The Cup Run: FA Cup Fourth Round - Will Grigg is on Fire

Oh hello there. Welcome back to The Cup Run! this week we'll be looking at one of my favourite competitions, The FA Cup! There's nothing quite like the beauty of the Cup. The crackle of electricity in the air when a top flight team has to travel to a lower league ground. The buzz of anticipation of a replay at a Premier League stadium. The possibility of a day out at Wembley. And of course, the absolute magic of a giant killing. It's an amazing competition, and still holds a special place in the heart of all football fans. So with only seven top flight teams guaranteeing themselves a place in the fifth round, and some juicy replays still to be had involving Premier League teams, who impressed us enough to be our Keep Calm and Carry On's? Who needed to be better and so has ended up with our Wooden Spoon? Well read on!

Keep Calm and Carry On: Wigan Athletic

Do you want a weird thought? This time 12 years ago Wigan were a newly promoted club, in their first top flight season, and heading for a tenth place finish, having just made their first major cup final after beating Arsenal in the League Cup semi-Finals under the steward ship of Paul Jewell. This time five years ago Wigan were in the Premier League, on their way to a glorious FA Cup win which would see them topple the mighty Manchester City in the final, masterminded by the current Belgium national team manager Roberto Martinez. The time since then hasn't been so kind. Relegated back to the Championship three days after winning the FA Cup due to a 4-1 loss to Arsenal (becoming the only team to win The Cup and go down the same season). They've also been relegated from the Championship twice in that time, finishing second bottom last season. 

However this season has seen a bit more of a turn around at the club. The appointment of Paul Cook who led Portsmouth to the League Two title last season, along with the clubs top scorer Will Grigg have the club sitting two points clear at the top of League One, and four points clear of the play-off places, as well as an appearance in the last 16 of The FA Cup guaranteed thanks to back to back victories over top flight opposition with the scalps of Bournemouth and West Ham being taken, as well as a brace against the Hammers for the competitions top scorer, a certain Mr Grigg. 

Wigan showed us why, despite some clubs top tier clubs are prioritising guaranteed Premier League money over a realistic shout at silverware in the most unpredictable cup competition in the world, the FA Cup is still a beautiful creature. It was the underdog showing up a team that has an affiliation with his tournament, and whose fan base perceive them as being a historic club. Yet it was the Latics that looked more like the top flight team here. They took the game to West Ham and didn't look like they doubted themselves for a second, flustering the 11th place Irons. Now (and here's why Wigan got the nod for this over Newport) this didn't look like the case of a chance goal securing a smaller club a memorable victory, or a replay. Wigan quite simply outplayed their opponents. More possession. More shots. More accuracy in taking the chances they were getting. It wasn't a weak team either that they played, fielding experienced current and former internationals in Pablo Zabaleta, Joe Hart and Javier Hernandez. Quite simply they were the better team, and looking at the game you might have thought Wigan were the top flight side, with Grigg being treated to chants of "Will Grigg is on fire" (not literally of course, that would be a health and safety nightmare) after the first goal, then the penalty which gave him and Wigan their second. A deserved win for a side fondly remembered by football fans for reminding us of what the cup is about half a decade ago.

Wooden Spoons: Liverpool

Two weeks ago Liverpool were the talk of the town. They had lost their best player to Barcelona, but the panic this seemed to have caused may have been premature. They did what no one else domestically had done so far this season and beat the seemingly invincible Manchester City. They had done what all the pundits and fans had all deemed increasingly more impossible. They had made god bleed. Now we're two games on from that famous Anfield win, and all of a sudden some Liverpool fans are calling for Klopp to get the chop. But why? Why would maybe the second most dangerous attacking team in the country be receiving such vitriol? Well they have lost both games since then, and for all their phenomenal attacking power and danger they are out of The Cup for the second season in a row at the fourth round, and have seen the most realistic chance of silverware they have this season disappear.


The thing is they just seemed really uninterested in their tie against West Brom. Sure Firmino got them a quick first goal, and everyone (myself included) felt that it was probably going to be a return to normal for the Anfield outfit, but we were wrong.

The Baggies banged in a quick fire goal then shockingly took the lead. Firmino missed a penalty. Chaos ensued. In injury time at the end of the first half Albion got a third, curtesy of a Matip own goal. Salah managed to claw one back in the 78th minute, but that was it. Now I'm not going to get dragged into the VAR conversation here (because this isn't the time or the place) but for all the whinging about it, it ensured the right decisions were made and the better team on the night one, regardless of what the stats say. The problem with Liverpool is two fold. For every Mane, Salah, Firmino, Van Dijk, and Oxlade-Chamberlain there's a Lovern, a Mignolet, a Moreno. Quite frankly the disparity in quality in the squad is alarming. If you take away Salah and Mane and Liverpool don't look as dangerous. Brining balance to that squad is going to be pivotal for next season  if Liverpool are realistically going to challenge for a trophy, let alone the league. Then there's the defence and goalkeeper. Outside of Van Dijk Liverpool lack a fit quality defender. Simply put it's all well and good having attackers that will bang in two or three goals, but if your defence seems to be able to concede three or four then you will never win any trophies. West Brom again showed if you attack Liverpool with the possession you have. If you hit them hard and fast they collapse at the back. As for Mignolet and Karius thye are not title winning quality goal keepers. They would honestly not make any other team in the top nine of the Premier League's starting eleven's. It's true. Mignolet has been shown to be a less than average keeper who only appeared to be good due to being first choice at the perpetual clusterfuck that was Sunderland, and Karius has not looked like a first choice keeper at all, regardless of Klopp's insistence or not. And that is why Liverpool are our wooden spoons.

And that's been The Cup Run! Do you agree with my choices? Who would you pick? Thank you for reading! If you've like what you've read please check us out on Facebook

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That's all from me folks, I will see you again on the 7th of February four a fourth round replay edition on The Cup Run!