TRAGIC OF THE CUP ALL GUNS BLAZING!
EVERY year i hope that the FA Cup will throw up an exciting season – something different, but it appears those days are virtually extinct.
Wigan are the great anomaly of the last 35 years and even then they snatched an injurytime winner in 2013.
There was the year Portsmouth won it as well but that is tinged with regret for me as my own rabble got to the quarter-finals for the first time in decades and then had their pants pulled down by West Brom on live telly.
However, the sad reality is that among the last 32 winners of the FA Cup are Liverpool, who won it four times in that period, Arsenal with nine wins, Manchester United with four, Manchester City with three and Chelsea, who’ve seven wins in that period stretching back to the 1991-92 season.
Sad
So that is five clubs who have won 27 out of the last 32 FA Cups between them. A sad state of affairs for a competition that prided itself for well over 100 years on being the competition where anything was possible.
And here we are back at the third round stage, traditionally the highlight of the whole thing and even though Arsenal and Liverpool are meeting tomorrow in the tie of the round, you would not put it past one of the five teams above to go and win it again.
I’ll start with tomorrow’s big clash as it is on the BBC so will probably get a much-bigger audience than the Premier League game recently, even if much less is at stake.
Arsenal have the home advantage here and Liverpool also have a League Cup semi-final coming up so may be more likely to want to spread their resources.
With the Gunners having had a setbacks of late, I’m sure Mikel Arteta will want a confidence-boosting win and on that basis, I think backing Arsenal makes more sense.
Jurgen Klopp might surprise us with his team selection, but it would be more surprising to see his top names here so a bet on Arsenal at 21-20 looks pretty sound.
My usual policy is to pick good-priced away teams in the FA Cup, although Huddersfield at 66-1 tomorrow to win at Manchester City probably isn’t even good value at that price. Although as it’s on telly I may talk myself into a quid on for the laugh.
Back to today’s games though and Southampton are a side who might just be vulnerable to a lower-league team beating them.
The Saints have had a couple of wobbles but are firmly on course for a crack at a return to the Premier League and that is absolutely their priority.
Walsall are an inconsistent team at League Two level, but given that they are coming off the back of a 6-1 win at Grimsby, their confidence
should be high.
Rotten
Assuming the Saints make changes, the 10-1 around about the Saddlers at St Mary’s is worth a go. Preston are the sort of side who do well against the better sides in the Championship and with Chelsea out of sorts a quid at 18-1 on North End to win in West London is worth a go.
Birmingham may have got rid of Wayne Rooney but they are not a rotten team and at 18-5 to win at Hull they make some appeal today.
Tomorrow, I am going to back Bolton to make a big noise with a win at Luton. The Hatters have had some big games lately, and with some success, but they just might let their level drop against a side that should be in the Championship next season.
At 19-4 I will take Bolton to win at Kenilworth Road.
If there’s one home side worth backing tomorrow it is Peterborough, who like Bolton are doing well in League One.
They host Leeds and with a Premier League return their priority, Posh can take advantage at a nice price of 4-1.
It is the final weekend of the regular NFL season with plenty of playoff positions up for grabs.
But you can expect many of those teams who have already secured playoff slots – especially Baltimore and San Francisco who are guaranteed the coveted No.1 seed in the AFC and NFC conferences respectively – to rest key players.
It is better therefore to concentrate on games with teams striving to stay in the playoffs.
There’s a fascinating encounter between the Houston Texans and their hosts the Indianapolis Colts, in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
This is an AFC South shootout where the winner will get a playoff slot and may even top the division, while the loser looks set to miss out.
Credit
The Texans, with exciting quarterback CJ Stroud (inset) are favourites to win this, but I am impressed with Colts head coach Shane Steichen, who got much of the credit for getting the Eagles to the Super Bowl last year when he was the Offensive Coordinator.
I am backing the Colts to win this and there is some 21-20 around at the time of writing.
Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers is always a hot rivalry and although the Bears are out of the running, they can go to the Packers’ house and stop them from getting in the playoffs, which is great motivation.
The Packers’ 8-8 record highlights their inconsistency. I am going to go with the Bears to spoil the part in Green Bay with a win at nice odds of 7-5.