Tradition
The Football Association Challenge Cup is now the FA Cup with Budweiser. That's with Budweiser as in with Budweiser who saw nothing nefarious in foisting a collection of ex-players upon Wembley FC solely for Cup games and uniquely for its own publicity, without regard for the integrity of the competition nor the careers of those usurped. There are no more semi-final replays. There are no more semi-finals played at grounds other than Wembley, supporters expected to pay in pounds, miles and heat for a monument to shoddy soullessness and logistical mismanagement. There are no more final replays. Final tickets are presented here and dangled there for all sorts of prices and purposes. There are league games on Cup final weekend. So, when your ears are polluted with magic of the Cup metamirth, when Wigan are chastised for fielding an under-strength side, when Chelsea are criticised for prioritising Champions League qualification and when the Den is only two-thirds full for the visit of Blackburn, remember this: it's all very nice expecting clubs and supporters to respect the competition, but when its proprietors treat it as little more than an inconvenient prostitute, well, you get what you're getting. DH
Romance
For reasons that are fuzzy, players get cup-tied but managers do not. That's a good thing for Michael Appleton, who has already been knocked out of the FA Cup with Portsmouth this year and also managed Blackpool in the competition. On Sunday he takes Blackburn to Millwall to find out which of these Championship side will reach the semi-final. The fact that several Blackburn players are cup-tied means that Leon Best may start alongside Jordan Rhodes, having just recovered from a torn cruciate ligament. A winning goal from him will give us all another of those FA Cup fairytale riffs we like so much. PD
Decisions
Following a doddering start to the season, during which inexplicable selections hastened defeats against Spurs and Norwich, as well as a lucky escape at Liverpool, Alex Ferguson has been on one. Someone may have spiked his selection tombola with warm balls, but either way, since that Norwich game, Manchester United have won 14 of 16 league games. Even the lineups he sent out for the Real Madrid games were near-perfect, and the 11 that began the second illustrated a sustaining willingness to take difficult decisions. This weekend, he must confront another, and omit Robin van Persie for the Cup quarter final with Chelsea. Though this is precisely the kind of occasion for which he was bought, he has not scored since 10 February – an opportunity he did his best to miss – and, though United were unlucky with a refereeing decision on Tuesday night, had he taken his chances through the tie it might well have been rendered irrelevant. Of his team-mates, only Rafael da Silva has played more minutes this season, in a position that does not require a similar sharpness, and it is clear that Van Persie is somewhat blunt at the moment. As well as not scoring, he is also not playing well, the silent moments that stood still now screeching away, and with Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernández available and Reading at home to come next week, a short period of relaxation seems a more likely solution than simply hoping he plays himself back into form. DH
Decisions, decisions
Rafael Benítez has been in charge of Chelsea for 29 games, and in not one has he picked a midfield five of Mikel, Lampard; Mata, Oscar, Hazard. This is fairly peculiar, its absence from the list of permutations attempted defeating algorithmic explanation at the time of writing. And yet, the back two combine clever passing and sensible positioning, with the trident in front a roaming, weaving, capricious menace – ideal for supplying an all-round non-Torres such as Demba Ba. On Sunday, Chelsea may be wise to adopt the security and creativity of this grouping. No English team have given Manchester United as much trouble this season as Chelsea did when the sides met in the league at Stamford Bridge, and this is the standard they must demand of themselves in the Cup – but they can reach it only if not sabotaged by self-indulgent fiddling, negative mindset and general stubbornness. DH
Liverpool v Spurs, part one
Unlike Harry Redknapp, André Villas-Boas took the gamble that taking Tottenham Hotspur far in the Europa League would generate positive momentum to help the club avoid the late-season plummets that afflicted them in each of the last two seasons. That is paying off so far, and Thursday night's swashbuckling win over an admittedly swill Internazionale side was their best performance of the season so far. And the stage is set for a thriller on Sunday, not least because two of the players of the season go head to head and much will depend on which of them comes out better: Luis Suárez or Jan Vertonghen. PD
Liverpool v Spurs, part two
Liverpool's fabled recent charge of four wins from 10 games has relieved some of the pressure on Brendan Rodgers. Luis Suárez is still scoring while Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge have added quality and variety, elevating the performances of complementary players such as Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing. But the successes have hardly come against a murderers' row of opposition, so a game at home to a surging Spurs is the right test at the right time, perfect for the Ofsted inspectors to grade the efficacy of a Rodgers education. DH
Holby General
The game at the Madejski promises to be a frantic fight, with the implication of defeat ominous for either side. Aston Villa have been undermined by mistakes all season and the question is can they lower their error count as the tension mounts? After Reading they still have Queens Park Rangers and Wigan to play this so their fate is very much in their own dodgy hands and each of those matches will be compelling viewing. PD
Hope
With third bottom playing second bottom at the Madejski, Saturday represents an opportunity for QPR to begin a serious bid at relegation zone extrication. Whatever the morality of its compilation, their squad boasts sufficient attacking talent to win a significant number of its 10 remaining games, in which they face none of the top four and three of the bottom six. But Sunderland may just have remembered the purpose of their existence in time to redeem partially yet another groundhog season. Last week, Fulham's elegant, erratic improvisors extracted from them a rare watchable game, in which Stéphane Sessègnon relocated his talent to inspire the kind of spirit-tickling comeback that reminds supporters that they're not dead, so this should be one of the weekend's more engaging encounters. DH
Revolting Stoke
Stoke City were so disgustingly inoffensive when losing to Fulham and West Ham in their past two outings that even their own fans were affronted. Boos proved that the tide is turning on Tony Pulis, whose refusal to evolve is causing his club to regress. He can react to that reality in one of two ways at Newcastle: by altering his approach to make his team at least slightly more constructive, perhaps even including Charlie Adam and trying to play more through midfield; or, secondly, by becoming even more entrenched in his views and getting even more big men behind the ball. It will be interesting to see which he plumps for. Unless, of course, it's the latter. PD
Vandalism
Barcelona have won only once in their past four games and only three times in the past eight. Though they are not broken beyond repair, for the first time since 2009 there exists a possibility that they may not be the best side in the world, the presumption of invincibility probably gone for ever. That being the case, their game this weekend against Deportivo – one in which they would ordinarily rest key players, with the league won and a European tie in midweek – is suddenly crucial to regaining the momentum that can overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit. As such, they must name a full-strength lineup, and that means restoring Andrés Iniesta to the midfield. Whatever Snoop Dogg would have us believe, you can't perfect perfection, and Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta was perfection. Though Cesc Fábregas is an excellent player who would enhance almost any team in the world, compromising Iniesta to accommodate him is obvious folly; Iniesta is an all-time great, Fábregas a great in his generation, the difference like that between Noah and Abraham. The alteration has made sterile the most virile of domination, the penetrator-in-chief marginalised for a far less dynamic weapon. Should Barcelona fail to reinstate him, their home tie with Milan could look very similar to its San Siro predecessor. DH
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