Awaiting them in stage two will be 12 teams from the Super League and 12 teams from Premier League.
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After Exeter City’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool last night, there are 26 more FA Cup Third Round games today.
Aside from a few marquee contests pitting Premier League clubs against one another, there are a number of matchups featuring topflight teams taking on sides from the lower leagues, tapping into the competition’s rich history of upsets.
Having said that we do have the advantage of a home draw and being the holders and not having lost an FA cup match for nearly three years you would have to make us strong favourites to take another step on the road to a historic three trophy wins in a row.
Newcastle certainly look vulnerable away to Watford, who could have a decent shot at the cup having put themselves in a pretty secure position in the Premier League.
Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw by Exeter and the victor of that replay will entertain West Ham.
One team who will happily oblige in removing them from the FA Cup will be League Two promotion hopefuls Northampton, who have scored 42 goals while losing only three times at Sixfields this term.
Aston Villa need to beat Wycombe Wanderers in their replay for the right to host Manchester City while Crystal Palace will host Stoke City.
Such results are near impossible to predict, but one group to treat with caution are the Premier League strugglers. “It’s unbelievable for teams like Leeds and Bolton to be mentioned in the same breath as Eastleigh, that’s a massive achievement”. “We can go far in the FA Cup and hopefully we can win it”, says goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
West Brom/Bristol City v Peterborough United.
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The ties will be played on the weekend of the 29th January and the 1st February. Manager Juergen Klopp is without a senior center back for the match as Mamadou Sakho, Dejan Lovren, Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure are all hurt, while attackers Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho are also injured.
