The romance of the FA Cup continues this weekend when the quarter-finals of England most prestigious domestic tournament gets underway. Manchester City are the 15/8 favourites with Coral to lift the cup and with a quarter-final match-up against Championship side Barnsley, the Citizens are fully expected the progress through to the semi-final draw, which takes place on Sunday evening.
The good news for City fans is that Roberto Mancini has a full strength squad to choose from ahead of their home fixture against Barnsley and with the current Premier League champions looking very unlikely not to defend their league title, the FA Cup is now seen as a main priority.
Manchester United are next best in the FA Cup outright betting at 9/4 with Bet365, but with the 11-time champions having been handed a FA Cup quarter-final tie against Chelsea, Sir Alex Ferguson will be keeping his fingers crossed that his side don’t suffer from a Champions League hangover.
Everton are 9/2 with Coral to lift the FA Cup for the first time since 1995 and with a home tie against Premier League strugglers Wigan in the quarter-finals, the Toffeemen are strongly fancied to make the hat for the semi-final draw (Wigan 33-1 with Bet Victor).
Chelsea will be eager to continue their fine record in the FA Cup in recent years. The Blues have lifted the FA Cup a total of four times in the last six seasons and if Rafa Benitez’s men can overcome Manchester United at Old Trafford, and be handed a favourable semi-final draw, the 6/1 available with Bet Victor for Chelsea to be crown FA Cup champions, will look a very big price.
From the three Championship sides still left in this season’s competition, Blackburn and Millwall can be backed at 50/1 with Bet Victory whilst Barnsley are the 200-1 outsiders of the eight teams heading into this weekend’s quarter-finals.
Looking ahead at the quarter-final matches, the tie of the round is definitely between two of the Premier League’s big guns, Manchester United and Chelsea. United are 5/6 with Paddy Power to overcome Chelsea in 90 minutes and with United having only lost one of their last 18 matches in all competitions, the current Premier League leaders can be backed with confidence.
The other factor that points towards a Man United victory is that fact that Chelsea are currently struggling to find their form. The Blues have only won five of their last 11 matches in all competitions and have not tasted victory at Old Trafford since April 2010.
The value bet of the weekend looks to be Blackburn at 11-5 with William Hill away to Millwall. Rovers have had a very indifferent spell in the league recently, but their recent performance against Bolton in the Championship last Saturday suggests that the North-West side are starting to find some sort of form again.
Millwall on the other hand have only won two of their last 10 league games and their recent defeat to Championship strugglers Wolves is definitely a cause of concern.
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