The FA Cup quarter-finals get under way this weekend and there’s a good chance that this season’s competition could bring forth an unlikely winner.
Manchester City, Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Preston North End are left in the competition.
Of those, only City are a traditional ‘Big Six’ side, and they are the only team that has won the FA Cup since the 1950s.
Bournemouth, Fulham, Palace and Brighton have never won the FA Cup, while Preston last won it in 1938.
Villa last won the FA Cup in 1957 and Forest last won it in 1959, while City last lifted it two years ago in 2023.
Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have now shared who they’d like to see lift the FA Cup this season.
Jamie Carragher would love Bournemouth or Fulham to win FA Cup while Gary Neville wants Aston Villa triumph
Carragher and Neville both took part in the latest episode of The Overlap alongside Ian Wright, Roy Keane and Jill Scott.
The Liverpool legend acknowledged that teams going “too long without winning things” is “not good for the game”.
When asked by Keane who he’d like to see lift the FA Cup this term, Carragher replied: “I’d love a Bournemouth or a Fulham to win it”.
Meanwhile, Neville said: “I want Villa to win. I want Villa to win the trophy.”
The last time the latter stages of the FA Cup were this exciting
Most of the time, the last eight or last four of the domestic cups are dominated by the usual suspects.
However, every so often, the latter stages of a competition are full of teams that aren’t usually in the running for the title or multiple trophies.
This is what has happened this season, which is great to see as it generates much more interest in the competition than usual.
Back in 2008, the FA Cup semi-final line-up was especially exciting, because there were no conventional big teams – indeed, only one top-flight club was in the last four.
Eventual winners Portsmouth were the only Premier League club in the semi-finals, with West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City and Barnsley the other three teams left standing.
Pompey’s 1–0 victory over Cardiff in the final gave them their first major trophy for 58 years and their first FA Cup for 69 years.
It was also the first time a club outside the conventional Big Four won the FA Cup since Everton lifted it in 1995, while Harry Redknapp became the first English manager to do so since Joe Royle in 1995.
