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Kepa Arrizabalaga to start for Arsenal? Can Chelsea bounce back? Bumper FA Cup quarter-final preview with Fara Williams

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In her latest exclusive column for TNT Sports, England legend Fara Williams looks ahead to the bumper weekend of football in the men's and women's FA Cup quarter-finals. Will this be Mohamed Salah's final appearance in the competition? Are Manchester City on course for a WSL and FA Cup double this season? The Lionesses icon previews the upcoming ties and offers up her predictions.

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Former England international Fara Williams will be providing exclusive insight and analysis for TNT Sports for the 2025/26 campaign. In her latest column, she previews the upcoming FA Cup matches this weekend. Will Mohamed Salah make his final appearance in the competition as Liverpool face bitter rivals Manchester City? Can Mikel Arteta afford to play Kepa Arrizabalaga against Southampton? Williams makes her predictions. Watch every quarter-final from the women's and men's FA Cup this weekend live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

Can Arsenal continue stunning 2026 form?

Arsenal have shown unbelievable consistency since the turn of the year. It was a similar story for them last season and it seems that the Christmas break does them the world of good. If the league started in December, Arsenal would be heavy favourites every single year.

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Arsenal have only lost the League Cup semi-final to Manchester United this year and, defensively, their form has been very good.

Despite playing such an important quarter-final against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, I still expect Arsenal to put out a very strong team for this cup tie because it’s all about winning trophies for that football club and they haven’t won the FA Cup for a while now.

I know that the players want to be back at Wembley to play the final.

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Looking at Brighton’s recent form, they only managed a 1-0 win over a struggling Leicester side last time out, and they didn’t create too many chances which has been a problem for them this season.

A big miss for Brighton could potentially be Rosa Kafaji who might be ineligible for this clash because she is an Arsenal loanee.

She has been in good form this season and has linked up very well with Fran Kirby so to see her missing out on this game is disappointing.

I think that Arsenal will be too good for Brighton in this game.

Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Brighton

Gap too much for Charlton?

This is an interesting tie. When this draw was made, I was really looking forward to this game. At the time, Liverpool were bottom of the WSL, but they’ve pulled away and picked up some key results in recent weeks.

Charlton have been sitting at the top of WSL 2 for most of the campaign, but they’ve suffered a recent dip in form. Their defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend means that they’ve lost three out of their last four league games.

Watch EVERY FA Cup quarter-final live on TNT Sports and HBO Max

For me, it would have been more exciting to see an in-form Charlton come up against a struggling Liverpool team.

It appears that Charlton are starting to feel the pressure of getting over the line in the promotion race. This weekend’s game will be a great test for Charlton to see what the leap into the WSL could be ahead of next season.

I see Liverpool progressing into the semi-finals because I believe that the gap between WSL and WSL 2 is still big, but it might be the most competitive match of the weekend.

Prediction: Charlton 0-3 Liverpool

Last chance saloon for Chelsea?

Chelsea head into this game with the bad taste of being knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal in midweek.

It would’ve hurt them because their focus in recent years has been winning that competition for the first time in the club’s history, and they still can’t get over the line.

With Chelsea out of the hunt for the WSL title and still fighting to finish in the top three in the league, they have to go and win the FA Cup.

For a Chelsea side who have been so dominant over the last decade, just winning the League Cup this season is not enough.

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I’m sure that the players will have this in the back of their mind and be saying to themselves: ‘Girls, this is a trophy we need to win.’

There are rumblings that this is the final season for a lot of players at Chelsea and retaining the FA Cup should spur them on.

If true, then those players would want to leave the club on a high because they would want to cement their legacy as mentality monsters. From what we’ve seen from the young and senior players at Chelsea is that they know how to win.

I also think it was important for Chelsea to show faith in Sonia Bompastor earlier this season by extending her contract and I feel that she’s the right person for the job for the rebuild ahead.

There is a big rivalry between the two London clubs but Chelsea rarely lose to Tottenham and that will be in the minds of both sets of players.

Prediction: Chelsea 2-0 Spurs

League and Cup double on the cards for Man City?

Manchester City have been incredible this season and are edging closer to winning the WSL title.

I think manager Andree Jeglertz deserves a lot of credit for his new ideas and the way he has handled his players. Vivianne Miedema has been in fine goalscoring form this season but she has also been managed correctly and stayed fit after suffering injuries in recent years.

It’s credit to the whole staff for keeping players fit for most of the season because they struggled in that department especially towards the back end of last season, and that’s where they saw the title slip away from them.

Not playing Champions League football has also worked in City’s favour as they’ve just been able to focus on games each week. I believe that European football has been a massive distraction for their rivals Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd this season - especially with the new group stage format.

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But it’s been impressive to see City make the most of that and kick on and they have been the most consistent team in the WSL this season. They are absolutely frightening in attack with multiple players contributing with goals which is really impressive.

In my opinion, Birmingham’s focus needs to be getting promoted to the WSL next season and anything extra is a massive bonus for them. The match will be a great test for them and give them a taste of what to expect next season.

It could allow the recruitment team to get a good indication for what is needed in the summer transfer window and increase Birmingham’s chances of WSL survival if they get promoted.

