{"id":276,"date":"2026-04-03T14:40:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=276"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:40:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:40:47","slug":"merson-makes-prediction-for-all-the-fa-cup-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=276","title":{"rendered":"Merson makes prediction for all the FA Cup quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal legend Paul Merson has predicted the outcome of all the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend, including Man City versus Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Man City<\/strong> beat Arsenal in <strong>the Carabao Cup final<\/strong> before the international break, while <strong>Liverpool<\/strong> lost 2-1 to Brighton in the Premier League as Arne Slot\u2019s side continue to struggle.<\/p>\n<p>The win for over the Gunners could now give Man City the confidence to push on in the Premier League with leaders Arsenal nine points ahead, but the Citizens have a game in hand and still have to play Mikel Arteta\u2019s side at the Etihad Stadium later this month.<\/p>\n<p>But their attention turns to another domestic cup competition over the weekend as they host Liverpool at the Etihad in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal legend Merson thinks it is tricky one to call but is predicting 2-1 win to Man City as they look to make it two wins in a row against Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p>Merson told <em>Sportskeeda<\/em>: \u201cThis is such a hard game to predict. I was at Wembley and saw Manchester City beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Premier League\u2019s latest move is a cause for celebration \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t benefit fans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cArsenal were terrible in that game, they couldn\u2019t get out after the first 15 minutes. But I also don\u2019t remember Kepa being forced to make any big saves at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I watch Liverpool, sometimes they are good and the other times, they are completely and utterly out of it. Just look at the second leg against Galatasaray.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiverpool won that game quite comfortably and then looked poor in the loss to Brighton. Consistency is non-existent at Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0b629b85ba2abe5ff39df9829ee5fb57\" image-id=\"mcfcssAAUPWJ\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it will come down to what version of Liverpool will turn up in this game at the Etihad on Saturday. Liverpool have a big week or two coming up. If they are not careful, their season could be all over!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though Liverpool have their Champions League quarter-final against PSG coming up on Wednesday, I expect Arne Slot to field his best eleven here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, Liverpool have a better chance of winning the FA Cup than the Champions League. So I would say they should go all in this weekend and then take it from there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMohamed Salah should return to the line-up for this game. I know he hasn\u2019t been at his best this season, but he will do something magical before he leaves Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: \u2018De Zerbi alla Ferguson\u2019 \u2013 Tottenham give full rein to \u2018manager\u2019 as extraordinary sense prevails<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat performance is surely around the corner! I would go with Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz to partner Salah in attack here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlorian Wirtz struggled badly in the league game against City at the Etihad. But I got no doubt that he will become a superstar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust give him a year, he just needs time to settle down before he can replicate what he did with Leverkusen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cManchester City did not look like world-beaters during the cup final win over Arsenal. Pep Guardiola is expected to stick with Jeremy Doku, who was brilliant against Liverpool earlier this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not a foregone conclusion that Manchester City will win this game. The battle in the wide areas between Doku and Jeremie Frimpong, and Nico O\u2019Reilly up against Salah could be where this game is won and lost!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis could go any way, but I\u2019m backing Manchester City simply because of how inconsistent Liverpool have been this season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merson admitted that he \u201ccan\u2019t see anything but a Chelsea win\u201d as they face Port Vale in another of the FA Cup quarter-finals despite it being an \u201cundoubtedly a great moment\u201d for the League One\u2019s bottom club, who he reckons will lose 3-0.<\/p>\n<p>The Arsenal legend reckons the Gunners will be in for \u201ca difficult game\u201d against Southampton in their FA Cup clash, because of fitness issues, but is predicting a 2-1 win to his former side.<\/p>\n<p>Two Premier League sides, West Ham and Leeds United, face at the London Stadium in the final quarter-final and Merson has called a 1-1 draw before the Hammers win on penalties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: Rosenior sacked for Xabi Alonso as broken Chelsea fixed for profit in four easy moves<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal legend Paul Merson has predicted the outcome of all the FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend, including Man City versus Liverpool. Man City beat Arsenal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}