FA Cup: 5th round

Sheffield United, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Preston North End, Brighton & Hove Albion, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan and Charlton...and we had to draw Arsenal!!!

They have Bayern and United 3 days before and after, if we can't beat them, it's just embarrassing.

I like this draw. Better play them now than in the latter stages.

Like I said in the other thread, very good draw. And to reveal something that I don't tell many Liverpudlians, is that I always hope for a big team draw when we play League Cup or FA Cup especially in the past 5 years. Not being in CL and not playing those top caliber teams in cups hurts a lot so this sort of compensates. Obviously we all want trophies and the easiest way to the final is we face the lower league scrubs but I absolutely hate those terrible pitches and rugby tactics. Also winning cups by beating big teams along the way feels so much more dreamy if you will.

And I would definitely place us as favorites given Arsenal's horrific schedule.

I like big teams facing each other in these league matches...very soon it gets decided whether the team deserves to win it OR not, just not considering the other factors like injury time and all that.

Manchester City v Chelsea
Sheffield United or Fulham v Nottingham Forest or Preston North End
Arsenal v Liverpool
Brighton & Hove Albion v Hull City
Cardiff City v Wigan Athletic
Sheffield Wednesday v Charlton Athletic
Sunderland v Southampton
Everton v Swansea City

interesting fixtures there

Hope we lose. Need to focus on top 4. Even if we go all the way till the end, I don't trust our squad at all to win this thing and we'll be just wasting our energy.

Well if we do win, we'll be in the quarters with only 1 other top team that could really beat us (City/Chelsea). I very much like our chances. Hope we take this seriously. It's been 8 years since we last won the FA Cup and losing that final 2 years ago still hurts.

City/Chelsea are not the only team left after this round that could beat us, especially if we play away. But I don't want us to lose, just pointing that out.

If we played a strong side against a "low tier team", we'll play a full strength team against Arsenal at the Emirates. Players and managers have stressed that they will fight for the FA cup this season.