Everton’s penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea this afternoon -more on this game and other fixtures to come in the Cup Notes to follow- means they have duly qualified for the fifth round of the FA Cup. Congratulations to them.
More importantly for Fantasy Managers, this now means that the previously reported fixture upheaval has been avoided. With Chelsea now out of the FA Cup, their (already once postponed) fixture at home to Manchester United will stay in place and be played out on the evening of Tuesday March 1. United now keep their double fixture in gameweek 28 as a result, with an away trip to Wigan next weekend, followed by the Stamford Bridge clash days later.
Most will have probably predicted, planned and expected Chelsea to come out their fourth round replay as victors and see this double gameweek nullified; Fantasy Managers now need to prepare for United’s double, while Chelsea are back in the gameweek hat having dodged involvement in the dreaded “blank gameweek”.
Everton’s progress to the fifth round has no impact on their fixtures right now. They will play out their fifth round tie with Reading on March 1 – this will not disrupt their double fixture in gameweek 29 (new&BIR).
