The fourth round of the FA Cup this coming weekend doesn’t, on paper, look as if it is going to produce many big surprises, but there are still some fascinating ties and the chance for some smaller clubs to make their more illustrious rivals suffer.
Manchester United’s reward for their lucky win over Aston Villa in the last round is a home game against Middlesbrough, who have improved drastically since the arrival of Chris Wilder as coach.
Middlesbrough are pushing for promotion from the Championship and could give problems to a rival still in the midst of the controversy surrounding the arrest of striker Mason Greenwood.
While Chelsea should have few problems at home to Plymouth Argyll (although they should not forget the League One side knocked them out of the competition in 2015) and Crystal Palace will be favourites in their home game against Hartlepool United, Everton’s home game against Brentford will be the focus of much attention.
The game sees Frank Lampard make his debut as coach after being named as the replacement for Rafael Benitez and although new arrivals Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli are both cup-tied after playing for their former clubs in the last round, Everton fans will want to see an improvement against a side that could be a rival in the battle to avoid relegation in the remainder of the season, Xinhua reports.
West Ham visit Kidderminster Harriers, who are the lowest-ranked team left in the competition, and David Moyes’ men would be well-advised not to forget that the team from the sixth tier of the English game knocked Championship side Reading out of the last round.
Premier League leaders Manchester City host Championship leaders Fulham, with Pep Guardiola again likely to give a chance to some of his fringe players, while Southampton are likely to field a strong team in their game at home to Coventry from Championship.
Wolverhampton and Norwich play one of the three all-Premier League clashes of the day, with both sides perhaps more preoccupied with other aims as Wolves look to qualify for Europe, while Norwich are involved in a battle against relegation.
Tottenham and Brighton is the last all-top-flight game in what promises to be an interesting 90 minutes. Spurs could hand debuts to new arrivals, Rodrigo Bentacur and Dejan Kulusevski in a game where Brighton will be hoping to control most of the ball.
Liverpool will be clear favourites to beat Championship strugglers Cardiff City on Sunday, despite the continued absence of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane on African Cup duty, while Leicester City face a tricky visit to play Nottingham Forrest.
The East-Midlands derby is a potential banana skin for Leicester with Nottingham Forrest optimistic of adding to the scalp of Arsenal that they claimed in the last round and Leicester will have to be wary of home strikers Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson.
Finally, Boreham Wood from the Conference Premier League (fifth tier) join Kidderminster in trying to keep the non-League dream alive when they travel to face Bournemouth.