Prediction: Birmingham 0-5 Man City

Salah to bid farewell to FA Cup?

This is going to be a great game, and it will be really difficult to predict this one. I believe that form goes completely out of the window when it comes to these two teams.

With City out of Europe and potentially unable to reach Arsenal in the Premier League title race, I think it’s more important for them to win this tie and the FA Cup.

Liverpool might still back themselves to make a deep run in the Champions League this season and they’ll want revenge when they face current European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the next round.

It will also be interesting to see how both teams fare with this game coming straight after the international break.

I’ve read and heard rumours that Pep Guardiola’s celebrations after winning the Carabao Cup meant that it is going to be his last season at the club, but I don’t think that’s the case. I just think that he was delighted to beat arguably the best team in Europe this season in Arsenal at Wembley.

The focus will obviously be on Mohamed Salah after he announced that he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season and I’m sure he’ll be desperate to bow out with an FA Cup winners’ medal around his neck.

But I also suspect that this will be the last season for a number of Man City players and they will want to end their tenure at the club with another trophy. It’s such a tough one to call.

Prediction: Man City 2-1 Liverpool

More Blues for Chelsea?

It’s been a very difficult few weeks for Chelsea. With such a young squad, you are always going to get inconsistency with this Chelsea team, and a change of manager in the middle of the season will not help the players.

I didn't like to see Enzo Fernandez and Marc Cucurella talking about the issues at Chelsea during the international break. However, it is no surprise that the players would be upset with Enzo Maresca leaving because it looked like Chelsea were heading in the right direction with him in charge.

But they’ve produced some good performances under Liam Rosenior especially at Villa Park in the league when they came away with an impressive 4-1 victory. Even though they suffered a big aggregate defeat to PSG in the Champions League, for the first 70 minutes, they were the better team.

The problem was that across both knockout games, they conceded five goals in the space of 30 minutes which completely turned the tie on its head.

Chelsea fans are frustrated because under the former ownership, they bought ready-made players who were the best of the best and also signed the best managers to win trophies. If those managers didn’t deliver silverware then they would get sacked and new players would be brought in to deliver a winning team and mentality.

Now, the current owners want to go down a completely different route of trying to buy the best young players and put them on long-term contracts and hopefully the club can develop them and sell them for a big profit. This way of thinking has never resulted in a club winning the Premier League.

There needs to be a balance and they need to bring in players with experience into the team to help the younger players which will also be beneficial to the manager in the long-term.

Looking ahead to the game, I know that Port Vale knocked out an in-form Sunderland in the previous round but the pitch definitely played its part in that result.

Although Chelsea struggled against Wrexham in the last round, on their day, they can beat anybody and I’m predicting a comfortable Chelsea win.

Prediction: Chelsea 3-1 Port Vale

Will Arteta keep faith in Kepa?

The big decision for Mikel Arteta in this game will be deciding whether to play Kepa Arrizabalaga after his costly error in the Carabao Cup final.

It is a difficult decision, and I’ve been on both sides of the coin as a player and a coach. The issue is that you can’t have a player who will never play throughout the season.

From my experience with having one player for the league and another for the cup, goalkeepers don’t like it because of course, they want to play every game.

I’m sure that David Raya is thinking that he wants to play in the Carabao Cup final and also Kepa is thinking that I want to play in the Premier League or the Champions League.

When you look back at the defeat to Man City before the international break, it was a freakish mistake from Kepa for the opening goal in the final. People can focus on the error, but you can take a look at Arsenal’s approach to the game where they’re playing at Wembley and sitting back in a cup final.

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It’s ridiculous to suggest that the mistake was the only reason for Man City winning the trophy on the day.

Man City did the exact same thing by selecting their second-choice in James Trafford for the final and nobody is speaking about it.

If Arteta made an agreement with Kepa at the start of the season that he would be the goalkeeper for the domestic cup matches, it would be wrong to not play him against Southampton on the weekend.

However, I would also understand if Arteta believes that he needs to play his best XI because Arsenal need to win this game.

Arteta just needs to be honest with his goalkeeper leading up to the match. He cannot afford to lose the trust and faith of his players at this stage of the season when Arsenal are still challenging to win major honours.

Southampton should not be underestimated heading into this game as they have hit form at just the right time and they will be confident after knocking Fulham out of the competition in the last round.

Prediction: Southampton 0-3 Arsenal

Can West Ham afford to play a weakened team?

It is going to be interesting to see how both teams approach this game. Leeds have been dragged back into the relegation scrap with West Ham and it could be a preview to the final game of the league season when both teams play each other.

West Ham have played a second-string team in almost every round leading up to the quarter-finals so is Nuno Espirito Santo going to pick a stronger team for this one?

Both teams are one game away from a trip to Wembley, so I think they have to pick their best XIs for this one. I think it all depends on the team selection because if West Ham pick a weakened side then Leeds would be favourites to win this tie.

West Ham have been forced into extra time in every single FA Cup match this season and I think it will be the same on Sunday.

Prediction: West Ham to win after extra time (AGAIN)

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Watch the women's and men's FA Cup, Premier League and UEFA Champions League live on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

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