Should Arsène Wenger rotate? Plus Phil Brown meets his former club, the holders’ tricky test and did ITV pick the right game?

1) Bournemouth present challenge to Rodgers’ trophy ambitions

King Kenny’s second reign at Anfield isn’t universally recognised as a super soaraway success story, principally due to those t-shirts and spending the best part of £20m on Stewart Downing. Fair enough. But he did still bring in some silverware, and while a League Cup might not represent the pinnacle for a big club with vaulting ambitions, tell that to David Moyes right now. Mention it to Arsène Wenger as well. For that 2012 League Cup has eased the pressure on Liverpool a tad. They’ve at least won a little something comparatively recently; compare and contrast with Arsenal (2005), Everton (1995) or Newcastle United (1969). Having said all that, it’s only eased the pressure a tad. Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool need to learn and re-learn, respectively, the winning habit sooner rather than later. Nobody’s seriously expected anything to happen for them in the league, but the cups are a different matter, and Liverpool in the Rodgers era have flopped in their first three domestic cup campaigns. A good run in the manager’s fourth is vital to keep the momentum of his project going, but this draw is far from easy: Liverpool struggled against lower-league opposition in Notts County earlier this season, while last year they were humiliated and thoroughly outplayed by Oldham. After Liverpool’s risible performance against Aston Villa – a scrambled 2-2 draw masking myriad deficiencies – Eddie Howe’s side present a formidable barrier, especially as the Championship club have just been buoyed by a new contract for their in-form striker Lewis Grabban. Bournemouth also have previous in making life awkward for Liverpool in the cup, drawing at Anfield with Bill Shankly’s men in 1968, and being denied victory late on by the legendary Gordon Hodgson back in 1927. This could be tight. SM

2) Should Wenger take a risk?

Not until the referee puffs upon his whistle and the game gets going will the carpet and pencils in Arsène Wenger’s office be able to breath a sigh of relief. They must be close to worn out with all the thinking that the Arsenal manager has had to put in this week, most of which will have centred on what side he should pick for the match against Coventry. The FA Cup was the last sliver of silverware that the Frenchman was able to call his own and Lord knows every Arsenal fan would like to see their cadaverous trophy cabinet looking a little more rotund. However, and this is what Wenger has surely been noodle scratching over, does he risk playing a weakened side against a team that has lost just one of their last 11 competitive matches in the hope that they have enough to make it over the line? Or does he play a stronger side, one that he reckons will get the job done? Despite the ready made excuse of youth, if he plays the first one and loses, he risks the chance of chucking away a decent shot at a trophy. Should he plump for the second option, however, he runs the risk of adding more injuries and more fatigue to a squad that already has enough dents (with the obvious knock-on effect for his side’s title hopes). Like ringing that person to tell them, ‘we need to talk’, it’s a tough call. IMC

3) Will the Stadium of Light host some Cup magic?

In Ireland, you can be hung, drawn and quartered and have shame heaped upon your surviving family for failing to offer someone a cup of tea upon them setting foot in your house. A person could be on their way to Mars on a mission that could help woman and man find a solution to global warming and shutting down Twitter and they will still be stopped and asked if they would like one. A similar sort of law applies to journalists when writing about the FA Cup: mention the magic and the possibility of a giantkilling or it’s off to the gallows with you. So here goes. Kidderminster are located 80 league places below Sunderland. They have been poor on the road this season, taking 14 points from 13 games, with only three of those coming against a side in the top half of the Conference table. Of late it has got even worse: they have lost four of their last six away games. No amount of fairy dust and magic sparkle can thus hide the fact that this is a mismatch, if not of Titanic proportions, then certainly of Mauretania proportions. If Paolo Di Canio was still in charge, then maybe the Harries would have a hope. Under Gus Poyet, however, Sunderland are a far more organised and far more dangerous fighting machine. The best Kidderminster can wish for is that Mackem minds and legs have wandered elsewhere after Wednesday night’s win. IMC

4) Southend manager Brown meets the club that sacked him

It is a shame that Phil Brown’s time in charge of Hull will be remembered for that half-time team talk or that serenading of the crowd, for there was far more to it than that. “I am obviously very disappointed with the club’s decision,” said Brown after he was placed on gardening leave and replaced by Iain Dowie, and he had every right to be too. It was he who had led the club to the top flight for the first time and it was he who kept them up. And even though there had been a run of poor results at that stage in the 2009/10 season, Hull were but three points from safety, with nine games to go. The Tigers have moved on since then and Brown has too but there must be a considerable part of him that would like to taste revenge. And of all the underdogs going up against the overdogs this weekend, the Shrimpers must be best placed to giant slay. They are unbeaten in their last seven games (four wins, three draws), they have one of the best defences in League Two (26 games played, 22 goals conceded) and they have already knocked Millwall out of the Cup in the most convincing of fashions. In the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs, Mr Brown declares Like a Virgin to be, amongst other things, about pain and it’s this same feeling that another Mr Brown will want to inflict on the former love of his life come Saturday afternoon. IMC

5) Can Pulis end Wigan’s Cup defence?

