LONDON, 29 January 2008 — English Premier League giants Manchester United and Arsenal will face-off in the last 16 of the FA Cup following the fifth round draw made here yesterday.
United currently top the Premier League on goal difference from Arsenal.
Both clubs are in with a shot of landing the treble of League, FA Cup and Champions League titles that United achieved in 1999 but this draw means yet one more of the favorites for the oldest senior Cup competition in world football will be knocked out before the quarterfinals.
United, last season’s beaten finalists; have won the Cup 11 times, Arsenal 10.
Two years ago Arsenal beat United 5-4 on penalties at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in the first FA Cup final to be settled by a shootout. Former Arsenal and United striker Frank Stapleton, a member of the Gunners’ side that beat the Red Devils 3-2 in the 1979 FA Cup final before he moved to Old Trafford, told Sky Sports home advantage would favor United: “When you get to this stage of the draw and you get a big team you want a home draw — that’s a big advantage,” he said.
Only six Premier League sides have made it through to the last 16 although these include the ‘big four’ of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and United who between them have monopolized the FA Cup since Everton’s victory in 1995. Cup holders Chelsea have been drawn at home to Huddersfield, from the third tier of English football, who won the FA Cup back in 1922.
Meanwhile, seven-time Cup winners Liverpool, who on Saturday twice fell behind at Anfield to non-league Havant and Waterlooville before winning 5-2, are at home to second-tier Championship side Barnsley. Bryan Robson will face Premier League side Middlesbrough, the club where he started his managerial career, with Sheffield United.
The championship club will be eyeing another top-flight scalp after a 2-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday. “It’s a very interesting draw. It’s one the (Sheffield) lads are entitled to think they are in with a chance of winning,” said Robson. Robson, manager at the Riverside from May 1994 to December 2000, led Middlesbrough to the final in 1997 when they lost 2-0 to Chelsea. Premier League high-flyers Portsmouth, tipped as one of the teams that could end the ‘big four’ dominance of the FA Cup, will see their quest to win the trophy for the first time since 1939 continue away to championship strugglers Preston North End, who last won the tournament the year before.
Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, whose team have been in fine form away from Fratton Park this season, said: “It could have been a good deal worse.
