Time To Oppose?

It's the Third Round of the F.A. Cup, starting at Anfield when Liverpool welcome Oldham tomorrow evening. And the market has some humungous favourites listed:

Liverpool are 1.17 at home to Oldham
Chelsea are 1.21 at home to Portsmouth
Everton are 1.12 at home to Tamworth
Fulham are 1.46 at home to Charlton
Spurs are 1.15 at home to Cheltenham

Now these may possibly be correctly priced, and then again they may not. But there are a few things to consider before you make up your mind.

First-off, the F.A. Cup is not what it used to be. It's no longer held in the same regard as it was fifteen years ago - perhaps not even the same as it was ten or five years ago. The Champions league and Premier League results are what seem to count these days. The F.A. Cup seems to be treated with the same level of import as the Europa League - and we've all seen how disrespectfully that is treated by the Premier League managers.

So it may be wise to think about what kind of teams the managers of all these home teams above will put out over the weekend. More than likely they will be second/third string players, with the odd sprinkling of first-teamers to help glue things together. And then, in contrast, you have to realise how large these games are for the likes of Oldham, Cheltenham and Tamworth. How often do they get to show themselves on the big stage? And how often do they get to play against the big guns? It frequently happens that these teams play well above themselves - even if they cannot hold out for the full 90 minutes.

By and large, of course, these makeshift sides put out by the large clubs will probably still be good enough to beat their lower league opposition, but would you be happy to back them at the prices I've listed above? I certainly wouldn't.

There always are one or two massive upsets in the F.A Cup, and with managers paying less and less consideration to this competition, those shocks can only grow more likely. With this in mind, you may want to look at the matches above and indeed see value. That value may be pre-match with the hope of catching a drift after the teams are announced, it may be opposing the home team for a short period of the match, or you may decide that it's in opposing all of them for the entire duration of all these matches. Any one of these tactics could prove profitable this weekend.

Whatever you decide, good luck this weekend... And let's hope for those shock results.