FA Cup Quarterfinal Draws

Once again another giant has fallen. 

Add Manchester City to the list of clubs with an abundance of talent that will no longer be competing for FA Cup triumph. 

City joins Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United in the spectators' circle for the quarterfinal draws this weekend. So with four of England's top teams eliminated, it's truly any club's Cup to win. 

Chelsea v. Stoke City

While Chelsea stands alone atop the EPL table, the Blues are also the heavy favorites for England's coveted hardware. However, Chelsea does have to go through Stoke who has already proven to be a giant slayer. 

Stoke knocked off Man City 3-1 in a fifth round replay at the Britannia last Wednesday after a 1-1 draw at Eastlands the week before. One month before, Stoke stunned Arsenal by the same score at the Emirates. Now, the Potters wishful trip to Wembley must go through Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

There might not be a better time than now to paly the reigning Cup champions. Keeper Petr Cech is out for a month with a calf injury, and the Blues are winless in its last two matches. The most recent was an EPL loss to City, 4-2, at the Bridge.

Before that, the Blues were outplayed 2-1 by Inter Milan in Champions League play at the San Siro. 

Cech was injured during the Inter match, forcing backup Henrique Hilario into action. Hilario got the obvious nod against City where his performance was sub-par at best. Tevez snuck two past Hilario. One was a slow-roller that should have been saved, and the other was from the penalty spot where Hilario provided a half-hearted attempt to save it.

But even a mildly struggling Chelsea squad is not one to overlook, and Stoke knows that. Stoke knows exactly what it's going to take to topple a top-tier team on the road. After all, this could be third time this season the Potters have ousted a heavy home-favorite from Cup contention.

Prior to Stoke's 3-1 EPL loss to Arsenal this past Saturday, the Potters hadn't lost a match in 11 games. They last got tripped up by Birmingham, 1-0, in late December. 

While it's been Stoke's sound defending and relentless, direct style of play against higher quality opponents that's kept the Potters' Cup dreams alive, Chelsea has simply steamrolled through the competition. 

Through Chelsea's three previous Cup matches, the Blues averaged almost four goals a game and sacrificed only a single goal. If Stoke has any intentions of an upset in West London, the Potters will need imagination, creativity and more importantly, the accumulating and heightening confidence evident in Stoke's most recent pitch play.

Fulham v. Tottenham

Behind Chelsea, Tottenham appears to be the next best Cup favorite. The Spurs have only lost twice in its previous 17 matches and are currently tied for fourth in the EPL table with Man City. 

However, despite absolutely cruising through EPL play, Tottenham has managed to slip up a bit in FA Cup action. Following a 4-0 drumming of Peterborough, the Spurs have been forced to replay their draws against Leeds United and Bolton. 

Leeds, who knocked out Manchester United, scored a spot kick deep in extra time to force a replay following a 2-2 final at White Hart Lane. But for the first half of the replay at Elland Road, it seemed Leeds still had some magic leftover. After Jermaine Defoe lifted the visitors to a 1-0 lead, Luciano Becchio slammed home a strike past Heurelho Gomes for the equalizer.

But that's where Leeds' river of magic and momentum ran dry. After asserting control and maintaining possession for most of the second half, Tottenham was finally in sync. Almost a half hour into the second, Defoe steered home a low cross from David Bentley to break the deadlock. Defoe added another in injury time to secure his hat trick and a Bolton draw in the next round.

Once again, Tottenham would struggle. After trailing Bolton at the Reebok following a Kevin Davies strike, the Hotspurs needed to mount a more dynamic attack to make the game level once more.

Gareth Bale's run down the left roughly 15 minutes into the second half spread out the organized Bolton defense, allowing Defoe to sneak into pockets of open space on the pitch. Bale picked out Defoe in the center who promptly fired a shot home for the equalizer from close range.

Now, would Tottenham have trouble against the visiting Wanderers again? Not a chance. At the 22nd minute, Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his first of two and Tottenham did everything but slow down against a stagnant Bolton squad. An own goal and two scores later, Tottenham secured its quarterfinal matchup against Fulham with a 4-0 rout.

But as tough as Totteham's been all season long, Fulham's no club to be taken lightly.

The Cottagers haven't been beaten since losing two consecutive EPL matches in late January. Prior to that, they won five of their eight most recent contests, including a 2-1 Europa League win against Ukrainian side and reigning champion Shakhtar Donetsk at Craven Cottage.

