FA Cup- 4th Round predictions

Alright scorers-

To save myself from utter boredom this weekend, I'm going to have a crack at some of the games in an 'FA Cup special edition' article.

Liverpool vs. Man Utd

They sometimes call it 'the romance of the cup' but these respective clubs won't be in a civil partnership anytime soon. Luis Suarez has reached his penultimate match ban for suggestions of racial abuse towards Patrice Evra when Liverpool played United back in mid-October. Evra, unlike Suarez, will play on Saturday despite the potential abuse of Liverpool fans. As for the game itself, Liverpool will be buoyed by beating Man. City in midweek, but have they got it in them to turnover two top Manchester clubs in the space of 4 days? As for United, they've won their last three games to fully get over their 3-0 defeat at Newcastle.

Verdict- City for the title, United for the cup: 0-3

QPR vs. Chelsea

The major talking point for this game has been whether Anton Ferdinand will shake John Terry's hand in the build-up more than the actual match. As much as I strongley dislike John Terry, I don't know if the media have maybe made him look like more of a monster than he actually is. Having played alongside and built a good relationship with Bosingwa, Alex, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda, Kalou, Sturridge and Didier Drogba- to name a few- I'd be surprised if Terry actually had fascist views. Anyway. The game. Mark Hughes has made quite a promising start to his career with QPR, and I'm sure the fans would like nothing more than to see him continue that in style with a win over rivals Chelsea and knock them out. Villas-Boaz's men have stuttered slightly when playing some of the bread-and-butter teams in the league. With the title out of sight, the FA Cup is Chelsea's only hope of glory. They can't lose this.

Verdict- 0-2

Sheffield Utd vs. Birmingham
Didn't get tickets for this one but I'm looking forward to seeing how we'll do. Really, it's a win-win situation. If we win, it's a real confidence booster for the squad, it keeps the winning mentality despite the loss of Jean Beausejour to Wigan this week. If we lose, we can fully home in on the Championship as our only competition- looking at the small squad we have and the position we're in may suggest we're better off without a Cup run. To be honest, I'd take promotion over a cup run anyday. We've pissed around with cups, memories, beaten Brugge in Europe, broken records, made our pensioners happy who have never seen us play in Europe for 50-odd years or whatever. That's not to say it's not been a huge achievement by the players and something that the fans can be proud of, but I think now is the time to make sure we get back into the Premier League, where we belong- we're much more likely to get a new owner in the Premiership as well to sort out our financial position. From there, we can build this club properly under Chris Hughton's guidance. As for Sheffield United, they have their own promotion chase going on in a tight clash between them, Huddersfield and rivals Wednesday. Neither side can really afford a significant cup run, so I'm going for the Blues to win purely on quality.
Verdict- 0-2

Other games:
Watford 0-2 Spurs
Everton 1-0 Fulham
Blackpool 2-0 Sheff Wed
Bolton 0-0 Swansea
Derby 1-2 Stoke
Hull 1-0 Crawley
Leicester 1-0 Swindon
Millwall 1-1 Southampton
Stevenage 0-2 Notts County
West Brom 2-2 Norwich
Brighton 1-2 Newcastle
Sunderland 3-0 Middlesbrough
Arsenal 4-1 Aston Villa

Cheers for reading