The FA Cup returns today

Chelsea might not go through and Manchester United have the easiest fixture.

Exactly a year ago Chelsea were favourites to win the FA Cup and funny enough they did. Well after a year the story isn’t the same any more.

With just 3 wins in their last 13 games in all competitions you definitely would not be putting your bet on them even if they will be playing a championship side at home. Ipswich manager Roy Keane before his (not too surprising) sack decided to watch the Arsenal match even though his team would be playing Chelsea a lot earlier. His choice didn’t matter at the end as he would not be on the bench when both teams play tomorrow. His opposite number (if he had kept his job) though is very lucky to still be on the Chelsea payroll. Now you might want to wonder what Ray Wilkins did wrong; it couldn’t have been worse than what Carlo Ancelotti is doing now. Well, I don’t think they’ll win Ipswich if they couldn’t beat 20th position Wolverhampton Wanderers a few days ago and of course cup duties would make any manger in this league rotate his team leaving the likes of Bruma, van Aanholt and Kakuta at the mercy of Ipswich. Fortunately, it gives the likes of Drogba and Lampard a break from the consecutive poor outings of late. The best Chelsea could take from this game is a replay at Ipswich which they would likely lose and coupled with the fact that it only adds more matches and fatigue for the players it might mean less harm than good for them to lose and give their best to what’s left of their title hopes.

Away from the champions and the championship strugglers, the big match tomorrow is at the Theatre Of Dreams. Roy Hodgson has called on his team to up their game and knock out Manchester United, the spot on favourites for this year’s Premiership; you can’t blame them for dreaming, blame those who named the stadium.

Liverpool would only win if it was a head butting match but it isn’t so they’ll need more than Gerrard’s head, dreams and Roy Hodgson (I bet they don’t need him) to win at Old Trafford but upsets do happen. Liverpool have not won away from home in all competitions since the 31st of October, 2010 against Bolton and that was about their only away victory apart from Europa League Qualifiers so a change of luck would be very unlikely against an in form Manchester United.
Away from a team that can pull a win under any circumstances playing against a team who would find the slightest opportunity to lose a match the other fixtures are just what they are – fixtures. Leeds travel to Arsenal to repeat what they did last season knocking out Manchester United in the 3rd round. I guess that can only happen in the theatre of dreams. Leeds good run in their league went the other way after their famous victory over the Red Devils and it took a miracle to get promoted. They find themselves in the same position now and they would prefer a promotion to beating Arsenal later today. They should learn from Ipswich who are in the Carling Cup Semi Final and still sacked their manager. For the other fixtures, Tottenham host Charlton, Manchester City travel to Leicester City, Bolton plays York, Hull welcomes Wigan blah blah blah.
I dreamt that after Man City signed Edin Dzeko, he scored 15 goals on his debut against Leicester City. Forgive my obsession on the lad but he scares the s**t out of me and the only reason my dreams would not come true is because he can’t play against Leicester City due to unfinished paperwork, 66 goals in 111 matches is a lot worse than you can ever imagine and don’t give the excuse that it was in the Bundesliga. This guy will make Balotelli regret why he left Inter Milan.
That’s all for the day, Quotes From The Stands has been renamed to be Yans From The Paper Stands before its maiden post. This is supposed to be blog for Nigerians so we must feel the Naija flavour. You will get to see that later today. You shouldn’t miss the matches today and if you do, I will be bringing you all the highlights right on this blog. Have a great day and keep being NAIJA.