Draw just complete, Rio Ferdinand picked us out of the hat to play Newport County, who dumped Leeds United yesterday! We're heading to Wales and will have to be on our game, Rodney Parade is one of those old school grounds with a bad pitch and hostile atmosphere. None of the big guns were drawn against each other. Here is the draw in full. Liverpool v West Bromwich Albion Peterborough v Fleetwood Huddersfield v Birmingham Notts County v Wolves/Swansea Yeovil v Manchester United Carlisle v Stevenage/Reading Cardiff/Mansfield v Manchester City MK Dons v Coventry Millwall v Rochdale Southampton v Watford Middlesbrough v Brighton/Crystal Palace Bournemouth v Wigan/Shrewsbury Hull v Nottingham Forest Newport County v Spurs Norwich/Chelsea v Newcastle Sheffield United v Preston
Last time we went to Wales for an FA Cup tie was back in 2007 to play Cardiff at the old Ninian Park, which was one of the most hostile grounds back in the day. The Welsh don't take kindly to Londoners running around their towns mugging them off. We escaped with a 0-0 and walked the replay 4-0 back at WHL.
Never understood why managers field weakened sides in the Cup when they don't have any midweek games scheduled. The levels and professionalism of lower league clubs are so much higher these days that you cannot afford to take them lightly. Poch learned his lesson from the Wycombe tie last year and kudos to him for fielding a strong side yesterday - we definitely needed it.
i think its OK to rotate some, but you just can't swap out 9 or 10 positions and expect to dominate, as most of those players coming in haven't played much together
these were among my first thoughts when I saw the draw. Apparently some of the lovable Leeds mob got a good kicking yesterday at Newport. Some mates at Wednesday were commenting that some of the Cardiff hooligans who'd been recently banned at City have started going to Newport. All hearsay, of course - I certainly don't know - but I could see this one getting a bit tastey. I mean, you can always find trouble if you look for it ... but I don't think ours will have to look hard at Newport.
Guardiola, Mourinho, Pochettino, Klopp and Wenger go to a pub. First Guardiola gets everyone a cocktail. Then Mourinho buys everyone a red wine. Pochettino goes next and gets a whisky for everyone. Then Klopp goes to the bar and comes back with 4 beers. "Excusez-moi, Monsieur Klopp, but where is my beer?" asks Arsene. "Sorry mate, it's the 4th round, and you're not in it"
The tie, which will also be televised, has been confirmed for Saturday, January 27th at 5:30 pm UK time, 9:30 am Pacific, 12:30 pm Eastern. I think I will honour the occasion with a proper full English breakfast in front of the telly...