Five things learned from the FA Cup

Manchester United laid down their claims for this season’s trophy when beating Wigan at Old Trafford courtesy of a 4-0. The Red Devils gave a starting slot to a host of fringe players, but they showed their worth by getting the job done in style, with Fellaini, Smalling, Mikhitaryan and Schweinsteiger on the scoresheet.

To fight the good fight in both league and cup, you need a deep pool of talented players at your disposal, including fringe men who are ready and able to step up to the mark when called upon. We have seen many times in the past favourites going out when their young-guns choke. For evidence of this see Liverpool. United, however, look to have real strength in depth.

Chelsea seeing double

Another example of the worth of a big squad is Chelsea, who slipped past a potential banana skin fixture against Brentford, without incident. Oozing class at Stamford Bridge, Willian broke the deadlock on 14-minutes, and that opened the floodgates.

Pedro, Ivanovic and Batshuayi finished the match with goals and manager Antonio Conte knows now that he has plenty in reserve, should he need it. The Blues had a real energy about them on Saturday and, based on that first-half display, they could have scored plenty more and made a mockery of the match. They demonstrated the class of champions by knowing when their opponent was done.

Liverpool look licked

If we didn’t know it already, it was certainly one of the main things learned from the weekend, and that was that Liverpool look to have run their race this season. After losing to Swansea in the league, they were knocked out of the EFL Cup at the semi-final stage by Southampton, before Klopp and co saw their unconvincing FA Cup challenge squashed by Wolves.

The Reds look devoid of confidence at the moment and we saw that, as an attacking force, they show no self-belief, too easily picking a safe backwards pass over a more aggressive forward one. Beaten 2-1 by Wolves on Saturday, Liverpool were behind inside 60-seconds and only hit back through Origi once the match was over as a contest.

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