FA Cup Fourth And Fifth Rounds: Arsenal Draw 1-1 Against Leyton Orient; Manchester City, Bolton Through To Quarter-Finals

*You jammy jammy person you.

With Arsenal focusing on other matters (i.e. Barcelona and the league), they’re rested a number of the players that featured midweek, putting out a second string side that includes a central defensive pairing of Ignasi Miguel and Sebastian Squillaci. Orient do have a very real chance at pulling off an upset here, but Arsenal have their superstars lurking on the bench if things start to go wrong...

Leyton Orient: Jones, Whing, Chorley, Forbes, Daniels, Smith, Dawson, Crowe, Cox, McGleish, Revell.

*It was a really pretty hooking finish from the right back, too.

Before the goal onslaught, City had gone 2-0 ahead after Patrick Vieira had twice nodded home from corners, but Notts County had the edge in open play, hitting the post with the score level and generally giving a fantastic account of themselves. 5-0 is a completely bizarre scoreline considering the game itself, but County will leave Eastlands with their heads held high.

Bolton are off to a dream start in their FA Cup fifth round tie against Fulham FC, going ahead at Craven Cottage after just 19 minutes. Ivan Klasnic, who has seen his playing time in a Bolton shirt reduced this season by Johan Elmander’s surprising goal scoring record, is the man who put Bolton in front.

The goal came after a very long and odd build-up that included a lot of pretty play combined with a lot of scrambling by the Bolton defense. Stuart Holden, Lee Chung-Yong, and Kevin Davies played a great combination resulting in a blocked shot that eventually resulted in Bolton getting the ball back on their right flank. Fabrice Muamba took the ball and swung in a cross that resulted in a clearance, but Klasnic jumped on that clearance and blasted the ball into the back of the net to put Bolton 1-0 ahead.

One might expect the visitors testing the integrity of the woodwork to wake the host from their slumber - we’ll see if that was the spark needed to get Manchester City playing properly.

For the visitors, after being on the back foot for the first 45 minutes, they did themselves a huge credit by putting severe pressure on the Premier League side in the closing stages. The story would have been very different had David Hunt managed to guide his late volley towards the target, or if Matt Tubb’s overhead kick wasn’t deflected away from danger by Wes Brown, or had Crawley not wasted several dangerous free kicks. They even hit the crossbar in injury time thanks to a looping header from Richard Brodie with United keeper Anders Lindegaard stranded.

Chelsea and Everton have played 170 minutes of football so far in their FA Cup matchup, but they have been unable to separate themselves from each other thus far. This Fourth Round replay appears to be headed for extra time at the least, and possibly penalties. Chelsea have turned up the pressure in recent minutes, but it still doesn’t feel like they’re going to score. Though, the fans on both sides seem very tense, reacting very strongly to every little foul, pass into the box, or a look in a player’s eyes like he might be considering taking a shot.

It’s not an awful 0-0 game, but rather one of those days when the ball doesn’t seem like it wants to hit the back of the net. Chelsea seem like the much more likely team to score, and some fresh legged substitutes might help out in this regard. Michael Essien started this game on the bench, but has come in for John Obi Mikel. The Blues are without Fernando Torres, who is cup tied, and are resting some other players, but Nicolas Anelka and Josh McEacheran are on the bench. The latter player is probably itching to get into the game, should Carlo Ancelotti give him a chance.

It’s that most wonderful time of the season once more. The time where nobody really knows what they’re playing. Is it an FA Cup 4th Round replay? The 5th Round, perhaps? How about some Premier League action? My not-so-secret hope is that some team just gets thoroughly confused and shows up armed and on barded horses, ready to fight in the Grand Tourney of Shropshire. My secret hope is that it’ll be Blackburn that gets put to the sword, but alas, Villa have dealt with them already.

Time: 12:30PM GMT (7:30 AM EST)