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With the Premier League taking a well-earned break over the weekend, all eyes were on the FA Cup to see which teams would reach the sixth round of English football’s most prestigious cup competition.
Many people’s favourite to win the cup was Manchester City, but they were reduced to 10 men in Monday’s tie with League One side Wigan and were knocked out in dramatic fashion after a second-half goal from Will Grigg.
Swansea and Tottenham also came unstuck against lower-league opposition, drawing with Sheffield Wednesday and Rochdale respectively, and they will need to win replays later in February if they’re to make the last eight.
Chelsea, Leicester and Brighton all avoided upsets earlier in the weekend, while Manchester United swept aside Huddersfield and Southampton were victorious at West Brom.
In this article, we take a look at five things we learned from the fifth-round FA Cup action.
#5 Alan Pardew is under more pressure than ever
On the pitch, West Brom have won just one of their last 23 Premier League games and they’re seven points adrift at the bottom of the table with just 11 matches of the season to go.
Off the pitch, the club sacked their chairman and chief executive last week, while four senior players – Gareth Barry, Jonny Evans, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill – were forced to apologise after allegedly stealing a taxi during a trip to Barcelona.
In a nutshell, the Baggies are an absolute mess and, to make matters worse, two of the ‘cab four’ involved in the late-night incident, Barry and Evans, were handed starts by beleaguered boss Alan Pardew for Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup defeat at home to Southampton.
Pardew took the captaincy away from Evans for the match and said he was “furious” with all four players, but it still showed a serious lack of authority from Pardew to start both Barry and Evans when he had Claudio Yacob and Chris Brunt as alternatives on the bench.
No wonder reports suggest he only has two games left to save his job.
#4 Never underestimate ‘Little Rochdale’!
Tottenham came from two goals down to draw at the mighty Juventus in the Champions League last week, yet they were forced to settle for a replay against Rochdale in the FA Cup on Sunday.
With the exception of new signing Lucas Moura, who looked lively right from the off, Mauricio Pochettino’s team weren’t at the races and they were lucky to go in at half-time only 1-0 down away to League One’s bottom club.
Harry Kane and Dele Alli came off the bench to turn the tie around, only for Steve Davies to snatch an equaliser in the third minute of added time, earning his side a 2-2 draw and a trip to Wembley on 28 February.
‘Little Rochdale’, as manager Keith Hill referred to his side, defied the odds against a team 63 places higher than them in the league pyramid and fully deserve another money-spinning tie against one of English football’s big boys.
#3 Leicester are serious contenders
Of the remaining ‘big six’ teams left in the FA Cup, Chelsea have been handed the toughest draw with a trip to 2015-16 Premier League winners Leicester.
The Foxes are not the force they were under Claudio Ranieri but, on their day, they are one of the most exciting teams to watch in the Premier League and Claude Puel has done a brilliant job by steering them comfortably into the top half of the table.
They defeated Championship side Sheffield United 1-0 on Friday, with deadly duo Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy combining for the goal, and they’re bound to cause problems when Chelsea visit the King Power Stadium in the quarter-finals in March.
Puel's side earned a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge when the teams met in the Premier League in January, despite playing the last 22 minutes with 10 men.
#2 VAR needs a lot of work
Players, pundits, managers and supporters have been debating the positives and negatives of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology ever since it caused controversy at the 2017 Confederations Cup.
The system required major work then and, as we saw in Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield on Saturday, it still needs major changes if it’s to be used in more competitions in the future.
In fairness, the decision to disallow Juan Mata’s goal for offside proved to be correct and the technology was right on this occasion, but the ‘swiggly line’ graphic that was sent to broadcasters BT Sport by Hawk-Eye was a total embarrassment.
The technology is only being used sparingly at the moment in English football but fans better get used to it because, like it or not, it’s already been confirmed for the 2018 World Cup.
#1 Manchester City’s quadruple dreams are over
One of the biggest shocks in recent FA Cup history took place on Monday when League One side Wigan defeated Premier League leaders Manchester City 1-0 at the DW Stadium.
The match was not without controversy, with managers Paul Cook and Pep Guardiola involved in a heated argument after City's Fabian Delph received a questionable red card on the stroke of half-time.
Wigan then withstood a flurry of attacks from the visitors, who had 83% possession, before Will Grigg struck his seventh FA Cup goal of the season to seal the unlikeliest of victories.
City, the only realistic quadruple contenders since Arsenal (2003-04) and Chelsea (2004-05), now have to prepare for Sunday’s League Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley knowing that their attempt at a four-trophy haul will have to wait another season.
