When I was growing up, the FA Cup was the biggest trophy. As a footballer in England, it was a dream for everyone to lift it. The quarter-final stage is when it all lights up and we are ready for it this weekend!
Teams like Port Vale and Southampton are just a single game away from playing in Wembley. But it won’t be easy as they face Chelsea and Arsenal, respectively. The other two quarter-finals will see Manchester City face Liverpool and West Ham host Leeds United.
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The FA Cup could also be Mohamed Salah’s last chance at winning a trophy before he leaves Liverpool in the summer. With a lot of interesting sub-plots to look forward to, let us dive straight into my predictions for the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Manchester City vs Liverpool
This is such a hard game to predict. I was at Wembley and saw Manchester City beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final. Arsenal were terrible in that game, they couldn’t get out after the first 15 minutes. But I also don’t remember Kepa being forced to make any big saves at the same time.
When I watch Liverpool, sometimes they are good and the other times, they are completely and utterly out of it. Just look at the second leg against Galatasaray. Liverpool won that game quite comfortably and then looked poor in the loss to Brighton.
Consistency is non-existent at Liverpool. So it will come down to what version of Liverpool will turn up in this game at the Etihad on Saturday. Liverpool have a big week or two coming up. If they are not careful, their season could be all over!
Even though Liverpool have their Champions League quarter-final against PSG coming up on Wednesday, I expect Arne Slot to field his best eleven here. Let’s be honest, Liverpool have a better chance of winning the FA Cup than the Champions League. So I would say they should go all in this weekend and then take it from there.
Mohamed Salah should return to the line-up for this game. I know he hasn’t been at his best this season, but he will do something magical before he leaves Liverpool. That performance is surely around the corner! I would go with Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz to partner Salah in attack here.
Florian Wirtz struggled badly in the league game against City at the Etihad. But I got no doubt that he will become a superstar. Just give him a year, he just needs time to settle down before he can replicate what he did with Leverkusen.
Manchester City did not look like world-beaters during the cup final win over Arsenal. And as an ex-professional footballer, I did not like the show-boating from Rayan Cherki. He’s fortunate we are in 2026 and not the 1990s. It was a bit disrespectful.
I don’t think Cherki starts this game. Pep Guardiola is expected to stick with Jeremy Doku, who was brilliant against Liverpool earlier this season. It’s not a foregone conclusion that Manchester City will win this game. The battle in the wide areas between Doku and Jeremie Frimpong, and Nico O’Reilly up against Salah could be where this game is won and lost!
This could go any way, but I’m backing Manchester City simply because of how inconsistent Liverpool have been this season.
Prediction: Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool
Chelsea vs Port Vale
I don’t see anything but a Chelsea win in this game. Being in the FA Cup quarter-final is undoubtedly a great moment for Port Vale, but they would have had a better chance if they were playing at home.
Chelsea have been letting goals in for fun, losing four games on the bounce before the international break. They have Manchester City away in the league next weekend and if they lose that game, they are in big trouble in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
Except for Joao Pedro, none of the big players at Chelsea have been performing well in recent weeks. I like Romeo Lavia, he’s a good player and so is Andrey Santos. But Liam Rosenior has to get back to playing Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez in midfield with Cole Palmer as the number 10.
Putting Palmer out wide is a waster of time. Go with Pedro Neto and Estevao as your men out wide and go back to this midfield setup. I don’t think Chelsea need two holding midfielders. The way they play, Enzo Fernandez has to be there, especially if they want to play out from the back.
Caicedo is excellent as a no.6 but receiving the ball at the edge of the penalty area and turning with the ball to build from the back isn’t really his game.
Recently, Enzo Fernandez came out and spoke about his desire to live in Madrid and Marc Cucurella also refused to leave the door shut on a Barcelona return. These comments don’t look good for Chelsea. Both Enzo and Cucurella want to play in the Champions League and if Chelsea don’t qualify for it, the transfers remain a huge possibility.
With the World Cup also coming up this summer, some of the top players around the world will look to use that tournament as a platform to impress other teams and seal a transfer. Enzo isn’t worth £100 million unless Argentina win the World Cup again. I doubt Chelsea will concede a loss while approving his exit. That could make the Real Madrid switch difficult in my opinion.
Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Port Vale
Southampton vs Arsenal
It’s a difficult game for Arsenal because a lot of their players have returned from their national team squads with fitness issues. They could be forced to field a patched-up line-up against Southampton in the FA Cup on Saturday.
The way Southampton are playing, I expect them to give Arsenal a strong challenge. They have been decent at home and although Arsenal are favourites, I still believe this game is a tricky banana skin fixture.
After having lost the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City, imagine Arsenal being forced to field a weakened team here and then losing this game. All of a sudden, you have serious pressure on you when you face Sporting because just 45 bad minutes in that game will force you to be up against it right away!
So this is a humungous game and week ahead for Arsenal. They face Bournemouth in the league next weekend, which is not exactly a ‘give-me’ fixture at this point of the season.
Arsenal need a win in this game to get them back on track. I expect them to get it even though it’s still a tough contest.
Prediction: Southampton 1-2 Arsenal
West Ham United vs Leeds United
If someone told these two teams they had to choose between getting into the semi-finals of the FA Cup or staying up in the Premier League, they would choose the latter all day long!
This is a difficult game to predict. I don’t see a lot between these two sides at the moment. Whoever wins this game, will get momentum for the run-in until the end of the Premier League season.
West Ham have a huge cup final coming up against Wolves next Friday. They need to win that game to give them the best chance of staying up. Leeds, who have a four-point lead over West Ham in the table, host Manchester United in the next gameweek.
Whoever wins this game, it will be big for the fans. But they will be playing the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on a weekend when their relegation rivals will be in action a league game. So I’m not sure if having an extra game helps in this context because the pressure will be on.
Leeds haven’t been scoring a lot of goals lately but I expect the shackles to be off in this game. I’m backing this game to go to penalties and then West Ham to nick the win in the shoot out.
Prediction: West Ham United 1-1 Leeds United; West Ham win on penalties
Edited by Paul Merson
