Villa held 1-1 by Wycombe in FA Cup 3rd round

Brentford boss Dean Smith takes on Walsall – the club who he left just weeks ago to take up the vacancy in West London – in one of those ties that the FA Cup always seems to mysteriously throw up.

The third round of the oldest knockout tournament in soccer kicks off this weekend with all 20 teams in the Premier League entering the fray.

The most notable of tournament newbies, though, is Jurgen Klopp-the German will make his FA Cup bow on Friday when Liverpool visits Exeter City.

Villa’s failure to win simply confirms the deeper malaise at Villa Park, and the fact Garde has inherited a desperately poor squad that does not look like it has what it takes to mount the sort of miracle recovery they will need to stay in the Premier League.

“I saw after the rain the pitch is not in the best shape”. “We played in their half, scored great goals, and created many chances”.

When a group of flag-bearing children walked behind the goal where Villa’s supporters were gathered, they were greeted by chants of “Sign them up, sign them up” before breaking into an chorus of “We’re down and we know we are”.

Peterborough beat Luton Town 2-0 in the second round. “They are defending with 10, 11 players behind the ball”. Holders Arsenal begin their bid to win the Cup for the third year in succession with a home tie against Sunderland later on Saturday, one of five all-Premier League ties which also feature Manchester City at Norwich City. Wenger said Thursday that Alexis Sanchez is not yet ready to return from a hamstring injury but midfielder Mikel Arteta is available.

United manager Louis van Gaal regarded the result as more important than the performance. But that would require the extremely unlikely eventuality of the Daggers reaching the FA Cup semi-final.

The potential for so-called “giant killings” in the third round isn’t as big as in many previous years.

Joe Jacobsen’s second half penalty earned Wycombe a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa this morning.