Cup week!

Carling cup ties tonight and tomorrow with the Manchester derby first. Fergie has said himself in the papers this morning that he fears City and feels that the lads from down the road could turn over his side at Old Trafford tonight. With problems both on and off the pitch, he could be right - and most bookies think so too giving preferential odds to City. I wouldn't go with that though. United know when to wake up and at 2/1 odds I'd fancy a dabble on the devils.

Villa are already 1up in their tie with Blackburn and should put them to bed easily, however Martin O'Neil's side stuttered at the weekend with a goaless draw vs West Ham - surely points were up for grabs there? Blackburn's strikers need to start pulling their weight if they are to progress.

The FA Cup continues at the weekend leaving only 1 Premiership fixture (yes that's right, United are catching up on Prem matches as they are out of the Cup!) I personally shall be watching Stoke vs Arsenal on BBC1 on Sunday lunchtime :-) any upsets in your accumulator?

Liverpool have a crucial six-pointer vs Spurs tomorrow night, Arry's men will be looking to get over their woes of the weekend where they drew with Hull - but managed yet another clean sheet despite their ragged defense.. Do they really need David James?

Arsenal and the Cesc Fabregas show play Bolton for the second time in a week where a repeat scoreline will see the Gunners fire to the top of the table for the first time this season (at least until the weekend!) not bad considering that they were 11points behind Chelsea after that thumping in November...

Thierry Henry has been cleared after the handball incident vs Ireland and is all across the papers today. No doubt there will be uproar across facebook statuses and his name will be back in the mud. Should he be banned from the World Cup?

Other news is that Michael Essien has (as I thought) been played too early since his injury and has got himself injured again! Out for a month on first inspection but the Chelsea doctors need to have a look at him. Is this bad news for the blues?

Another exciting week full of footy then!

Enjoy