troops for another major upset.

How the Frak did we lose 3-0 to Fulham reserves

Suspect it'll be a 2nd team tomorrow with Leicester on Wednesday. Good chance to get to Wembley though.

Cracker from Gardner. He's always been known for them. People say that is a 1 in 100 chance, thats a 6 in 10 chance for Gardner if you shorten the numbers. Really good goal. Deserves to be the match winner. But I can see Soton crawling their way back into this now. But this is going to be close, Sunderland may just find their way through to the next round. They certainly are going for the cups this season. But a C1C final will only drive them on to do as well in the FAC as well I suppose the mentality is.

Haven't seen the goal but it sounds superb.

Sunderland could they do the double???

Half time

Cardiff 1-2 Wigan

Big upset on the cards.

Not that big an upset, surely?

Would be an impressive win though.

Man City starting XI: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Lescott, Clichy, Garcia, Toure, Milner, Silva, Jovetic, Dzeko.

Chelsea starting XI: Cech (c); Ivanovic, Cahill, David Luiz, Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Ramires, Willian, Hazard; Eto'o

One team trying the other not so much, My tip for a Chelsea win could be wise here...

Citeh clearly more concerned with their Tuesday night game against the Continentals...and I don't blame them.

Congrats to Wigan.

Citeh 1-0 up and look in firm control.

In a match I don't really care about, its nice to see Mourinho failing here.

City been very good tonight, not really given Chelsea a sniff.

Pellegrini should say at the final whistle "you were saying what to Wenger"

It's only 1 game, not sure a man who's never won a trophy in Europe should be getting involved with that sort of chat.

Ent wrote:It's only 1 game, not sure a man who's never won a trophy in Europe should be getting involved with that sort of chat.

Why not? Prepare for the future and show his balls  

Best thing about that match was Silva being voted as MotM really loudly.

Pellegrini on Jose, no love lost.

‘Maybe it is a small horse if the manager thinks like that. It can be a little horse, but very rich. This is the team that has spent most money in the last 10 years, is the team that spent most money this year and the team that spent the most money in the transfer window. So, little – but rich.’

‘Academically he is an engineer and he does not need a calculator to work it out. Mata was sold for £37m, De Bruyne £18m. That is £55m. We brought in Matic for £21m and Salah for £11m – that is £32m. So £55m less £32m is £23m. So for Chelsea in this window it is £23m – he does not need a calculator for this.’

Give it back i say.

Jose failing in both domestic cups is wonderful. Really Chelsea were fortunate not to get 3 or 4 put on them and they really created absolutely nothing on the other end. City was also pretty depleted with injuries. Just a terrible performance. Maybe now we can get a rest from the british media's orgasms over the tactical genius of Jose. His team didn't even threaten the goal for 90 minutes. I could have played keeper for City tonight and they would have won.

Just back from pub, shocking game really. Chelsea were abysmal & was going to be difficult to perform so well again as City knew how to deal with Hazard & co more effectively. Was it me or have City left the grass to grow in preparation for Barcelona, in an attempt to disrupt their passing game? Thought the pitch looked poor tonight & made the game messy.

Fully expect City to make the final.

John wrote:Just back from pub, shocking game really. Chelsea were abysmal & was going to be difficult to perform so well again as City knew how to deal with Hazard & co more effectively. Was it me or have City left the grass to grow in preparation for Barcelona, in an attempt to disrupt their passing game? Thought the pitch looked poor tonight & made the game messy.

Fully expect City to make the final.

Thought that myself...didn't even know Hazard was playing. Nice to see Jose's mouth shut...even if it's only for a week

Jose has bigger ambitions - notably the PL and CL double.

All perfectly within reach...

Liverpool to triumph tomorrow I reckon. Let's say 1-2.

Duty281 wrote:Jose has bigger ambitions - notably the PL and CL double.

All perfectly within reach...

Liverpool to triumph tomorrow I reckon. Let's say 1-2.

Jose has no shot at CL, Guardiola willl run him out of the CL just like he ran him out of Spain. David Luiz and or Terry will get opened up like a tin of beans by Bayern.

socal1976 wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Jose has bigger ambitions - notably the PL and CL double.

All perfectly within reach...

Liverpool to triumph tomorrow I reckon. Let's say 1-2.

Jose has no shot at CL, Guardiola willl run him out of the CL just like he ran him out of Spain. David Luiz and or Terry will get opened up like a tin of beans by Bayern.

Except Guardiola exited Spanish football a year before Mourinho.

FreekShow wrote:

socal1976 wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Jose has bigger ambitions - notably the PL and CL double.

All perfectly within reach...

Liverpool to triumph tomorrow I reckon. Let's say 1-2.

Jose has no shot at CL, Guardiola willl run him out of the CL just like he ran him out of Spain. David Luiz and or Terry will get opened up like a tin of beans by Bayern.

Except Guardiola exited Spanish football a year before Mourinho.

Yeah but he made Jose show his crying bitch side after Barca would beat the crap out of his teams in pretty much every head to head matchup. The tactical genius met his Wellington at Waterloo and fled to exile.

Guardiola left barca the summer after mourinhos Madrid won la liga with a goal scoring record.