But Fulham's attention has now temporarily been diverted away from the Europa and solely fixated on English hardware. And the only way to obtain it is to overcome the visiting Spurs this Saturday. 

Fulham and Tottenham have already faced off against each other twice thus far. The first outing at Craven Cottage was a 0-0 draw, but one month later, Tottenham snatched up all three league points at the Lane when Peter Crouch and Bentley burned keeper Mark Schwarzer for a 2-0 win. 

Portsmouth v. Birmingham City

It's been a tough campaign for Pompey. Portsmouth is dead-last in the EPL table and looks more and more like a lock for relegation.

But lowly Pompey does have one thing going for them, a quarterfinal FA Cup matchup. And a relatively favorable one against visiting Birmingham City.

Birmingham has pleasantly overachieved thus far, partly because of the sensational play of on-loan keeper Joe Hart from Man City between the pipes.

Blues manager Alex McLeish said about his 22-year-old goalie on Birmingham's web site, "Joe has played a massive part towards our success this season. Dave Sullivan questioned why I needed to sign another goalie, and certainly Joe Hart on loan, but I told him that we needed to move forward. The key factor in signing a goalkeeper of great ability is that he can save you points."

Hart has certainly done just that, leading the league in saves with 120. However, following a 15-game unbeaten run from late October to mid-January, Birmingham has returned to its reasonably mediocre form.

After upending Everton at Goodison Park in Cup play two rounds ago, Birmingham's lost three of its last six matches until a much-needed and well-earned home victory against Wigan on Saturday.

Sitting in sole possession of eighth place with 40 points, perhaps a quarterfinal win against the Premier League's worst club is exactly what the Blues need to get back on track for a legitimate push towards competing in next season's Europa League.

But now it's Pompey on the road. And as poorly as Portsmouth has played at times, it's a crucial Cup match, and Pompey isn't going to roll over for anybody. 

Especially with relegation on the horizon for Portsmouth, the FA Cup is all Pompey has left to play for. That and pride, but there's about as much pride in the Pompey locker room as there is faithfulness in Tiger Woods' marriage. 

Birmingham snuck past Portsmouth 1-0 at home in mid-August, but the two sides haven't seen each other since. James McFadden was the hero for the Blues with a penalty kick two minutes deep into injury time to solidify Birmingham with its first league win of the season. 

Reading v. Aston Villa

Villa's already had a taste of Wembley once this season and will surely be hungry for more.

After falling to Manchester United in the Carling Cup final last weekend, Villa has its sights set on another piece of hardware. It certainly doesn't hurt it's chances that it drew the lone Coca-Cola League team still standing, Reading. 

So, on paper, it should be a no brainer. Well, not exactly.

Reading's already stood up to two EPL clubs and survived. And it took a little late magic to do so. 

In Reading's third-round draw against Liverpool, the Reds threw a heavy lineup at the hosts, who stood strong and forced a replay. Simon Church gave the Royals an early lead 24 minutes in, until skipper Steven Gerrard leveled the game 12 minutes later.

Unfortunately, Reading had to travel to Anfield, a stadium that the Royals had never won in its history. When an own goal deflected off Ryan Bertrand passed keeper Adam Federici, it didn't appear that record would be broken anytime soon. 

But the only thing broken was the hearts of the Reds' faithful by the end. Shane Long went down in the box and was awarded a penalty kick deep into stoppage time. Gylfi Sigurdsson converted from the spot and left the mighty Reds bewildered and destined for extra time. 

Ten minutes in, a Brynjar Gunnarsson cross was strongly headed home by Long for a remarkable 2-1 Reading lead. Liverpool scuffed a handful of opportunities but failed to rally and gave the Royals an admirable victory on the formerly unbeaten pitch of Anfield. 

After Liverpool, Reading hosted EPL bottom-feeder Burnley, and once again a little late game drama proved to be the case. Sigurdsson guided a ball from Andy Griffin into the net in the 87th minute and sent the Clarets packing. 

While it took Reading two matches to advance through West Brom Albion in the fifth round, Villa couldn't beat Coca-Cola's feeble Crystal Palace in its first outing. 

But Villa stormed out strong and took a half time lead complements of dependable Gabriel Agbonlahor. Palace leveled the game in the 73rd minute, but John Carew provided two penalty strikes in the game's final 10 minutes to move Villa one step closer to England's finest grounds again.