Aston Villa will face Cardiff City in the fifth round of the FA Cup as we look to take another step towards winning silverware this season.
Villa have seen off Premier League opposition in the previous two rounds having eliminated West Ham Utd and Tottenham, and it had been hoped that we would get another home tie at least as we aim to extend our Cup run further.
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While we’ll certainly have to guard against complacency and be at our best when Cardiff visit, it has to be said that it’s a big opportunity to advance for Unai Emery and the players.
As per the club’s post, the tie will be played week commencing February 24, and so it adds to what is becoming a busy fixture schedule again with a string of Premier League games to consider, while we’ll be in Champions League action in March too.
Nevertheless, this is where the club wants to be in terms of challenging for trophies and reaching the latter stages of these competitions, and with the squad depth we have now, provided everyone can stay healthy, we have the capability of competing across multiple fronts.
Cardiff will undoubtedly arrive at Villa Park confident and hoping to pull off an upset though, and so having done the hard work to get this far by seeing off top tier sides in back-to-back rounds, we must not let our levels drop when that fixture comes around.
That game is now sandwiched in between trips to Crystal Palace and Brentford in the league, and so time will tell if Emery opts to rotate or go with his strongest available starting line-up, but it adds intrigue as we hope to build on our win over Tottenham this past weekend and make a real strong push in the final stretch of the campaign.