Middlesbrough and Aston Villa are up for the cup this weekend and they meet at the Riverside Stadium on Saturday.
At The Riverside
The FA Cup Third Round is upon us and of the 32 ties that will be taking place across the extended weekend, how many shocks will be handed out along the way?
The Third Round
The start of a new year not only signals fresh hope for all, but it also signals the big guns entering the FA Cup. 20 teams have played at least two matches to get to the Third Round, now the top 44 teams in the country join the party.
While two of them have been paired together on Saturday evening as Championship Middlesbrough play host to Premier League Aston Villa and although both clubs will fancy making headway on the road to Wembley, they do have bigger priorities to deal with.
For hosts Middlesbrough, the season’s main objective is to not only return to the play-offs for the second season in a row but more importantly, earn promotion this time around. Then again, if this to be achieved, Michael Carrick’s men have their work cut out.
A slow start to the campaign has meant ‘Boro have been largely playing catchup this season and although they have pulled well clear of the drop zone, they are still currently languishing within the Championship’s midtable bracket.
The Riverside Stadium outfit sit 12th in the table – six positions from a play-off paying place but as bad as that sounds, the four point gap between sixth-place Sunderland and themselves can certainly be eroded.
Therefore, one wonders if cup exploits are going to be of biggest concern to the club. They have already made the semi-finals of the Carabao, will extra fixtures hamper their chances of upward mobility?
Which is the same dilemma that Aston Villa face before the weekend. The FA Cup would certainly be a welcome addition to their trophy cabinet, the Premier League would undoubtedly take pride of place.
Will Villa win the Premier League? You cannot rule them out at this stage of the season and with the Europa Conference League in position to potentially trip them up, a third front of football warfare may stretch Unai Emery’s men too far.
At the same time, someone has to eventually move on from this tie, they both cannot wave the white flag and with Villa not as fearsome on the road as they are away, it only adds further spice to this FA Cup Third Round tie.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and for the reasons stated above, I think this game is going to need a replay – the one result that neither team wants, but the result I want as the score draw is priced at 4/1.
In addition to this, I am going to back Middlesbrough to take the lead and with Ivorian forward Emmanuel Latte Lath currently serving as their top scorer, my tip is for the 25-year-old to score first at odds of 9/1.
Bet £10, Get £50 in Bonuses
