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telegraph.co.uk/ FA Cup fourth round: Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham live

SHAFAQNA –

14.25 Goal for Blackburn! From a short corner too, would you believe it? The ball is nodded down and Rudy Gestede hits a half-volley into the net from eight yards. 13 minutes for Swansea’s 10 men to salvage their cup campaign.

West Brom: Myhill, Wisdom, McAuley, Dawson, Lescott, Yacob, Gardner, Brunt, Sessegnon, Anichebe, Berahino.
Subs: Foster, Pocognoli, Gamboa, Baird, Dorrans, Morrison, Ideye.

Next up Cardiff v Reading.

Cardiff: Moore, Fabio, Malone, Turner, Morrison, Whittingham, Gunnarsson, Harris, Noone, Jones, Revell.
Subs: Wilson, Connolly, John, Adeyemi, Ralls, O’Sullivan, Macheda.

Reading: Federici, Gunter, Obita, Pearce, Hector, Chalobah, Williams, Norwood, Blackman, McCleary, Pogrebnyak.
Subs: Andersen, Kelly, Cooper, Karacan, Taylor, Robson-Kanu, Cox.

Chelsea v Bradford:

Chelsea: Cech; Christensen, Zouma, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Mikel; Remy, Oscar, Salah; Drogba (c).
Subs: Courtois, Terry, Ake, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Willian, Hazard.

Bradford: Williams, Darby, McArdle, Davies, Meredith, Liddle, Morais, Halliday, Knott, Hanson, Stead.
Subs: Urwin, Sheehan, Clarke, Zoko, Yeates, Kennedy, Routis.

Here’s how the line up at Derby v Chesterfield:

Derby: Roos, Christie, Forsyth, Buxton, Keogh, Hendrick, Martin, Hughes, Mascarell, Albentosa, Bent.
Subs: Bryson, Dawkins, Ward, Russell, Shotton, Mitchell, Warnock.

Chesterfield:

Naff off, Chesterfield. Here’s Man City v Middlesbrough:

Man City: Caballero, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Boyata, Kolarov, Milner, Fernando, Navas, Silva, Jovetic, Aguero.
Subs: Hart, Demichelis, Sagna, Clichy , Dzeko, Lampard , Fernandinho.

Middlesbrough: Mejias, Friend, Ayala, Gibson, Whitehead, Adomah, Leadbitter, Clayton, Tomlin, Bamford, Vossen.
Subs: Ripley, Husband, Omeruo, Kike, Woodgate, Reach, Wildschut.

Preston v Sheffield United:

Preston: Stuckmann, Woods, Clarke, Huntington, Buchanan, Welsh, Kilkenny, Gallagher, Reid, Humphrey, Ebanks-Blake.
Subs: Hudson, Laird, Wiseman, Brownhill, Browne, King and K.Davies.

Sheffield United: Howard, Alcock, Basham, Baxter, Davies, McGahey, Higdon, Reed, De Girolamo, Kennedy, Dimaio

And for Southampton v Crystal Palace:

Southampton: Forster, Clyne, Fonte (c), Gardos, Bertrand, Cork, Ward-Prowse, S. Davis, Tadić, Elia, Pellè.
Subs: K. Davis (GK), Long, Isgrove, Reed, McCarthy Targett, Seager.

Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Kelly, Delaney, Dann, Ward, Zaha, Ledley, McArthur, Campbell, Chamakh, Sanogo.
Subs: Speroni, Mariappa, Hangeland, Bannan, Puncheon, Gayle, Murray.

Nearly done now. Let’s move on to Sunderland v Fulham:

Sunderland: Mannone, Jones, van Aanholt, O’Shea ©, Coates, Vergini, Bridcutt, Larsson, Rodwell, Fletcher, Defoe.
Subs: Pantilimon, Wickham, Gomez, Graham, Alvarez, Giaccherini, Buckley.

Fulham: Bettinelli; Grimmer, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis; Tunnicliffe; Fofana, Christensen; Ruiz; Woodrow, Dembélé.
Subs: Kiraly, Zverotić, Burn, Roberts, Kačaniklić, Rodallega, McCormack.

And at last, Spurs v Leicester:

Spurs: Vorm, Chiriches, Fazio, Kaboul (c), Rose; Capoue, Dembele; Townsend, Paulinho, Lamela; Loldado.
Subs: Friedel, Davies, Dier, Eriksen, Stambouli, Adebayor, Kane.

Leicester: Schwarzer, Simpson, Morgan, Moore, De Laet, Drinkwater, King, Vardy, Kramaric, Schlupp, Ulloa.
Subs: Hamer, Konchesky, Albrighton, Cambiasso, Knockaert, Wasilewski, Nugent.

