Arsenal 1-2 Watford FC - FA Cup Sixth Round

So many ifs and buts - who we'll play, when we'll play, where we'll play, but the nearest thing to a certainty is that with huge demand for tickets and not much time to organise things, the Watford ticket office will **** it up.

 

Yeah..worst case scenario there may be only 4 days between knowing our opponents and the actual match!

 

Going to be a nightmare getting the tickets out during the short period of time they'll probably have.

 

Shall I start a queue now?

 

Looking forward to this one either way.

Arsenal could still be in a with a good chance against Barca (COULD). The league is wide open and they have a great chance on that.. Surely they'd rather go all out for those 2. Playing Spurs and Barca within a week.

Not full strength, Capoue screamer and Gomes pen save on the cards infront of 7000 orns.

Or we get Hull and beat them 6-1.

 

I think if United were to draw tonight (not the most unlikely), the replays will be on the weekend of the 6th round, and our game against West Ham will go ahead as planned.

 

With West Ham also in the 6th round?

 

I'm not a fan of swearing in football chants, especially against opposition, as I feel it's often counter productive. However if Arsenal get through (a fairly sizeable if despite two of the BBC clowns saying Arsenal have yet another home draw in the next round like its a done deal) then I'd like to think our away support will be singing when we are 2-0 up in the 95th minute, "**** all, you're going to win **** all..."

 

And Europe.

 

When we've so far failed to take a singe point off of a top 5 club so far this season, you can't be too surprised if some Watford fans, me included, feel not too confident about our chances of going to The Emirates & getting a result. Our hopes might rest on Wenger leaving key players on the bench, but I can't see that happening in an FA Cup quarter final even if they do have a big CL game coming up.

Who knows, Hull are a good side, maybe can do us a favour.

 

Yes, because they play the winner of Shrewsbury/United.

 

Could that possible replay still take place before QF weekend though? As United could, techinally, be out of the Europa League by Thursday?

 

The Guardian are saying replay will be on Monday 8th; if so i would imagine that we could have the Monday 15th night slot (if there is one) for the QF in order to give as much time as possible to process tickets.

Edit - no, as they are playing Barca on Tuesday 16th. Organising tickets is going to be horrendous (similar to play-off first leg in 2013, where we didn't sell out our allocation) unless Arsenal are given leave to play the replay on the QF weekend. God knows when Arsenal (should they win) will fit the QF in - there is an international break (sigh) the week after, so that's 1 weekend and 2 midweeks ruled out. If improbably they progress in the CL they have 1 free midweek slot between now and the scheduled FA cup semi final, not counting the West Brom game which will have to be accommodated for the QF/5th round replay; if they reach the FAC semi final add a displaced Sunderland game to the list.

So to summarise, they will have to play a 2nd 11, or more likely, if they beat Hull, withdraw from the cup and hand us a bye. Yeah, right.

 

There won't be a quarter final scheduled on the same night as any Champions League games (whether Arsenal are in it or not) - as UEFA won't allow any other televised football in Europe on Champions League game days, and the FA Cup Quarter Finals will have to be televised otherwise BT/BBC lose out.

Only sensible solution is to bump Hull and Arsenal's league games next week and re-schedule them towards the end of the season. But football doesn't like sensible so expect them to choose the most disruptive dates possible to all.

 

So they are looking at a Monday night game - I reckon they will end up with the replay on 8th March.

 

I think this is why Reading played their 6th round tie on a Monday last year and ending up fielding a weakened team against us on the Saturday before.

 

But they're playing Spurs on 5th March... Can't see them agreeing to play on the Monday as well.

 

Monday is actually the 7th of March and it's the FA's preferred date for the replay. They don't want a situation whereby only 3 of the quarter finals are able to be played when they should. Furthermore, if the replay is over QF weekend and we eventually end up drawing our tie, when it is finally played, it will be very hard to find a replay date before the weekend of the semis. So it's very messy.

As I see it, the only thing that could de-rail a 7th March replay is if Arsenal throw their toys out of the pram and threaten to do what Man City did yesterday. The FA could then worry about the cup being in danger of being disabused by another big club, and bow to Arsenal's demands to play the replay on the weekend of the quarter finals.

If it is 7 March, my gut feeling would be that Arsenal will field a second-string side as it's 48 hours after Spurs BUT would then be more likely to field a very strong line-up versus us 5 days later IF they win the replay..otherwise their stars will be facing 10 days inactivity between Spurs and Barca matches.

 

Would be great if the club could organise an 80's-style 'football special' train up to Hull if required

 

In which case when would they fit the Arsenal/Hull v This Year's Winners tie in?

 

I suggest they play it international break weekend as Arsenal have more internationals than us lol

 

As someone already said. If we play Arsenal, the game takes place on the Saturday and on the Wednesday they have the second leg against Barcelona. They will almost certainly have a weakened team as long as they don't get thrashed in the fist leg.

 

At the risk of being pedantic, 8th March is a Tuesday

 

Wishful thinking to suggest we can beat Hull

 

Does all this mean the match won't be on live on TV, because of the doubts of where it will be played (and currently when), that would be a shame as that's extra revenue for us just to turn up!

 

I love that our biggest worry as a club is to what day Hull V Arsenal will be be


I love the Pozzos, QSF and our team :love2::love2::love2::love2:

 

Negative thinking to suggest we can't

 

If Arsenal and Hull replay on QF weekend, and then our mid-week QF requires a replay, then it really would be chaos.

I think they'll do everything they can to ensure Arsenal and Hull replay before QF weekend.

 

I honestly think it would save everyone a lot of hassle if the FA just boot Arsenal and Hull out and give us a bye to the semi finals.

 

Club have announced that due to short timescales for ticket sales for the QF tickets will be sold online only and there will only one priority category capturing all ST holders and FA Cup match day buyers this season.

http://www.watfordfc.com/news/article/emirates-fa-cup-watford-arsenal-hull-city-2968105.aspx

I predict tears, anger and lots of folk missing out.

 

I suspect that the FA will make the replay on Monday 7th and our quarter final on Sunday 13th.

 

Saturday or Sunday trains to Hull are already expensive. No trains on a Sunday morning either. Kinda hoping for Arsenal as will it be easier with such short notice.

 

We won't be playing Arsenal, as Hull will knock them out. Why does everybody think Arsenal will win the replay. They couldn't manage it at home, so why at the KC. I'm sure Hull won't make as many wholesale changes as they did on Saturday, especially as they will view a home tie against us as being very winnable.

 

Monday 7th would suit Hull as they play at Birmingham on Thursday 3rd March rather than the Saturday, presumably for Sky so would get 4 days to recover rather than the 2 Arsenal would have.