Now Ladies Everywhere are Looking Forward to the FA Cup 5th Round

By: Daryl | January 28th, 2008

The FA Cup Fifth Round draw was made today, and tantalizing as the Sheffield United vs Middlesbrough dourfest the semi-inevitable Chelsea vs Huddersfield games sound, all eyes will be on Old Trafford.

It’s Man Utd vs Arsenal, the Premier Legaue’s two two teams and a rematch of the 2005 final where Man Utd were excellent but Arsenal somehow won on penalties. But female (and some male) fans of hairy-chested Welsh wingers will be hoping for a repeat of the 1999 semi-final, where Giggs zig-zagged through Arsenal’s defence for one of the most memorable goals, and celebrations, in recent FA Cup history.

It’s more likeley to be Cristiano Ronaldo dancing through defenders and then running around topless in 2008. And given the likely temperatures in Manchester on the weekend of February 16th and 17th (and the current fashion for waxing) fans of the hair-shirt are better of reliving old memories. But the football should still be magnificent. The complete FA Cup Fifth Round draw looks like this:

Bristol Rovers v Southampton
Cardiff City v Wolves
Sheffield United v Middlesbrough
Liverpool v Barnsley
Manchester United v Arsenal
Preston v Portsmouth
Coventry City v West Brom
Chelsea v Huddersfield

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Category: England, English Premier League

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Daryl

Jim, agreed but I'm still going with hope over experience. The '99 semi-final was entertaining, and at least both teams will field full strenghth teams and neither can settle for a draw.
Daryl

Yeah, sorry Melissa. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have taken it on myself to speak for 50% of the world's population. Maybe an alternative title could be: "A Poorly Thought Out and Tenuous Attempt to Link Today's FA Cup 5th Round Draw to a Fairly Famous Video Clip from 1999."
Melissa

Now Ladies Everywhere are Looking Forward to the FA Cup 5th Round

I am?
Jim

Daryl, your penultimate comment is surely an example par excellence of the triumph of hope over experience. The football in the Man U/Arse fifth round game will not be magnificent. It will be mind-numbingly tedious, cagey, dull-as-ditchwater SkyPrem fare, like virtually every other encounter between the Big Four. The only possible reason to be glad about this draw is that it's one fewer leech in the competition. Remember, these are clubs that systematically field weakened teams in this, the oldest football competition in the world, and one of them withdrew from it one year in order to play in some pointless pan-continental FIFA marketing exercise.

The bloated arrogance, the contemptuous disregard these clubs and their fans have for anything resembling the tradition, the history, the honesty of the game would be breathtaking if it were not so ingrained. They (and their co-conspirators, Chelsea and Liverpool) represent EVERYTHING that is wrong with football today - aided and abetted by the oleagimous Scudamore of the Prem and the craven telly-whore chairmen of the other 16. Some of us remember the hows, whys and wherefores of the creation of SkyPrem. If they made a film of it, you wouldn't believe it. They disgust me to the core of my being.