Bristol Rovers v Southampton

Cardiff v Wolves

Sheff Utd v Middlesbrough*

Liverpool v Barnsley

Manchester United v Arsenal*

Preston v Portsmouth*

Coventry v West Brom

Chelsea v Huddersfield

(Ties to be played on February 16th and 17th)

With just 6 Premier League sides left in the 16 teams in the 5th round, it promises to be a very interesting cup.

The choice fixture of course is Manchester United hosting Arsenal at home. The FA Cup has thrown up some crackers between these two teams over the years, and none more so than the semi-final replay in 1999 - Beckham opened the scoring with a great long-range goal, Bergkamp equalised with a neat one himself, Roy Keane got sent off, Schmeichel saved Bergkamp's penalty, and then Ryan Giggs scored THAT wonder goal, and United went on to win the treble. Then in 2003, Arsenal sent a second-stringish side to Old Trafford and won 2-0, with goals from Edu and Wiltord, and Franny Jeffers putting in a memorable hard-working performance up-front. The next meeting was the semi-final in 2004, Arsenal were unbeaten and top of the league, and a few players were rested for this fixture. United ended up winning 2-0, some might say unjustly, after Arsenal had had the post twice and wasted several chances to take the lead early on in the game. And finally, in 2005, the teams met in the final of the FA Cup. Arsenal were negative and lucky (but decimated by injuries), and nervously saw out the 90 minutes goalless, before Jens Lehmann made an excellent save from Scholes' spot-kick to seal the penalty shootout and cup for Arsenal.

You can expect another very entertaining fixture, although both teams will be resting players because of the Champions League, and Man United are likely to have the better side out, since they have a larger, stronger squad.

The other matchup of interest is Sheff Utd vs Middlesborough. The Blades have an excellent cup record, and have engineered many upsets over the years. Even though Neil Warnock is gone, they still have a strong setup, and Bryan Robson keeps his troops spirited. Middlesborough had some difficulty seeing off lowly Mansfield Town in the previous round, and are ripe for an upset given their indifferent form over the season. The arrival of Afonso Alves might just give them a big boost though.

Chelsea won't have much trouble with Huddersfield, although Liverpool might with Barnsley, especially given the proximity of these fixtures to the Champions League ties. The Blues' young striker Scott Sinclair started out at Huddersfield, and may just get a long run-out in this fixture.

Portsmouth should be able to beat Preston, although it will be a very tricky fixture for them. Pompey benchwarmer Dave Nugent will be coming up against his former club, where he did so well and earned his first England cap. 

Cardiff and Wolves will be a tight all-Championship fixture, as will Coventry v West Brom (in addition to being a Midlands derby), and Southampton should dispatch Bristol Rovers without much trouble

Sorry to interrupt everyone's Copa America fever (who would have thunk it eh?), but I just thought I'd take a quick look around what's been happening in the transfer market. Please note that this is more or less just what is on my mind, so sorry if I miss out on discussing any transfers that people want, but you can always add on in the comments, or discuss it on the forums.

David Rozehnal
From PSG to Newcastle - £2.9 million
This is an interesting signing, and the type of signing you continually find with the German or French leagues - decent players being sold at decent prices, without the ridiculous over-hypedness/over-pricing(England) or buyout clause nonsense (Spain) or just general bickering, corruption and co-ownership (Italy and South America). Lyon, Marseille and Bayern Munich aside, all the clubs in those leagues seem perfectly content to transfer players between each other, irrespective of nationality or rivalries.

Newcastle have acquired a very solid, decent defender at an excellent price. 26 year old Czech centre-back Rozehnal is good in the air, has decent pace, and is a great reader of the game who can play the ball out of defence as well. It's one of those situations where the bigger clubs have busied themselves going after defenders who are quicker, stronger, and bigger, and Newcastle managed to strike a quick deal with struggling PSG, and Rozehnal was probably more-than-happy to come to a well-supported club in the "almighty" Premier League. Good luck to him, and Sam "I am the Walrus" Allardyce has added solidity to a backline that was about as stable as a jellyfish when featuring the talents of Titus Bramble, Ogyuchi Onyewu, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Craig Moore. NEXT.

