FA Cup predictions

Thirty-two clubs remain in this season’s FA Cup and fifteen of them are Premier League sides. The remainder of the clubs consist of thirteen from the Championship, two from league one and two from the Blue Square Premier League (Conference).

For this week’s predictions we’ll have a look at the FA Cup fourth round games that involve Premier League teams:

Saturday 24th January 2009

Chelsea came relatively close to going out of this competition in the third round against Southend. They are unlikely to make similar mistakes again. Despite the gloom and doom surrounding their recent defeat at Old Trafford, that was there only defeat in ten games.

Ipswich are eleventh in the Championship and have disappointed a little as they were many people’s tip for the play-offs. They are on a decent run at the moment being unbeaten in four, but they will need to be at their very best and hope Chelsea aren’t to have any chance of getting anything here.

SoccerNews prediction: 2-0

Tough game this one for Villa. Martin O’Neill tends to give some of his squad players a chance in the cup competitions although he must have a genuine belief that Villa have a realistic chance of winning this Cup.

Doncaster may be sitting in the Championship relegation zone but they have picked up plaudits all season for the style of their football and they are unbeaten in five in all competitions.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-2

There is no doubt that West Ham will not be looking forward to their trip to the North East to take on the Hartlepool side that comfortably despatched Stoke in the last round.

Hartlepool sit in mid-table in League One under a caretaker manager but have lost only three times in their last ten outings.

West Ham are unbeaten in five after recovering from a bad spell under Gianfranco Zola. They will have to be very focussed and ready for a battle to survive this potentially embarrassing trip.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-1

This is a really tough game for Phil Brown’s Hull. After such a great start to their first ever season in the top tier, things have turned a little sour for The Tigers. Including their third round cup win at Newcastle, they have only managed to win two of their last fifteen. More crucially, eight of those games have ended in defeat.

Millwall are sitting pretty in the play-off places in League One. Unlike Hull, they have only lost two of their last fifteen games and will going to their Premier League opponents absolutely full of confidence.

If you are looking for a big shock, this could be the one.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-1

What a great draw this is for Blue Square Premier League side Kettering. They are currently tenth in their league some eighty-four places below Fulham in the league pyramid. With their minds on this game however, Kettering have only managed to win one of their four games since they qualified. That win was a last minute 1-0 against struggling Salisbury City.

Fulham have been on a great run and had been proving very difficult to beat until they were easily turned over last week at West Ham. That defeat and the terrible individual errors that led to it were probably just the kick up the backside they needed to ensure that they don’t become a victim of a giant-killing here.

SoccerNews prediction: 0-2

Both of these teams made it through to the Carling Cup final this week with fairly average displays against Championship opponents. Actually that’s being generous to Tottenham. Manchester United were average in their win over Derby. What Tottenham were for most of their win against Burnley was a very long way short of average.

United will put out a patched up team with Ferdinand, Park, Evans, Evra, Rafael, Anderson, Nani and Rooney all injured. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has said that he will play a ‘mish-mash’ of a side.

I think that at the moment, even Manchester United reserves would probably be too strong for a Tottenham side that have once again lost their way.

SoccerNews prediction: 3-1

Portsmouth’s replay win at Bristol City in the last round was one of only two wins in their last ten games in all competitions. They got a hard earned point at Tottenham last week but still look a shadow of the side they were under Harry Redknapp.

Swansea earned promotion to the Championship last season and are currently doing very nicely in ninth place only four points outside the play-off places. Under Roberto Martinez they are unbeaten in eleven and have won their last three. Could be another shock on the cards here. I expect Swansea to at least earn a replay.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-1

A few weeks ago this would have been a battle between two managerless, relegation doomed looking Premier League teams.

Now we have Sunderland, under Ricky Sbragia, in fifteenth place with only two defeats in seven and Blackburn in seventeenth, unbeaten in five under Sam Allardyce.

Tough one to call.

SoccerNews prediction: 2-1

Only seven places separate these two teams in the league although they are of course in different divisions. West Brom are rock bottom of the Premier League and Burnley sit just outside the Championship play-offs.

Up until about ten o’clock on Wednesday evening I would have predicted that Burnley would cause a minor shock by winning at the Hawthorns, but when Tottenham scored those two goals in the last two minutes of extra-time in their Carling Cup semi-final to knock them out, I think a great deal of damage may have been done.

West Brom are actually unbeaten in six games at home and are probably in their best form of the season. For those reasons, there won’t be a shock here.

SoccerNews prediction: 2-0

Top of the Championship Wolves take on Premier League but relegation threatened Middlesbrough. With no wins in their last ten league games and only an unconvincing 2-1 win against non-league Barrow to their name, Middlesbrough can hardly be regarded as favourites for this game.

Having said that, Wolves have hit a slightly sticky patch and have won only one in five.

With a loud and intimidating crowd behind them I expect Wolves to dump more misery on the Teesside club.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-0

Sunday 25th January 2009

These two teams played in one of the most famous FA Cup finals of all time. In 1927 Cardiff beat Arsenal at Wembley on the only occasion the winners of the competition have ever come from outside England. The 1-0 victory came when Arsenal’s Welsh goalkeeper appeared to throw the ball into his own net!

Now, Cardiff, last season’s losing finalists, are sitting in the Championship play-off places and will be confident of giving fifth placed Arsenal a decent game. The Welsh side are unbeaten in ten games and will have vociferous support at their famous old ground.

Arsenal haven’t had the easiest of seasons but they are unbeaten in nine league games and have won their last four in all competitions.

It’ll be tough at times but I don’t expect a shock here.

SoccerNews prediction: 1-3

Here comes version two of this week’s Merseyside battle. Honours were even in the league game on Tuesday night as a later Tim Cahill header for Everton equalised Steve Gerrard’s earlier strike for the reds.

This one is likely to be a similarly close struggle although it is hard to judge what sort of team both managers may pick. Whilst it is the best chance of silverware for both, it really isn’t obvious how much either manager cares about this competition and therefore how many changes they may make from their preferred line-up (if Rafa has a preferred line-up that is!)

SoccerNews prediction: 0-1