Its that time of the year again - winter chill in the air and dreams of a hot May day at Wembley feeling light years away.
Hopes & dreams are dashed or realised - the best draw of the season is this afternoon, I love it and can't wait!

Peterbourgh away to Man United...I can just sense it. Dad v Son and all that.

Hope we get someone easy lol

A home game against lower league opposition would do nicely, though a lot of those boys will be well up for it.

There's normally a big clash of the titans early doors....Chelsea v Arsenal would be good.
And I hope some of the minnows get a dream tie, like running out at Old Trafford or similar.

Reading at home a tuff game but not as hard as it could of been

It looks like we might be playing Johaldo's boys again, memories are still fresh in the mind of Alonso's half-way-line goal on our way to winning the cup back in 2006.

A fixture set for revenge travelling to Luton.

or:

A fallen European giant playing a very much alive European giant in travelling to Nottingham Forest.

Either are interesting clashes, although i'd be incredibly disappointed not to progress. We'll probably get a top four side next round mind.

United get a gift - they never lose to Villa apparently. Shame, as that on first glance seems a tough encounter.

The best game has to be West Ham hosting Manchester City - the latter aren't the best on their travels so it should be quite tight.

And if Horsham beat Swansea we're guaranteed a Non-League team in the Fourth Round..

Yesssss.
(only joshing Grandmaster Flood if you're out there somewhere)


Potential banana skin?


West London derby - come on you super hoops! Wesside.


Ah thats a shame - possible all non-league tie.


Hopefully a banana skin, but lets be honest, very doubtful.


Memories of a cup classic from a few seasons ago.

Atleast our draw is at home, happy with that.

Get your money on a shock exit for Arsenal. Burnley are playing very good football under their new manager Owen Coyle. Its bound to be a cold, wet windy day in East Lancashire (its like that in the summer) and Arsenal wont play their first team so a Burnley win is a possibility. In the past few seasons we have sent Liverpool, Spurs and Fulham out of cup competitions. OK so most teams can beat Spurs

Hahaha good one , tell me again what league are you in?

well, thats us out of it then

when are the ties being played? if we dont start getting some decent results on the board soon, we're going to struggle against Stoke.

I think its the weekend of the the 5th/6th Jan Tom.

ah right, cheers. should be enough time for the lads to wake up then.

Don't remind me, Burnley, Grimsby, Doncaster, Notts County....

sorry ..i dont waste money like that . i agree that Wenger may not play a full strength team but he will have a few regulars in i expect ...Cesc Fabregas , Clichy , Walcott ..etc . and we should have Van Persie back by then so he could also give him an extra game to get back into shape .

so an Arsenal win is the only outcome and a loss is just unthinkable really .

Nah, van Persie is still injured. He's the biggest crock since Aliadière at this rate. Never going to manage more than 17 games in a season.

Anyway, looking forward to the Burnley game. I think it'll be a tense and tricky opening but we should cruise it late on when the fitness levels show.

We will have two or three regulars in the 11 at WHL tomorrow maximum.

On an off-topc, does anyone find the opening credits to MOTD's FA Cup highlights package?

Still, never mind, Gabby Logans on...

i can't find the thread of burnley v Arsenal ~ so i'll just post it here ~ lol

nice match ~ burnley don't seem to make it easy for Gunners ~ and their keeper* made some saves earlier
but burnley player no 16* lost his best chance to equalize when player no 11 gave a good passing from the blunder by traore or who*
eduardo's goal's quite nice ~ he began to shine lately ~ and bendtner's hair looks like blooming ~ lol

*unable to recall the names ~ lol

Good win for us. Up North against a physical and passionate Burnley, who in truth played some very smart football with lots of forward-thinking.

They pressured us for massive spells, but the difference in class told. Eduardo was exceptional when he needed to be. Cool, classy and composed. The goal was nice and the assist was probably even better as he spotted the run and sliced open Burnley to assist Bendtner.

Eboué and Traoré were terrible and Diaby's lack of fitness told late on. Other than that we were very resilient and professional with our performance. Credit to Senderos as well who had a solid game and cleared everything that came his way.

Harley, Blake, Gray, Lafferty and Varga stood out for me and they can take a lot of pride from that performance. That with a decent atmosphere and a good paced game made for a nice FA Cup tie - miles more interesting than the tie between the two Premiership sides at Villa Park yesterday.

Is that Stan Varga by any chance?

Agree with that although I think Senderos was less than average too, Traore made him look like Cannavaro tho.

It is indeed

Thought he was solid as other Gooners elsewhere have been saying. Everything that came his way, he cleared superbly. Tracked his man well, distributed it from the back comfortably and was positionally superb. His best ability is how he can get himself in the right positions for intercepting or clearing shots/passes/crosses. He did it all day today and it was why Burnley could not really stretch Lehmann - they had one real shot at Lehmann which was just that, straight at him. Touré and Senderos were excellent as a pair.

Then I thought Traoré was disastrous. Giving the ball away in the 6yd box whilst trying to walk it out, passing it to Burnley 70% of the time and generally getting caught out constantly. It's why Hoyte replaced him.

I can only guess that you meant Touré in your post there Jono. If not, then .