Darren Bent
From Charlton to Tottenham - £16.5 million
Tottenham have continued their policy of "If it's English and runs, buy it". Livewire striker Darren Bent has signed from Charlton for a colossal feel of 16.5 meeyun quid. It's basically got most of England asking - "Did I hear correctly? Is Darren Bent actually more expensive than Thierry Henry?" I don't think that there will ever be an end to this ridiculous intra-England policy of deciding that English players are 100 times more valuable than their foreign counterparts (most of whom speak better English than them anyways). What is only slightly more bizarre is that West Ham had bid £18 million, and offered Bent £75,000 per week (he eventually signed for Spurs on £45,000 a week).

Still, Bent is a really good young player, very quick, subtly powerful, and with a real enthusiasm to score goals. He's still very raw, but will inject much needed pace into Spurs' front line. He will complement Berbatov well, but there are rumours that Berbatov is being lined up by Manchester United. His arrival will put into doubt the future of fellow Arsenal fan and Spurs teammate Jermain Defoe, who has gone from being a 20-goal a season man to a 20-minutes from the end substitute.

Olivier Kapo
From Juventus to Birmingham City - £3 million
Almost 4 years ago, Olivier Kapo was touted as being one of the biggest talents in France. Kapo, one of those weird attacking players who has never really been allowed to settle in any role (an AM LC/FC on FM), was a product of Auxerre's acclaimed youth system, and a member of the "golden generation" that saw the emergence of Philippe Mexes, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Khalilou Fadiga and Djibril Cisse (admittedly, some a bit less "golden" than others).

Unfortunately, instead of taking gradual steps up, he made the mistake of signing for Juventus (who promptly signed about a dozen other midfielders the next day), and never saw any first team football. He went on loan to Monaco and Levante, but seemed to be in limbo, and now has the chance to resurrect his talents in the midlands. If Birmingham do manage to sign Mathieu Flamini from Arsenal, then Flamini's workrate and running, and Fabrice Muamba's covering and tackling should provide a great base for Kapo to attack freely. Of course this is all dependent on Steve Bruce showing at least a little bit of tactical ability, and I have no faith in that.

And in the realm of rumours:

Djibril Cisse from Liverpool to Marseille (rumoured fee of £7 million)
About time really. All Cisse has done at Liverpool (apart from scoring in the FA Cup final) is break his legs. We all know the biggest part of Cisse's game is his hair, and he made the massive mistake of marrying his hairdresser on Merseyside... a marriage clearly not made in heaven, because in almost Samson-like fashion his hair and football ability both went to shit, and he was later arrested for assaulting his wife. Off you go.

Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool (rumoured fee of £27 million)
If Rafa Benitez wants to sign El Niño, he is going to have to pay a hefty fee. The iconic young no. 9 is supposed to have a release clause of about £25 million pounds, and Atletico also want Liverpool to pay the £2 million loyalty bonus that Torres is supposed to be receiving from the Madrid club. Loyalty bonus. Can you believe that?

Anyways, although Torres has a lot going for him, he is very overrated. He has the potential to be a great player, but so far has always flattered to deceive. I wonder if he will flourish under Rafa Benitez, because Rafa doesn't really have a great record for grooming young players (or playing attacking football for that matter). He might have done better under the tutelage of Wenger or Ferguson, but it looks like Liverpool it is. Torres is talented, he's got bags of potential, and he's got great charisma and marketing value, but he is VERY overrated. When Djibril Cisse arrived, he was an expensive, overrated player, but one who had scored bags of goals. Torres arrives(?) as an expensive, overrated player as well, but one who really hasn't scored many goals.

Juninho Paulista to Hull City
THIS IS THE STRANGEST RUMOUR OF THEM ALL. Juninho, once the darling of the Middlesborough fans, one of the most talented players to have played in the Premiership, and one of the stars for Brazil in their 2002 World Cup triumph, is going to end up in the orange strip of Hull City FC. Bizarreness. In a career that has taken him from Sao Paulo to Boro to Atletico to Boro to Vasco to Flamengo, back to Boro AGAIN, and then Celtic and then back to Brazil with Vasco and then Flamengo (I AM COMPLETELY CONFUSED BY THIS MERRY-GO-ROUND NOW), Juninho is now set to go back to England.

He seems to have a special place for the English fans in his heart, and English fans all over remember him fondly as well. Hull City would be an interesting option. They are one-tier below the Premiership, and if Juninho was to help them get promoted, he might enjoy one last-love affair with the Premiership, and it might be worth it just for the reception at Boro vs Hull alone. That's assuming that Hull get promoted. Or that Boro get relegated :) Either way, it'll be the only way that Middlesborough manage to fill up their stadium for the first time in years.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, i'm done. That was long. Hope you enjoyed it.