West Ham United were the last club to mount a defence of the FA Cup from the second tier of English football, in 1981, and they didn’t make a very good fist of it, crashing out in the third round at Wrexham. Sunderland’s attempt in 1974 wasn’t any better: they were put out at home in the third round by Carlisle United. Only Southampton of the three post-war teams to win the cup as a Second Division club hung on to the handles of the trophy for any length of time: they made it to the fifth round before Manchester United did for them in 1977. Wigan, breaking new ground as a freshly relegated mob, have at least avoided the ignominy of joining the long list of winners to fall at the first hurdle – Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City – and much like keeping an eye on hosts of major international tournaments, it’ll be interesting to see how deep they can go again. Will Southampton’s post-war record be safe for another few seasons? Wigan’s form is erratic, though that’s at least an improvement on their mid-season six-losses-in-a-row slump. Palace will prove a tough proposition – there’s the ludicrously underrated Tony Pulis in the dugout – but history sometimes weighs heavy on a club. The south Londoners have only played one game at Wigan in their history, back in 2004 – and they went down 5-0. SM

6) Fulham gameplan may decide Blades’ fate

This fourth-round draw has been one of the grand old competition’s less intriguing selection of fixtures. Damn Lady Luck and her insidious effect on the FA’s scrawny old velvet bag. Potential shocks are at a premium, though there could be one on the cards at Bramall Lane. Sheffield United aren’t great at the back – they’re still struggling at the wrong end of the League One table after a loss to Notts County and the concession of a two-goal lead at home to Bradford – but they’re a decent proposition going forward with the in-form pairing of Jamie Murphy and Jose Baxter, as Aston Villa found to their cost in the third round. Livingston tyro Stefan Scougall may arrive in time to add some flair to the midfield, while dead-eyed dead-ball dynamo defender Harry Maguire, top scorer with six goals, offers a threat from set pieces. The result depends very much on Fulham’s attitude and gameplan. There’s a sense that United are struggling in League One because they’re a bit too lightweight and fancy to deal with the more workaday outfits in the division. If a team presses hard all over the field, they’re in trouble. If a team sits back a bit – like Aston Villa – they could reap the benefits. Oh look! Here comes existential stroller Dimitar Berbatov! SM

7) Can Everton avoid Cup humiliation against Stevenage?

It’s bad form to start kicking a man when he’s down, but David Moyes’s record in the FA Cup has been nothing short of appalling, and that’s not counting what’s been going on at Old Trafford recently. His time at Everton was littered with disgraces, from heavy home batterings by Blackburn and Wigan, to losses at the hands of Reading and Oldham. The nadir of his Goodison reign came early, a 2-1 defeat in 2003 against a Shrewsbury Town side who were 91st in the league pyramid at the time. A young Wayne Rooney could do nothing to avert the humiliation. So with a new regime in situ, it’s about time something changed for the Toffees. Roberto Martínez comes with a spanking-new cup pedigree, the current reigning champion, and even without the dynamic Seamus Coleman, his evolving team should have too much for a side propping up League One. The tie should still hold some old-school appeal, though, with Stevenage boss Graham Westley having promised to lay on a “bizarre environment” at Broadhall Way. “I’m sure the Everton lads will go home on Saturday night feeling bewildered,” he insists. Perhaps so, but as Martínez’s side have lost only one of their last 16, a shock seems highly unlikely. SM

8) Swansea have chance to arrest slump at Birmingham

Swansea are 25-1 shots to pop another cup on their roll of honour, behind only Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Sunderland at your friendly neighbourhood purse-emptier. Which seems about right, until you consider Swansea’s recent form, which has gone somewhat under the radar, mainly as a result of their spectacular third-round win at Manchester United. A fine achievement, that, but it’s been their only win in the last ten games, a run which has seen six defeats. The Swans have a reputation for good football that goes back years, and has bought them a lot of goodwill, though that might be obscuring the fact that nothing’s quite sticking for them right now, to a worrying degree. A good cup run might stave off outside fears of an impending relegation scrap. They’ll take heart from the fact that four of their recent defeats have been against the giants of English football – Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – and that their fourth-round hosts Birmingham, with two losses in their last three, aren’t exactly clicking themselves. SM

9) Cup provides real opportunity for Saints silverware

The night before the Southampton players arrive in their hotel room for an away game, the club staff pull on their Marigolds and the players’ rooms are cleaned to within an inch of their lives. Then each player’s custom-fit mattress is placed on the bed alongside bed clothes that have been washed and ironed by the club. This is just one of many, many lengths that the south coast club are going to to try to ensure the players have no complaints and that a serious challenge for the Premier League title can be countenanced. That challenge may yet take a few more years, as well as a few more millions, but a realistic target, for now, should be the Cup. As Wigan showed last year, the final does not necessarily have to be the playground of the rich and famous and winning would have a two-pronged effect on Southampton. It would guarantee a place in Europe – getting a pot via the league looks a little remote at present – and prove to some of the Saints’ bigger and better players that they need not move to a bigger club to get up close and personal with the feelings of success. Yeovil should provide willing opposition too. They are struggling for form in the Championship, one place off the bottom spot. IMC

10) Familiar foes meet at Stamford Bridge

Of all the games that ITV could have chosen to broadcast in their primetime Sunday afternoon slot, they went for Chelsea versus Stoke. Seriously ITV, is that the best you could come up with? You could have set up a rocket on the top of the ITV building, launched it in the direction of Hackney Marshes and it would have landed at a match that would have been more interesting. We know about these two teams, they’ve played each other 12 times over the last six seasons. We know how they are set up, we know what their players are like and we know what their managers are like. Familiarity breeds contempt and contempt is what football fans should have towards the broadcaster for selecting this game. Couldn’t you have used just a touch more imagination, ITV? Couldn’t you have covered more of the lower league sides? Couldn’t you have shone a light on teams that must live in the shadows of the Premier League? Is that too much to ask? IMC

• FA Cup
• Arsène Wenger
• Liverpool
• Bournemouth
• Arsenal
• Coventry City
• Sunderland

Ian McCourt
Scott Murray

theguardian.com