FA Cup Classic - Manchester United v Arsenal

A salivating prospect awaits in the FA Cup, as two titans of the English Premier League in Arsenal and Manchester United battle it out at Old Trafford in a Saturday night special.

Manchester United will be breathing fire on Saturday night; their loss to Manchester City in the Derby left them desolate as the occasion got the better of them. They will want to atone for their efforts, but they face an Arsenal side in top form. They regain the services of suspended duo Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra; both were severely missed against City, while eternally injured Frenchman Luis Saha is available after a knee injury threatened to curtail his season. As the undisputed FA Cup kings, they have been involved in three of the last four finals, though they have not won since their cup run of 2004. To be successful tonight, the widely vaunted trio of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez will need to regain the attacking form that propelled the Red Devils to the top of the table.

Arsenal is already in the process of gathering a sizeable point's advantage over United in the Premier League, and they would love nothing more to outplay them on the Red Devils home turf in the FA Cup. The Gunners will regain the services of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue from the African Cup of Nations, but Gael Clichy, Theo Walcott and Bacary Sagna will all miss this match while Philippe Senderos is in doubt. Alex Ferguson has already expressed concern over the aerial threat that Emmanuel Adebayor possesses and coupled with the midfield threats of Alexander Hleb and Cesc Fabregas, the United defense will have to stamp their authority on the game early to try and quell the offensive risk early on.

This match could go either way and will most likely deny the hype and fizzle out into a draw, but the odds for Arsenal are juicy for a team that has only been beaten once in their last sixteen matches. You can find odds of $3.75 at PartyBets for the league leaders.

The other value match of the week involves high flying Portsmouth taking on Championship battler Preston North End at Deepdale in a classic cup encounter between a Premier League club and an underdog with nothing to lose.

Portsmouth come into this game clear favorites but they will have to show up with intent to work hard if they want to beat the championship battler as Preston already has dealt with Premiership teams this campaign. Influential centre half Sylvain Distin is likely to return alongside pacy Glen Johnson, but Jermaine Defoe is cup-tied and David Healy is still unavailable, which will most likely mean that Nwankwo Kanu and Milan Baros will start in attack. Pompey will be looking to advance to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2004, whilst protecting their record of never having beaten by lower ranked opposition since 2002. Portsmouth is in the dire situation of having sold their most prolific striker, yet without having an obvious replacement. The closest on the score charts to former striker Benjani is the foursome of Niko Kranjcar, Sully Muntari, John Utaka and Nwankwo Kanu all tied on four goals.

Preston North End find themselves in the pleasing situation of a longer cup run than many expected, but they will have to put an impressive performance together to have any chance against the quality opposition that they face. They will be missing the services of key defender Sean St Ledger who will most likely be replaced by Youl Mawene, while newly acquired defender Neal Trotman is cup-tied. They have been in decent form, having won five of their last ten games, but they lie on the precipice of relegation to league one after having been woeful in attack all season. To have any chance of back-to-back victories over Premiership teams, their leading scorers (all tied on five goals) of Karl Hawley, Simon Whaley and Neil Mellor will have to be on the top of their games.

The FA Cup is often publicized as romantic with the underdog often coming out on top, but in this contest I just can't see any other result than a Portsmouth Victory. I would take the odds of $1.88 which is available at PartyBets.

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