FA Cup: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Could City use their academy players?

Manchester City have made no attempt to hide their annoyance that their tie against Chelsea is being played on Sunday, three days before they visit Dynamo Kyiv for the first leg of their Champions League tie, and Manuel Pellegrini could be forced to select a weakened side at Stamford Bridge. With City's season in danger of unravelling after consecutive home defeats against Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, the last thing the Chilean will want to see in west London is the familiar sight of Sergio Ag?ero pulling up and clutching his hamstring before looking towards the bench with a wince and shaking his head. Pellegrini's hope of winning at least one more trophy before Pep Guardiola steps in is surely dependent on Ag?ero staying free of injuries. Yet while it makes sense to rest players against Chelsea, City's options are limited by injuries to Fabian Delph, Kevin de Bruyne, Samir Nasri, Jesus Navas and Bacary Sagna, plus doubts over the involvement of Wilfried Bony and Eliaquim Mangala. There is only so much shuffling they can do before they run out of cards. That could make for a less than wholehearted display, but perhaps Pellegrini could show some bravery and place his trust in youth. Kelechi Iheanacho has led the way for City's academy with some admirable performances off the bench this season and as Liverpool's youngsters demonstrated over the course of two matches against West Ham in the fourth round, it is wrong to underestimate the capacity of young players to surprise you when they are given a chance. JS

Salutes for Adebayor?

Tottenham fans could be excused if they approach this Sunday’s game against Crystal Palace haunted by images of Emmanuel Adebayor’s pitch-long celebratory sprint after he scored, for Manchester City, his first goal against his former club Arsenal in 2009. There can be little doubt that Adebayor would enthusiastically celebrate any goal scored against his latest former employers, for whom he managed just 46 minutes of league football in his last 10 months, culminating in his being released on full pay last September. Spurs continue to contribute towards his weekly wage - as much as they are paying Harry Kane - but having ended his time at the club training with the youth team, gratitude is presumably pretty low down the list of Adebayor’s feelings towards Tottenham. “It wasn’t a good relationship with the chairman Daniel Levy as he made everything complicated,” Adebayor said this week (though he insisted his relationship with Mauricio Pochettino was, by contrast, “beautiful”). Nearly two years since his memorable love-in with Tim Sherwood, the only salutes anyone at Spurs is likely to be receiving from Adebayor on Saturday are of the two-fingered variety. On the plus side, with Spurs at home, the Togolese striker won’t have to run very far in search of some fans to taunt if he provides a reminder of his goalscoring qualities. SB

It’s been a strange season for United ? but not that strange

Manchester United have coped comfortably with lower league opponents so far in the FA Cup this season - Derby County were dispatched 3-1 in round four and though Sheffield United were dogged in the third round Louis van Gaal's side were never in danger of losing that game - and with Shrewsbury representing the weakest challenge yet (in theory at least) this should be relatively routine. Van Gaal was in interesting form before United's Europa League game at Midtjylland. "My personal wish is to win the FA Cup. I have already won the Uefa Cup and I want to win a title in England," he said. "That is why I have come to this country, to make Manchester United champions or give them a title [IN ENGLAND], but I understand - for Manchester United it is much more important to win the Europa League because it will give us the Champions League." It's unusual to hear a manager pointing out that his personal goals are different to those of his club, but then it's been an unusual season at Old Trafford. Given that United have been knocked out of the FA Cup by lower-league opposition only once since 1984, defeat at New Meadow on Monday would be the most unusual of all - Shrewsbury's home form has been appalling. JA

Everton look to avoid Bournemouth repeat

"We didn't take advantage of our two-goal lead," Roberto Martinez says, a quote that most reporters who cover Everton presumably have on file. Martinez was talking about the day when his players seemed intent on parodying their inability to hold on to a lead, drawing 3-3 at Bournemouth back in November despite leading 2-0 at half-time, and 3-2 deep into stoppage time, before allowing Junior Stanislas to score a 98th minute equaliser and leaving their supporters with the sense that nothing is guaranteed even if when their team is 5-0 up and the referee is about to blow the final whistle. They were at it again last month, drawing 3-3 at Chelsea in similar circumstances and relinquishing a 3-1 aggregate lead in their Capital One Cup semi-final against City, and it is not hard to find Evertonians who are less than pleased with Martinez's lack of pragmatism. Consistency remains out of reach for Everton, who are back at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday evening, and although they recently enjoyed three 3-0 victories in the space of a week, their momentum was halted by last weekend's 1-0 defeat to West Brom at Goodison Park, a reminder that a highly talented squad will achieve nothing of any note until they develop greater resilience and powers of concentration. JS

Emenike gets his chance

Slaven Bilic has rarely been able to choose from a full-strength squad this season and West Ham United's injury problems have flared up again, leaving them depleted up front before Sunday's trip to Blackburn Rovers. There was no need to reach for the smelling salts after it emerged that Andy Carroll has been ruled out with a groin injury, while Enner Valencia has a knock, Diafra Sakho is not expected to return from the the thigh injury that has kept him out since November until Sam Allardyce returns to Upton Park with Sunderland next weekend and Nikica Jelavic has become the latest striking sensation to sign up for the Chinese adventure, moving to Beijing Renhe earlier this week. It means that Bilic is likely to hand a first start to Emmanuel Emenike, the Nigerian international who joined on loan from Fenerbahce last month. Having spent part of the season on loan at Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates, Emenike looked rusty in front of goal during brief cameos against Norwich City and Southampton, but the 28-year-old will surely fancy his chances of opening his West Ham account against the side who are 18th in the Championship. JS

