Saturday’s FA Cup Accumulator Tips

It is FA Cup fifth round weekend and the four matches on Saturday get underway with a London derby when Premier League side Crystal Palace play host to Championship outfit Millwall.

Both of these teams have been in decent enough form in their division recently. Palace have won their last two matches, including an emphatic win over Aston Villa in midweek, while Millwall have won five of their last eight and lost just one of their last nine.

Palace should be expected to win the game. They have that little extra star quality. Oliver Glasner has taken this competition seriously but in an early kick off the goals may not flow like they did in midweek.

Only one of the last 30 Millwall games have gone over 4.5 goals while the midweek win was the only time other than in games against Arsenal that Palace have gone over so a low scoring home win appeals here.

There is one all-Championship affair in the FA Cup on Saturday and it comes from Deepdale where East Lancashire rivals Preston North End and Burnley collide in a game which the season so far suggests could be devoid of goals.

It is well known that Burnley have only conceded nine times in 34 Championship outings this term and even Premier League side Southampton failed to breach a much changed Clarets side in the previous round.

Preston don’t concede many either though and perhaps more interestingly they don’t score too many, neither it has to be said do Burnley, despite putting Sheffield Wednesday to the sword last weekend.

These two have met twice in the league this term and we haven’t seen a goal and in fact, four of the last five have seen under 2.5 land. That looks likely to continue with neither side free scoring and both solid at the back.

The only all-Premier League tie on Saturday afternoon sees AFC Bournemouth hosting Wolverhampton Wanderers for the second weekend in succession after the two met in the league seven days previously.

Wolves won that match 1-0 but it is open to debate how much we can take from that because the Cherries were reduced to 10 men in the first half which understandably had a huge impact on their performance.

Bournemouth followed that up with a loss to Brighton in midweek so there is a bit of pressure on them here. Wolves can attack this one with a bit of freedom away from their league campaign.

The better bet here could be for Matheus Cunha to have a shot on target. Bournemouth are missing some defensive firepower and the Brazilian hit the target on this ground a week ago. He averages 1.47 shots on target per 90 in the Premier League and has 13 goals from just 6.74xG this term.

He doesn’t need to be right in front of goal to hit the target but as Wolves’ main man we can expect him to test the keeper here.

The last game in the FA Cup on Saturday comes from the Etihad Stadium where Plymouth Argyle will look to continue their giant killing exploits when the Championship side take on Manchester City for a spot in the quarter final.

The run that Plymouth have had has been a fairytale ride. They have seen off Premier League teams in Brentford and Liverpool but their run surely ends here.

In those matches, both 1-0 wins, albeit against much changed XIs, Argyle registered xG tallies of 0.28 and 1.29 although the latter is reduced to 0.50 if you take non-penalty chances out of it. They had two shots on target in each game and created just the one big chance in total.

Ordinarily, the Pilgrims might be getting a heavily rotated City side here but with the Premier League outfit really only in the running for this trophy now you would imagine that is unlikely.

Pep Guardiola’s men have had their issues defensively but they face an attack which in 34 Championship matches this term have registered an xG total of just 29.6 and in 17 away games in the league they have scored just six goals.

This could well be a mismatch but it is a game City should win without conceding.