Mansfield handed plum Arsenal tie
The League One side Mansfield Town were rewarded for their weekend FA Cup heroics with a fifth-round home tie against the Premier League leaders, Arsenal.
Nigel Clough’s side, who beat top-flight Burnley 2-1 on Saturday, will welcome Mikel Arteta’s men to Field Mill next month for the Nottinghamshire club’s first taste of the last 16 since 1975. Clough, whose father famously was not able to win the FA Cup as a manager, has developed a giantkilling reputation during his own time in the dugout and led Sheffield United to the semi-finals in 2014 after disposing of Aston Villa and Fulham along the way.
Wrexham will also be licking their lips as Chelsea were drawn to face the Championship side, again at Y Cae Ras. Phil Parkinson’s team have enjoyed home comforts in round three and four – knocking out Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town along the way and there is sure to be plenty of media attention with the Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac likely to be part of the buildup.
March will provide a stern examination of Chelsea’s mettle, with their first three games of the month away at Arsenal and Aston Villa in the league before their Cup tie in Wales.
Port Vale and Bristol City have been given extra motivation to progress from their rearranged game, with the winners due to welcome Sunderland. The original fourth‑round tie was called off last Friday due to a waterlogged pitch at Vale Park.
Fresh from their Carabao Cup meetings, Newcastle will have an early chance to exact revenge as Manchester City will take another trip to St James’ Park. City powered into the League Cup final with a 5-1 aggregate win over the Magpies which featured a 2-0 first-leg victory in the north-east.
Daniel Farke welcomes his former club Norwich as Leeds were handed a home tie while Arne Slot’s Liverpool will travel to Molineux to face bottom-of-the-table Wolves.
Fulham will play host to Southampton, while West Ham will play Brentford at the London Stadium. Mark Dobson
Updated
One top-flight London team down, and another waiting in the fifth round if they can do it again tonight. Follow Macclesfield v Brentford here:
