Weekend Boxset: FA Cup 4th round special

By Graham Sibley February 07, 2025

Weekend Boxset: FA Cup 4th round special

Tradition, magic, priorities - who will make it into Monday's draw?

Seven great FA Cup matches to take you from Friday to Sunday. It’s the Sound of Football Weekend Boxset.

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All times are UK

Friday

FA Cup fourth round: Manchester United v Leicester City

20.00 on ITV1, ITVX and STV
Manchester United and Leicester last met in November in the Premier League, at Old Trafford. The match ended 3-0 for the home side. United had not long fired their coach, Erik ten Hag. The interim manager was ten Hag’s assistant and one of United’s greatest ever goal-scorers, Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Dutchman could have been offered the job permanently but instead departed the scene with great dignity after just two games. It didn’t take long for van Nistelrooy to be back at work and found a Leicester City side happy to take him on. Three months later and Ruud is back at Old Trafford, in the away dugout with his new team mired in a relegation battle. After two unbeaten games the Foxes lost the next five league matches. They managed a 2-1 win at Spurs (which as we know barely counts) before getting hammered by David Moyes’s Everton, 4-0. While van Nistelrooy reflects, Ruben Amorim must in turn be thinking of Lisbon in the winter and wondering what possessed him to take Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s call in the first place. Yes, there have been signs of revival but whenever it looks like they’re building a platform a Brighton or a Crystal Palace come along to kick it from underneath them. If United win it will be only their third win in eight matches in all competitions at home. Those other wins were against Southampton and Rangers. I’ll leave you to fill in the rest. But given how jammy United have been in this competition recently I wouldn’t put it past them to win the whole thing. Unless van Nistelrooy can mastermind a bittersweet victory. TD

Saturday

FA Cup fourth round: Leyton Orient v Manchester City

12.15 on BBC One & iPlayer
This is a match-up that really exposes the sheer rank capitulation of the FA to the Premier League at the expense of the joy of a lower league fan. Over 90 minutes, the O’s might just fancy themselves to at least nick a draw against a City side still reeling from their hammering against Arsenal. But even the most optimistic East Londoner would be hard pressed to think that Orient could win over 120 minutes. So that’s another reason to look at this fixture and get excited temporarily before coming crashing back to reality when you remember replays no longer exist in the Cup. In reality, Richie Wellens needs his side to do the business in regular time if he’s any hope of pulling off an almighty upset. And having seen Orient put six past Exeter a couple of weeks ago, I can attest to Orient being very good when on song (although City’s defence is unlikely to be quite so generous as the Grecians). For Pep, this is an unwelcome conundrum. City are expected to win, and win comfortably, and the FA Cup is one of their best chances of a trophy, but does he use this opportunity to give minutes to fringe players and new signings or does he go all out with a statement of intent and start the big guns. Of course, if City grab an early goal, it’ll probably end up as one way traffic, but the longer Orient hold out, the more interesting this match will become. GA

FA Cup fourth round: Birmingham City v Newcastle United

17.45 on BBC One & iPlayer
This is FA Cup game number four for Birmingham City who have put Lincoln, Blackpool and Sutton to the sword in the previous three rounds. A narrow, but still catastrophic, relegation from the Championship last season gave way to a reinvention under coach Chris Davies. Davies is highly rated and worked under Brendan Rogers at two of football’s biggest clubs in Liverpool and Celtic - he was also at Leicester City. His Brum side currently sit four points clear at the top of League One, with two games in hand and an unbeaten record stretching back to November. For the (dirty) Mags, with Europe firmly in their sights, and upcoming games against City, Forest and Liverpool to consider, this game is a potential banana-skin. On the flip side, it also represents a second piece of silverware, having already guaranteed a place at Wembley in the League Cup by beating Arsenal midweek. I have to admit to tuning out of that one; the nauseating commentary was just too much. Gushing references to the ‘Geordie Nation’, like it’s some kind of English Basque region was the last straw for this, admittedly bitter, Mackem. History buffs will know that the city acquired the moniker ‘Geordie’ when it declared its allegiance to the then King George, ahead of the Jacobite cause and against the rest of the County Durham/Northumberland populace - hardly a nation, more a dominion. Not hugely different, in fact, to them declaring for the authoritarian House of Saud in 2021 - some things never change. The barcodes have lost two of their last four, and against sides a team with European ambitions should be beating: Bournemouth and Fulham. The stars are aligning for an upset; the question is, do Brum have it in them? JB

FA Cup fourth round: Brighton & Hove Albion v Chelsea

20.00 on ITV4 and ITVX
This isn’t the draw or the timing Brighton would want for this fixture, especially given this is a season where upper-mid table Premier League teams would fancy their chances of making it to Wembley. Chelsea’s record against Brighton is strong and the Seagulls have hit a mini slump that included the 7 goal shellacking at Forest, as well as a loss to David Moyes’ rapidly improving Everton. Despite this, Fabian Hurzeler is a smart coach and is unlikely to be hitting the panic button just yet. Chelsea are more than capable of throwing in a stinker of a performance but will also fancy their chances in this competition. Like all Premier League sides at this stage of the competition, there’s a question around rotating the squad to keep it fresh versus having a proper crack at progressing to the 5th round. Enzo Mascera is more likely to rotate while Hurzeler’s hand is tied due to a lengthy injury list. A few weeks either side of this fixture and Brighton might have been expected to push Chelsea all the way, but it’s hard to look beyond the Blues for this one. GA

Sunday

FA Cup fourth round: Blackburn Rovers v Wolverhampton Wanderers

12.30 on BBC Red Button & iPlayer
Much of the narrative of the FA Cup is about tradition and they don’t come much more traditional than these two of the twelve founder members of the Football League. Both have won the competition multiple times and this tie is a repeat of the 1960 final but that was the last time either side made it past the semi-finals. Wolves were the dominant power in English football back then under the legendary Stan Cullis and ran out 3-0 winners at Wembley. They had only just missed out on a third consecutive title; defeat away to Spurs in their penultimate league game denied them a famous double a year before Spurs themselves would achieve the feat. Since then the fortunes of both sides have been more down than up. Both have spent lengthy periods outside the top flight and both had a short period of success under local benefactors before being sold to international investors. This season, as is so often the case for clubs at all levels, this match will inevitably be one tempered by other priorities. Of the sides in real danger of relegation, Wolves look the most likely to pull away but the margins are fine. For Blackburn, a recent run of poor results has opened a chasm between them and the top four in the Championship. They’re still in a play-off position but right now their direction of travel is downwards. Hopefully all that will mean that both sides play without pressure and give the fans something to cheer. GS

FA Cup fourth round: Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool

15.00 on ITV1, ITVX and STV
Had Wayne Rooney still been the coach then we could have expected some extra narrative in the build-up for this game. The Manchester Utd and Everton legend faces off his old nemesis Liverpool. But alas the Rooney project and accompanying documentary film crew are out and the new guy is in. That new guy is Miron Muslić. A 42-year-old Austrian who took Belgian club Cercle Brugge into Europe for the first time in 14 years. He was dismissed last December and has taken on the challenge of what is still an exciting opportunity at an ambitious club, albeit one that sits bottom of the Championship. So far he's won 2, lost 2 and drawn 2 but Argyle are unbeaten in their last two games. Muslić is a big fan of his opposite number in the Liverpool dugout. As Brugge coach he visited Arne Slot’s Feyenoord side a couple of times to learn from him and his approach. It's possible he'll receive another lesson after this game. Liverpool will probably rotate their squad for this one after having fielded a strong side in their EFL Cup semi-final win against Tottenham last night. An away tie at a Championship team always had banana skin possibilities but given just how good Liverpool are and frankly how poor Argyle has been you feel that Muslić will have needed to have learned a lot in order to cause an upset. TD

FA Cup fourth round: Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur

17.35 on BBC One & iPlayer
Tottenham fans are only too aware of the burden imposed by the phrase “I always win things in my second season”. As the months pass, Ange’s statement of intent at the beginning of the season can increasingly be seen as at best mis-placed arrogance or at worst naivity. Of course Spurs are a team that can win things, they just don’t. Still, Spurs fans will have retained hope that just perhaps the EFL Cup was within reach in this wretched campaign but the 4-0 defeat at Anfield will have surprised none of them. That faint hope now switches to the FA Cup but neither of these sides convinced in the third round of the competition: Villa had a fortunate home win against West Ham in Graham Potter’s first game in charge of the Hammers, and Spurs were taken to extra time by Tamworth. Both sides have had busy transfer windows and a number of the new faces are likely to start this game. The big names coming in for Villa are Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio, both on loan and both looking to get their careers back on track and re-establish themselves as internationals. Donyell Malan comes in from Dortmund to replace Jhon Duran who at 21 went to the Saudi Pro League to become this decade’s Oscar. Tottenham’s much-needed reinforcements include Mathys Tel from Bayern who is almost certain to start as centre forward with Dominic Solanke out for at least another month and Richarlison having limped off before half time in Thursday’s semi-final. Kevin Danso from Lens was thrown straight into the madhouse that is Spurs defence for that game. Brought in as cover he’s likely to be ever-present for the rest of the season following the news that Radu Dragusin has torn his ACL and is unlikely to play again this year. GS

Whatever you watch, have a great FA Cup weekend.

Graham, Terry, Jan and Gary