FA Cup Fourth Round [2015]

It is back again! Onto another round of the FA Cup which gives us all the surprises that a football fan could possibly want and ask for.

The early kick off on Saturday is where the first shock came from when Blackburn Rovers welcomed Swansea City. Early in the game, Kyle Bartley got sent off which made it look like Swansea would have a mountain to climb, but they still managed to take the lead. However, this seemed to be a turning point for Blackburn. Just after the opener, the home team got one back, and the second half proved to be great for them. They managed to get the two goals that finished the game for them without too much of a problem. The game was over, yet Gylfi Sigurdsson still got sent off in added time for a bad foul. End score: 3-1.

That meant that one more Premier League team were knocked out, but how many more would follow? Quite a few is the answer, and they're all the big boys of the league!

I'll start with Chelsea. They looked to have an easy match on paper; top of the Premier League playing against a League 1 side. It started out that way as well. Chelsea took a 2-0 lead in the first half and it seemed like that would be the end for Bradford. They fought back though and managed to pull it back to 2-1 just before half time. Even still, people argued that Chelsea would win the game due to the quality in their squad. However, the next goal didn't come until the 75th minute when Bradford got their equaliser. This prompted Jose Mourinho to bring on one of the big names, Eden Hazard, to try and win them the game. Instead, the opposite happened. Bradford went 3-2 up and was defending like their lives depended on it. When news of another goal came through, many people would have imagined a Chelsea equaliser, but instead saw the name of Mark Yeates on screens. End score: 2-4. Onto the next?

Manchester City had a tricky home tie against Middlesbrough, who have the best defence in the Championship this season. Surely, they wouldn't have been able to keep out the likes of Sergio Aguero though, right? Wrong. They threw their bodies on the line in order to stop City from scoring. The half time score was 0-0 and to people not watching the game, it sounded like City were going to come out for the second half and score their winner. Not even 10 minutes into the second half though, Middlesbrough took the lead. Just like in the Chelsea game, Manuel Pelligrini brought on the likes of Frank Lampard and Fernandinho hoping that they could get the winner. Lampard did hit the crossbar but that was City's closest chance. To add insult to injury, Middlesbrough got the deciding goal in stoppage time. End score: 0-2.

The game between Southampton and Crystal Palace started strongly and added a number of goals to the total tally scored over the weekend. The home side took the lead on 9 minutes before Palace replied almost instantly. Give it 5 more minutes and Southampton had taken the lead once again through a Scott Dann own goal. It didn't take Palace long to reply once again. The final goal of the match did come in towards the end of the first half and it was Chamakh with his second goal of the match. No goals in the second half, meaning the end score was: 2-3. 

Next we go onto the game between Tottenham Hotspur against Leicester City. A penalty kick for Spurs opened the scoring, making this, once again, look like a game where the higher team would have been preferred if their league positions were anything to go by. Form was clearly pushed out the window in this match though. It did take Leicester until the 83rd minute to get their equaliser and the game looked to be heading towards a replay until a mistake from Michel Vorm which gave Leicester their winner. End score: 1-2.

Manchester United and Liverpool were also two teams to struggle against lower opposition. United were the visitors to Cambridge United on Friday night and they had a hard time breaking down their stubborn defence, meaning Cambridge earned a well deserved replay at Old Trafford. Liverpool also had the same problem as United did; they wasted their chances and struggled to break down Bolton's defence. End score for both: 0-0.

The second to last game of the weekend (Stoke play Rochdale tomorrow night) saw Brighton host Arsenal, the holders. Arsenal started the game quickly and brightly, scoring their first goal within the first 2 minutes. They also added a second towards the end of the first half, making it look like the game was already over. Brighton did start the second half brightly, pulling a goal back and throwing everything they had at Arsenal. Again, Arsenal seemed to settle nerves through a brilliant goal, restoring their two goal lead. Brighton once again did get a goal back and wouldn't give up; pushing towards Arsenal, hoping to at least earn a replay at the Emirates, but it just wasn't meant to be. End score: 2-3.

Half of the Premier League teams have already been knocked out of the competition over the two weekends and that could be added to depending on Stoke's result tomorrow night. Not many big names to look out for in the draw now, but many people are now very wary of the lower league teams... Don't you just love the FA Cup?