FA Cup acca: Chelsea to draw after Carabao Cup heartbreak
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Ladbrokes takes you through its FA Cup acca, which includes picks from the fifth round fixtures featuring Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.
On Sunday, Chelsea fans were left heartbroken after losing 1-0 to an injury-ravaged Liverpool side at Wembley in extra time. The Blues will be hoping to get back to winning ways with a victory over Championship side Leeds on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Liverpool host second-tier side Southampton at Anfield, whilst Man City and Man United travel to Luton and Nottingham Forest respectively.
Ladbrokes’ five-fold FA Cup acca can be backed, at the time of writing, with odds of 25.33/1.
FA Cup acca
The first leg of our FA Cup acca sees Newcastle, fresh off losing 4-1 to Arsenal on Saturday evening, travel to Championship side Blackburn Rovers.
Blackburn have been somewhat disappointing in the Championship this year, finding themselves in 16th place. The 1995 Premier League winners find themselves four points outside of the relegation zone, with 12 games still left to play. The Riversiders will be hoping for a cup run this year, but we’re not expecting that to happen, which explains why we’re going for a win for Eddie Howe’s men.
The Geordies also haven’t been quite as good as fans expected they’d be this season after securing Champions League football last year. Injury issues haven’t helped, but with nothing really to play for in the Premier League now, a cup run could be exactly what the club needs.
The 2023 FA Cup winners travel to Luton for their fifth round fixture, and we’re expecting Pep Guardiola’s side to progress into the next round. The Premier League meeting between the two sides at Kenilworth Road wasn’t easy for City, who went in at half-time 1-0 down. However, they were able to turn things around and walked away with all three points.
Luton are expected to go with their strongest line-up in this one, while Man City would opt to rest key players ahead of their big Champions League and Premier League fixtures to come, but we still expect Guardiola’s side to have too much to not beat Luton tonight.
With odds of 1/4, we’re going with Man City to beat Luton for the second leg of our FA Cup acca, with the Cityzens progressing to the next round of the competition in the process.
On paper, a Premier League v Championship tie should be relatively easy for Chelsea, especially considering the game is at Stamford Bridge, but we’re expecting Leeds to cause Mauricio Pochettino’s side serious problems.
Middlesbrough beat Chelsea in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final earlier this year, and we’re expecting the Blues to struggle in a similar fashion against fellow Championship side Leeds tomorrow night, with Daniel Farke’s men coming off a 3-1 win over run-away league leaders Leicester.
Chelsea’s squad will be incredibly tired after an emotionally and physically draining 120 minutes against Liverpool on Sunday, and we’re expecting Leeds to take Pochettino’s side to extra-time once again on Wednesday. There are no replays in the FA Cup fifth round, so ties that are level after 90 minutes will go to extra time and then a penalty shootout, which this one could end up doing.
The last time these two sides met, which was also at the City Ground, Nottingham Forest beat Man United, but we’re expecting things to go significantly better for the Red Devils this week.
Man United find themselves in sixth place in the Premier League, eight points behind Aston Villa who sit in fourth. Champions League football for next season isn’t out of the question for Erik ten Hag’s men, but a cup run could very much do the Dutch manager some good when it comes to winning over the section of United fans who doubt that he’s the right man for the job.
For the fourth leg of our FA Cup, with odds of 23/20, we’re going with Man United to get back to winning ways after suffering a surprising loss to Fulham in the Premier League last week, with a victory over Nottingham Forest.
Not even Jurgen Klopp knows the team he’s going to be able to put out when his Liverpool side host Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Anfield tomorrow night.
The Reds are dealing with a huge injury crisis right now, with the likes of Alisson Becker, Diogo Jota, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones all out with long-term injuries. Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez all missed the Carabao Cup final with knocks too, as Liverpool went into the game with 11 first-team players out injured.
The issue was compounded when Ryan Gravenberch was withdrawn in the first half following a nasty challenge from Moises Caicedo, with midfielder Wataru Endo also leaving Wembley on crutches following another poor tackle from the former Brighton midfielder. Liverpool are really down to bare bones at the moment, but we still expect them to beat Southampton.
The morale within the Liverpool camp is incredibly high right now, following their win in the Carabao Cup final, and the crowd should be really up for their first game after winning the trophy tomorrow at Anfield.
You can back Ladbrokes’ FA Cup acca, at the time of writing, with odds of 25.33/1.
All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.
