The Magic Of The FA Cup / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 04 January 2009 / Leave a comment

It was plain sailing for Man Utd this evening, who were never matched any higher than 1.38 on the match odds market on Betfair, despite the absences of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez from the starting line-up...

An early goal from Danny Welbeck and a first-half sending off for Southampton's Matt Patterson meant the tie was only ever going one way; the final 3-0 scoreline was matched at 9.8.

Sir Alex Ferguson's side, who will play Tottenham at home in the next round, are the 5.5 joint-favourites to lift the Cup alongside Chelsea, who will play hosts to Ipswich in the next round should they beat Southend in their third round replay.

It was a little trickier for Aston Villa this afternoon, who drifted to 2.84 away to Gillingham before a James Milner penalty fairly late on in the game saw them book their passage into the next round where they will now play the winners of the Cheltenham/Doncaster tie.

Liverpool are the same price as Arsenal at 7.4 to win the Cup but have arguably the toughest tie of any of the Big Four clubs after drawing Everton in the next round, albeit at home. The Betfair Big 4 v The Field market still thinks that there will be no gate-crashing by a non-Big Four team again this year after Portsmouth's heroics in the Cup last time round. It's 1.5 that Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool will lift the trophy come May.

Full Fourth Round Draw:

Liverpool v Everton
Manchester United v Tottenham
Hull or Newcastle v Millwall or Crewe
Sunderland v Blyth or Blackburn
Hartlepool v West Ham
Leyton Orient or Sheffield United v Charlton or Norwich
Cardiff v Arsenal
Portsmouth or Bristol City v Histon or Swansea
Chelsea or Southend v Ipswich
Cheltenham or Doncaster v Aston Villa
West Brom or Peterborough v QPR or Burnley
Torquay v Coventry
Kettering v Fulham
Watford v Leicester or Crystal Palace
Derby v Nottingham Forest
Birmingham or Wolves v Middlesbrough