14.05 We have team news coming in. Bear with me a moment…

13.50 OK Arsenal fans, are you excited about the return of Mesut Oezil? Apparently he’s bulked up, like the Hulk (not Hulk) or something. Here’s what Jeremy Wilson has to say:

Arsenal’s £42 million record signing has spent plenty of time in the gym since having ligament damage after the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea back in October, and has noticeably added greater muscle to his upper body during his rehabilitation. The other big change in his absence has been the emergence of Alexis Sánchez as the outstanding individual in an Arsenal team who have often played a modified system that does not include a specialist No 10 behind the main central striker.

Read the full story here.

13.41 The BBC appear to have be combing Dalston for their pundits. No way this hipster, with such a magnificent beard, is Iwan Roberts.

13.35 It’s once again a disappointing crowd at an FA Cup tie though. Tickets were a maximum of £20 for this one too. At half-time it’s Blackburn 1-1 Swansea.

13.32 This really was a cracker.

13.15 Whew, what a start to the day. But what else do we have in store? Well we’ve got a good chance of an upset at St. Andrew’s, I reckon, where Birmingham have been in decent form this season and face West Brom, whose manager, Tony Pulis, has been given a remit solely to keep his side in the Premier League.

At Stamford Bridge, promotion-chasing Bradford probably don’t stand much of a chance against Jose Mourinho’s killing machine. Still, it might be a good opportunity to to reacquaint ourselves with what the likes of Mohamed Salah and Andre Schurrle look like. Remember them? Sure you do.

Manchester City are setting themselves up for a fall at home to Middlesbrough. They only got back from their jaunt over to the Emirates at around 6pm yesterday evening and are, of course, without Yaya Toure and Wilfried Bony. Sergio Aguero is still looking for fitness and David Silva was, last weekend, schackled well by a defensive midfielder who was recently playing Championship football for Charlton. As a City fan, I’m fearful.

Staying in the north, Preston take on cup specialists Sheffield United, who seem more likely to qualify for the Europa Legue next season than ever haul themselves out of League One.

There are two all-Premiership ties that, by virtue of being all-Premiership ties, nobody cares about: they are Spurs v Leicester and Southampton v Crystal Palace. There is also a third League One side — Chesterfield — in action at Derby, where it will be interesting to see if either side goes all out with both of them in contention for promotion from their respective tiers. Cardiff v Reading is an all-Championship meeting and Sunderland v Fulham probably will be next season.

I’ll have all the news and whatnot as it comes in, as well as updates from the other games around the country. You’ll also notice there’s no transfer window liveblog today, so this will function as that too, as it were. Finally Northampton are playing Racing Metro in the rugby today, which I’ll have on in the background.

Sit tight, folks. It’s going to be a busy one.

Goal13.11 Ah hold on, it’s 1-1, Chris Taylor with an immediate reply tapping in from close range.

Goal13.02 Afternoon folks. The first thing to mention is that Gylfi Sigurdsson has scored an absolute screamer from 30 yards for Swansea to put them 1-0 up at Blackburn.

12.54 Dan will be here imminently, but some exciting news from the early kick off (it’s Blackburn v Swansea, do keep up), as Kyle Bartley of Swansea is sent off for a professional foul. The weekend’s first upset is absolutely on.

12.00 Dan Lucas will be right here waiting for you like so many Richard Marx songs from 15.00. In the meantime, why not get into the mood for an afternoon of FA Cup thrills by reading the always-thrilling words of Manuel Pelligrini. He’s taking this competition very seriously indeed, thanks. Luke Edwards will tell you more:

Manuel Pellegrini has defended the decision to fly Manchester City’s players back from a warm weather training camp in Abu Dhabi just 24 hours before they face Middlesbrough in the FA Cup.

City have been training in Abu Dhabi this week and only embarked on their seven-hour return flight at 11am on Friday morning.

Although teams often fly the day before a game when competing in Europe, the length of the journey back from the United Arab Emirates makes the late return far more risky. Although long flights are common for most Premier League footballers, they would not normally be expected to play a game so soon after landing.

The City squad were not due to land at Manchester Airport until 6pm and Pellegrini could be accused of failing to show either Middlesbrough or the FA Cup proper respect. Should City slip up at the Etihad Stadium, the Chilean will be open to attack.

Asked whether he had taken a risk by choosing to spend an extra day in the sunshine, Pellegrini dismissed any accusation of complacency.

“No I don’t think so,” he said. “We have prepared for it and we will arrive back at the City Football Academy and have our pre-match meeting there. The way the hours differ and direction we fly across time zones will help too.

“We analysed this before we decided to come here. There is just four hours [time] difference, which we gain, so we don’t have any jet lag. I don’t think we will have any problems.

“We came to Abu Dhabi to have a break and do a different kind of work. We play a lot of games in January, and it has been very useful for the team to come here. I hope when we return we will see the benefit of it.”

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