Chelsea ... Top of the shocks!

The magic of the FA Cup is legendary. Players from all over the globe arrive on English shores and are already familiar with the famed upsets where the minnows have defeated the giants.

Think back to Hereford’s defeat of mighty Newcastle United in 1972, Sutton United overcoming Coventry City in 1989 or even Shrewsbury taming Everton more recently in 2003. Decades apart, yet last weekend’s fixtures had a number of results that would rank alongside any of these.

The fourth round, supposedly a ‘day in the sun’ for the lower professional ranks, started on a freezing, rain-soaked Friday night with the most successful club in English history taking on the lowest-ranked team left in the competition.
 
With Manchester United having struggled to achieve any form of consistency since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson their tie against Cambridge had all the hallmarks of a classic ‘David versus Goliath’ outcome.

That the Red Devils started the weekend as the fourth-ranked team in the FA Cup yet finished it as the top suggests that perhaps a draw away to a team 76 places below them in the league format was a good result.

It was certainly the perfect result for Cambridge United where the financial rewards of an away game at Old Trafford combined with the atmospheric experience for the players and fans perhaps outweigh the significance of an outright victory.

The revenues from this return fixture will provide a substantial boost. Television appearance money boosted the ticket sales from just under 8,000 to provide Cambridge an estimated £500,000 (BD282,074), while the return fixture should net an estimated £1.7 million (BD959,053), substantially higher than their entire budgeted turnover for the year!

Of course, it’s not all about the money, a point that the Cambridge manager, Richard Money, was quick to endorse as he deflected praise onto his players. Money does deserve some credit for his organisation and motivation and some tactics, particularly crowding the six-yard box with up to seven players at set-pieces, a move that nearly paid dividends.

While they may have retained 75 per cent of the possession, United, recently ranked as the second richest club in the world, were given a footballing cup education in this university town, many of whom are expected to decamp to Old Trafford for the replay.

At least Manchester United can (and have) point(ed) to the small ground and poor state of the pitch although the Abbey Stadium faithful will be inspired to create new songs from this material.
 
The top three in the Premier League only have themselves to blame.

Top of the shocks was Chelsea’s home defeat to Bradford City, currently two divisions below them. Having coasted into a two-goal lead Jose Mourinho’s millionaire footballers then conceded four, an occurrence that has never previously beset the Special One.

Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, was certainly aware of the tradition of the upset and how he has become another statistic to rank alongside the greatest (or worst) of all-time.

The Bantams revival was sparked by a goal from journeyman Jon Stead. The Blues reacted to the score being levelled by bringing on substitutes Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Willian although Bradford had enough momentum and scored two more to secure a ‘ridiculous’ win, as described by another goalscorer, Andy Halliday.

At least Mourinho had the decency to applaud their final goal and then visit the opposing dressing room to congratulate every travelling member of staff on this memorable victory.

Next on the list of shocks came a listless performance from Manchester City against a Middlesborough side that has learned how to defend under new manager, Aitor Karanka, conceding only six goals in their previous 15 matches.

Some were blaming a mid-season summer break to the UAE where City met Wolfsburg in an exhibition match, arriving back in Manchester the day before the cup tie. However, this discredits a ’Boro side that were well organised and thoroughly deserved their away win.

Karanka’s side were only eliminated from the League Cup at Anfield following a lengthy penalty shoot-out which should have served warning of the threat they posed, meaning that for the second season in succession, City have been knocked-out by Championship opposition.

At least one Chelsea player is still in the cup as it was their loanee, Patrick Bamford, whose well-read, opportunistic lunge guided the ball home for the opener while Kike delivered the second in injury time from a well-worked breakaway.

Karanka, former assistant to Mourinho at Real Madrid, raided their B team for keeper, Tomas Mejias, who made some acrobatic saves to keep their goal intact.

Even Frank Lampard was unable to play his customary heroic saviour role although he did have one deflected effort loop against the inside of the post.

Elsewhere, until Arsenal secured a nervy win away at Brighton having survived a contentious late penalty appeal, the top sides having already qualified for the fifth round were two strugglers experiencing a mini-revival under new managers.

Alan Pardew secured a fourth-straight victory since taking charge at Crystal Palace, victorious against high-flying Southampton who twice took the lead before being pegged back.

Meanwhile, Tony Pulis also remains unbeaten as manager of West Brom and also claimed the local bragging rights after defeating Birmingham City 2-1.

After a weekend of FA Cup shocks and upsets the list of Premier League casualties lies at 10. There were 11 Premier League exits in 2005 and 2006 but this year all the clubs remaining will be dreaming of Wembley.

Chelsea, Manchester City and Southampton’s departures meant the Premier League’s top three were accounted for in the space of 90 minutes – the first time this has happened at this stage since 1997.

The magic remains and the cup is wide open with Europe beckoning for the winner. How many more shocks will there be before May?

Ironically, losers Chelsea and City can forget their cup woes this coming Saturday when they get back to Premiership business and play against each other at Stamford Bridge.