Advantage Arsenal as holders in another battle with Chelsea
The FA Cup holders, chasing a third consecutive cup triumph, have home advantage against Claudio Ranieri’s expensively assembled team, who scraped past Conference side Scarborough on Saturday.
And recent results also point to Arsene Wenger’s side taking another step towards the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
It is the fourth season in a row the teams have met in the competition, Arsenal winning 3-1 in the fifth round in 2001, 2-0 in the 2002 final, and 3-1 last year in a quarter-final replay.
Chelsea have not won at Highbury in over 10 years and former Gunners’ defender Nigel Winterburn said: “The two teams will be sick of playing each other. From Arsenal’s point of view, they’ve probably got a psychological advantage over Chelsea.”
Although the record books favour Arsenal, Winterburn expects Chelsea will be desperate to eliminate the holders.
The other eye-catching tie is a potential Manchester derby with Alex Ferguson’s United drawn at home against Kevin Keegan’s City side or Tottenham.
However, Tottenham will be favourites to make the trip to Old Trafford after holding City to a 1-1 draw at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday.
Members of Swansea’s squad could not hide their disappointment after being drawn to face Tranmere in the last 16.
The Third Division side produced the result of the fourth round in disposing of First Division Preston and were hoping for a more glamorous tie than a trip to Prenton Park.
Lee Trundle, who scored the winner on Saturday and is confident of playing in the fifth round wearing a protective face mask after suffering a broken cheekbone, said: “With all respect to Tranmere you’ve got to feel a bit disappointed. At this stage of the competition you would expect to draw a Premiership side. But we’ve got to be upbeat about it, we’ve got a good chance of going there and winning.”
Liverpool’s reward for putting out Newcastle is a home tie with fellow Barclaycard Premiership side Portsmouth, while West Ham’s victory over Wolves has earned them a trip to more Premiership opposition in either Everton or Fulham, who drew 1-1 at Goodison Park at the weekend.
The final remaining top flight team, Birmingham, face a trip to take on Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, while Sheffield United will take on the winners of the replay between Coventry and Colchester.
United manager Neil Warnock, said: “If you don’t get one of the glamour clubs, you’ve got to get a home tie. All the clubs will thinks it’s a winnable tie.”
Colchester manager Phil Parkinson is trying not to look past the meeting with Coventry and he said: “We’ve got a very, very tough game against Coventry to contend with first.
“While it wasn’t the glamour tie everyone wanted it’s still a chance to come up against a top First Division team. If we can play at our absolute maximum we might have a chance against Coventry, and then it’s Sheffield United.
“It’s great to be in the hat and everyone in the town is on a high.”
Conference side Telford were disappointed to draw Millwall in the fourth round and will hardly have been delighted to draw Burnley out of the velvet bag this time.
First, however, they must get past the Londoners after their fourth round tie was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch on Saturday.
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