In-form Owls bid to cause upset as punters savour long weekend of FA Cup action

The FA Cup third-round long weekend offers football punters a sprawling buffet of tempting treats. Saturday features 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.30pm, 6pm and 8pm kick-offs while there are eight more ties on Sunday before, like a welcome indigestion tablet easing a bloated tummy, Oxford and Arsenal complete the action on Monday evening.

Manchester City versus Chelsea is one of Sunday's televised fixtures, even though they're meeting for the third time this season (and the second time in four days) but there could be zestier flavours to savour in Saturday's BBC games, Gillingham v Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday v Newcastle.

The Magpies successfully halted one of England's most in-form teams on Tuesday, holding Premier League leaders Arsenal to a 0-0 draw, and now they face a Wednesday side who have won their last three League One matches by an aggregate score of 9-1.

Since an opening-day 3-3 draw with Portsmouth, the Owls have conceded only eight goals in 12 home league games and, ignoring the gulf between League One and the Premier League, there are plenty of similarities between the cup rivals.

Both are hard to beat, with strong defences and managers – Eddie Howe and Darren Moore – who are rebuilding their reputations impressively.

Newcastle are hot favourites but it may not be a rout given Wednesday's fine form and the fact that only two visiting players have scored in the last six FA Cup ties at Hillsborough: George Lapslie of Mansfield this season and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero in March 2020. You remember him – that random bloke who kept getting in the way of Salt Bae during Argentina's celebrations after the World Cup final.

Leicester's pre-World Cup run of five clean sheets in six Premier League matches seems a distant memory as they have resumed the campaign with three straight defeats.

Surely, though, the Foxes can stand firm against a Gillingham side who have scored just seven goals in 23 League Two fixtures this season? That's an average of 0.3 goals per game in the fourth division.

The Gills' top league scorers this season are Elkan Baggett and Scott Kashket with two goals – for context, Leicester defender Wout Faes found the net twice in the space of seven minutes against Liverpool on December 30. Admittedly it was his own net, but it's still an impressive feat.

The 4-5 about Leicester winning to nil, something they've managed five times in the Premier League this term, against the bottom club in the EFL has been winking suggestively at me all week.

And yet Gillingham clearly find cup competitions a welcome distraction from their League Two travails. They knocked out mighty Brentford on penalties to reach the last 16 of the EFL Cup in November and have scored a princely six goals in four FA Cup ties against AFC Fylde and Dagenham & Redbridge.

Even so, I'm not convinced the 2,000-1 Gills will be joining 5,000-1 Premier League champions Leicester in the annals of betting history by lifting the FA Cup this season.

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