FA Cup / Andrew French / 27 January 2008 /

Andrew French previews Man City's visit to Sheffield United in the FA Cup

Cast your mind back about nine months.

At the bottom of the Premiership, Sheffield United were about to be relegated amid huge controversy surrounding the Carlos Tevez affair, while a few places and a handful of points above them, Manchester City were scrambling to safety.

City won just one more Premiership game than the Blades last season, and the Sheffield club actually scored three more goals despite going down.

Oh how times have changed since then.

City are now in the thick of the battle for European football, steered by Sven Goran Eriksson (who we all knew was a good manager all along, didn't we . . ?).

United, meanwhile, are languishing just below halfway in the Championship. They may be only nine points off a play-off place but having seen them well beaten in last weekend's Steel City derby by their old rivals and neighbours, Wednesday, it will take a quantum leap of faith on the part of the Blades fans to believe that gap can be made up.

The Sheffield club, too, have a new manager, and although Bryan Robson's history with England's is infinitely more warmly remembered than that of Eriksson, the former national captain is enjoying a far less satisfying first season at his new home than the Swede.

Back in the summer when newly-relegated United looked a sound bet to go back up, they were trading as short as [10.5] to win the Championship. Just nine wins from 28 league games later, and they are available to back at a whopping [300].

I think you could stick another nought on the end and I still wouldn't be interested. United looked decidedly mid-table in last week's derby.

They can't complain at the goal return from £4m-striker James Beattie, who has netted 13 times and is second-top scorer in the Championship. However, he has been sidelined with a knee injury since Boxing Day, and United have scored just three times in five games without him - and one of those was an own goal.

Yet they have managed to win a couple in that period, including a 1-0 success at Bolton in the last round on the FA Cup.

City needed two rather tedious games with West Ham to book their passage, and exciting away games involving the Eastlands club have been few and far between of late. It appears to stem back to the 6-0 drubbing they suffered at Chelsea in late October. Since then, Eriksson looks to have adopted a safety first attitude on the road, and City have lost only two of their last eight away games, conceding just five goals in the process.

Stat lovers may be interested to know City have never won an FA Cup tie in five attempts against United - until they realise the two clubs last met in the competition way back in 1939.

I expect that sequence to be ended this weekend though, but backing City at [2.1] doesn't capture my imagination.

I'd be more inclined to have a look at the correct score market, and take City to win 1-0 [7] and 2-0 [10.5].

As a saver, I'd have a look at backing the draw at [3.4] - United might just be able to grind out the right to a replay given City have only scored more than one goal once in their last six games.

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