English FA Cup Fourth Round Odds & Picks: In-Form Saints Entertain Struggling Spurs

• In England, it’s FA Cup Fourth Round weekend
• Southampton and Tottenham go head-to-head at St. Mary’s with Spurs slight favorites
• Arsenal visit Bournemouth in the hope of a cup run and the chance of some silverware

It’s FA Cup weekend in England, with 15 fourth round and one remaining third-round tie taking place between Thursday and Monday. Tranmere and Watford kick it all with their re-arranged third-round match on Thursday and then it’s all systems go for the fourth round with the usual array of David vs Goliath match-ups.

These games usually offer up some great value for the bettors, so we’ll take a look and see what we can find.

 English FA Cup 2020 – Odds

All odds taken Jan. 22

Pick 1 – Southampton vs Tottenham (Saturday, 10 am EST)

Tottenham start this one as favorites but it’s Saints who are the in-form team. Spurs is a club with a rich history in this competition and with their Premier League season looking unlikely to end with a top-four finish, this represents their best, arguably only, chance of ending the season with some silverware. But a tough task awaits.

Southampton’s season began horribly, culminating in that infamous 9-0 home thrashing by Leicester City, but manager Ralph Hassenhuttl has performed miracles to turn them around into one of the most in-form teams in the EPL. A midweek win away at Crystal Palace, in which the Saints were totally dominant, merely confirmed this.

Saints manager Ralph Hassenhuttl has performed miracles to turn them around into one of the most in-form teams in the EPL

Spurs, meanwhile, are struggling and the appointment of Jose Mourinho in place of the sacked Mauricio Pochettino has had little impact on the team’s fortunes, which haven’t been helped by the medium-term absence through injury of Harry Kane. Despite this being Tottenham’s best chance of success, it’s hard to see them having enough to overcome the Saints, who appear unstoppable right now and appear simply the better team.

Pick. Southampton to win +195

Pick 2 – Bournemouth vs Arsenal (Sunday, 2:45 pm EST)

Arsenal, like their north London neighbors Spurs, will also see the FA Cup as their best chance of winning silverware this season. And, like Spurs, they too have changed manager as a result of a disappointing run of results, with Mikel Arteta replacing the beleaguered Unai Emery in the Emirates hot-seat.

For Bournemouth, it’s been a season that started well but evolved into a steady decline that’s taken them into the EPL’s bottom three. A win-less run that stretched six games was only ended this Tuesday when they beat Brighton 3-1, a result they’ll be hoping will re-ignite their season.

These two teams drew 1-1at the Vitality Stadium a month ago, in Arteta’s first game, and little has happened since to tilt the balance one way or the other. While the Gunners have demonstrated more passion and desire since Arteta took the reins, results have only marginally improved.

While both teams will make changes, I can see this one being tight and potentially going to the replay that neither team wants, so the value here is very much with the draw.

Pick: Bournemouth and Arsenal to draw (+250)

Pick 3 – West Ham vs West Brom (Saturday, 10:00 am EST)

For very different reasons, both of these teams will only have one eye on the FA Cup this season. For West Ham, another EPL team who have changed manager over the first half of the season, their priority has to be staying in the Premier League, whereas for West Brom it’s a case of maintaining their promotion push in the Championship.

While both clubs will happily embark on a cup run if fate allows, neither club will want it to become a distraction to the bigger prize of a place in the EPL and so expect both managers to make changes to their regular starting XIs.

Both teams go into the game off the back of defeats – West Ham losing 4-1 away at Leicester and West Brom 1-0 at home to Stoke – so this becomes a tricky one to call. Much will depend on the bravery of the respective manages in their team selection but I go with the Baggies’ Slaven Bilic to edge on at he revisits the London Stadium for the first time.

Pick: West Brom to win (+285)