5 big guns face FA Cup peril
Another Premiership club will exit the FA Cup when Manchester United and Chelsea square up and other top-tier clubs Wolves, Palace and Brighton face tricky ties this weekend.
In a matter of 90 minutes, questions over the future of Manchester United are being posed again as a winning streak imploded at Old Trafford this week.
Just when it seemed Ole Gunnar Solksjaer was doing enough to persuade everybody of his ability to take the manager’s job on a full-time basis, so Tuesday’s home defeat by Paris St Germain in the Champions League has revived the doubts.
Admittedly, it was only the first defeat after a record-breaking start since replacing Jose Mourinho, but the young Norwegian was always going to have to perform heroics to get the job full-time.
No target was ever made public, but beating the French champions over two legs in the last 16 was seen as the benchmark.
That now looks a task beyond the Red Devils, who must do without suspended Paul Pogba for the return game.
Perhaps a top-four finish and therefore qualification for next year’s Champions League - might still suffice or even a trophy.
There is still the FA Cup to play for and suddenly Monday night’s fifth-round tie at Chelsea takes on a whole new importance for Solksjaer and his players.
The FA Cup no longer carries the lustre of past years, but is still an important prize. Chelsea beat United in last year’s final and come into the game with problems of their own.
The 6-0 thrashing by Manchester City last Sunday emphasised the already well-publicised problems between manager Maurizio Sarri and his players, and drastically reduces the odds on a home win.
United will be hoping there is still momentum left from all their domestic success in recent months to take out Chelsea.
Monday’s game comes at the end of a weekend of cup ties, characterised by the decimated field. Only seven of the remaining 16 sides are from the Premier League with Manchester City favourites.
They are at lowly Newport County tomorrow - a club who last played in the fifth round 70 years ago and could be in for the same 9-0 treatment that Pep Guardiola’s team dished out to Burton Albion in the League Cup.
But Brighton and Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton Wanderers are the EPL clubs that punters hoping to cash in on TAB’s soccer pools cannot be so sure of. They could all be bundled out because the surprise results of this season’s FA Cup are unlikely to stop now.
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