Replays should stay

With Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all still fighting on three fronts (and in City’s case, four), there has been the now annual spate of brow-furrowing and chin-rubbing over fixture congestion this week, with the axing of FA Cup replays being discussed in the upper echelons of the Football Association and the Premier League. The prestige and aura of the FA Cup has been eroded so much over recent years (Wembley semi-finals, the 5.30pm kick-off time for the final, ‘The Emirates FA Cup’) that it needs support, not diminishing further. Smaller clubs handed away draws at the big boys need the carrot of a replay. So suck it up, Premier League. Replays need to stay. JA

Hull also have priorities elsewhere

They’ve got a title tilt to worry about, a big midweek game looming and a chock-a-block fixture list to contend with, so you wouldn’t blame them if they took their eye of the ball here and concentrated on the bigger fish they have to fry in the future. Yes, the trip to Arsenal is one Hull City could probably do without. They’re top of the Championship but no more than the current leaders of what could turn out to be a six-horse race for the top two. They have to go to play-off chasing Ipswich on Tuesday and, even without a Cup replay, they don’t have a midweek off until the end of March. Steve Bruce has promised “wholesale changes”. Arsenal, of course, are in a very similar boat, with Barcelona looming next week and the Premier League title battle on a knife-edge. Even though the Gunners are looking to become the first team since the 19th century to win the FA Cup three years on the bounce (Blackburn Rovers were the last, in 1884, 1885 and 1886) you sense the competition is low on their priority list. But if neither side is firing on all cylinders, you’d still expect a home win at the Emirates. JA

Watford to continue to see off the old guard

Watford have only reached the FA Cup’s fifth round in one of the last seven seasons, but then in six of the last seven seasons their interest in the competition has been ended either by Chelsea (three times, 3-0, 5-0, 3-1), Manchester City (twice, 4-2, 3-0) or Tottenham (once, 1-0). They were, in other words, repeatedly drawn against some of the country’s finest teams, who emphatically reminded them of their superiority. This season has so far offered them a very different and considerably more pleasurable experience: they have been repeatedly drawn against some of the country’s bigger clubs - boasting between them eight league titles, and representing combined populations over 20 times larger than Watford’s - and so far have gently reminded them of their inferiority. Neither Newcastle United nor Nottingham Forest were exactly outclassed - Steve McClaren’s side should have won at Vicarage Road in round three, while it took an 89th-minute Odion Ighalo winner to squeeze past Forest - yet both were beaten 1-0, with Leeds United up next. In September, before Watford’s visit to St James’ Park, the venerable, 75-year-old Newcastle Chronicle football writer John Gibson wrote that “Watford are pygmies living in a land of giants” and that “clubs like Newcastle, with 50,000 fans bellowing them on, ought to sweep them contemptuously aside”. For better or for worse it is no longer possible to assume an easy correlation between a team’s support base and their likelihood of success in English football, as Watford will hope to prove once again on Saturday. Though with Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham all still in the competition - even if at least one of the three must go out this weekend - they should probably hold off on booking the late-May open-top bus tour for a while yet. SB

Recuperated Palace to rediscover their zip, zing and sparkle?

Tottenham and Crystal Palace have both been travelling this week. For Spurs, there was a Europa League game in Florence on Thursday, while Palace headed to Spain for a training camp in Barcelona. Despite the short-haul flying there should be no issue with freshness in their ranks, given how little football many of the Palace players have played of late: Dwight Gayle has missed two months with a hamstring problem, while Joe Ledley has been absent for the last three league games with a calf complaint. When Yannick Bolasie last appeared in December, Palace were sixth and had accumulated on average 1.7 points per league game - they have drawn three and lost six of nine league matches since, running at 0.3 points each. Bakary Sako, whose two hamstring injuries have restricted him to a single appearance in the club’s last 13 league games - plus half an hour as a substitute in the third round of the Cup - has been sharing a mobile cryotherapy chamber with Bolasie in an effort to speed his recovery. All could be in the squad this weekend. It is just a few weeks since these teams last played, when Palace had three shots on target to Tottenham’s 11, three corners to their opponents’ 10, and needed Spurs to score their goal for them in a 3-1 defeat. With this collective flight from the treatment table, coupled with Adebayor’s recruitment, a sudden return to the zip, zing and sparkle that characterised Palace’s early-season successes - particularly away from home - should be on the cards. Given their recent travails, and the fact that the visit to White Hart Lane is the first of three successive away games, it’s probably just as well. SB

Royals could spring a surprise

Looking for a shock? Reading could be the team to provide one. There are plenty of portents: West Brom have had six visits to the Madejski Stadium and never won; in fact they haven’t won on their last 10 away trips to Reading, they’ve have been past this stage of the competition only three times since 1981-82; and they’re not in great form - they had gone five games without a win before their smash-and-grab win over Everton last weekend. And the Royals have put their league woes behind them in the Cup this season, battering Huddersfield 5-2 in the third round and Walsall 4-0 in the fourth. “You can say that there is no pressure on us as an underdog but there is,” said the Reading captain Paul McShane. “We’ve got to put pressure on ourselves. We’ve got to win the game, it’s as simple as that.” JA

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