FA Cup Third Round Preview And Top Betting Tips – January 2023

While the competition may have lost a little of its lustre compared to the cash prizes on offer for the Premier League and Champions League, there is no doubt that the FA Cup is still a competition that gets the blood pumping for players and fans alike.

And there is no better weekend to exemplify that than the first weekend of the new year the traditional time when the FA Cup Third Round takes place.

With just 64 teams now remaining, including the 44 teams from the Premier League and Championship now entering the tournament, this is when the competition gets serious as the big boys come in and the smaller clubs hope for a lucrative draw and the chance of a famous FA Cup giant-killing upset.

Over the years there have been some incredible FA Cup moments and this year will likely be the same and fans and punters alike will be keen to see how the action unfolds over the weekend.

Bet365 Sport will be offering its usual extensive range of pre-match and in-play bets on all 32 games, plus there is also extensive outright winner betting available on the tournament as a whole (more on that below).

Liverpool are the holders of the trophy, having beaten Chelsea on penalties in last year’s final, the second year in a row that the Londoners have lost in the final at Wembley (they were beaten in 2021 by Leicester City).

Let’s now take a look at the full third round draw before we start bringing you tips on the key games.

FA Cup Third Round

Friday 6^th January

• Manchester United v Everton

Saturday 7^th January

• Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
• Reading v Watford
• Tottenham Hotspur v Portsmouth
• Gillingham v Leicester City
• Forest Green v Birmingham City
• Crystal Palace v Southampton
• Hull City v Fulham
• Middlesbrough v Brighton
• Fleetwood v QPR
• Ipswich Town v Rotherham United
• Bournemouth v Burnley
• Blackpool v Nottingham Forest
• Chesterfield v West Bromwich Albion
• Millwall v Sheffield United
• Boreham Wood v Accrington Stanley
• Shrewsbury v Sunderland
• Brentford v West Ham United
• Coventry City v Wrexham
• Luton Town v Wigan Athletic
• Grimsby Town v Burton Albion
• Sheffield Wednesday v Newcastle United
• Liverpool v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Sunday 8^th January

• Derby County v Barnsley
• Bristol City v Swansea City
• Cardiff City v Leeds United
• Stockport County v Walsall
• Hartlepool United v Stoke City
• Norwich City v Blackburn Rovers
• Aston Villa v Stevenage Borough
• Manchester City v Chelsea

Monday 9^th January

• Oxford United v Arsenal

All third and fourth round games will be played initially to 90 minutes, with a replay if the game finishes in a draw.

However, if the replayed game also finishes in a draw at 90 minutes, then the game will go to extra time and, if required, penalties to decide the winner.

From Round 5 onwards though all games will be decided on the day with extra time and penalties used to decide the winner.

All Premier League FA Cup Clashes

• Manchester United v Everton
• Crystal Palace v Southampton
• Brentford v West Ham
• Liverpool v Wolves
• Manchester City v Chelsea

Half of the Premier League will face off against each other in the third round with the Manchester United v Everton and Manchester City v Chelsea games the pick of the ties.

Liverpool face a tricky tie against Wolves coming on the back of a very poor performance in a 3-1 defeat at Brentford, while the Bees face West Ham in a game that they will be very confident of winning.

Manchester City v Chelsea is the tie of the round though and it will be interesting to see what teams managers Pep Guardiola and Graham Potter put out for this game.

You can back all five home teams to win their FA Cup games as a fivefold accumulator bet at bet365 with combined odds, at the time of writing of 12.81/1.

Potential Giant-Killer Clashes

It's all about the giant killings in the FA Cup third round 😍 pic.twitter.com/w0jBP01uLT

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) January 8, 2021

• Gillingham v Leicester City
• Tottenham v Portsmouth
• Hull City v Fulham
• Middlesbrough v Brighton
• Coventry City v Wrexham
• Sheff Wed v Newcastle United
• Cardiff City v Leeds United
• Aston Villa v Stevenage
• Oxford United v Arsenal

The games involving Arsenal, Spurs and Leicester are arguably the big giant-killing potential games, but I do feel that in each of these matches the Premier League side will win.

However, there are some games where I feel a higher-ranking team could be in trouble, that includes Championship Coventry who face Non-League Wrexham, Brighton who face a tricky trip to Middlesbrough and Leeds United, who have a difficult game to come against Cardiff City.

A giant-killer treble of Middlesbrough, Wrexham and Cardiff City to win would see you receive odds of 77.75/1 at the current prices with bet365 Sport (although these prices may change in the run up to the game).

FA Cup Winner Outright Betting

Now is also the time of year when many punters will consider placing their bets on who will win the FA Cup this season, so with that in mind let’s take a look at the current Outright Winner market for the competition.

FA Cup Winner Outright Betting Odds

All the odds shown below are from bet365 Sport and were correct at the time of writing, but may change over the course of the competition and in the run up to the games this weekend.

• 10/3 Favourites – Manchester City
• 6/1 – Liverpool
• 7/1 – Arsenal
• 8/1 – Tottenham
• 10/1 – Manchester United
• 12/1 – Chelsea, Newcastle United
• 25/1 – Leicester City, Brighton
• 33/1 – Aston Villa, West Ham United
• 40/1 – Crystal Palace
• 50/1 – Everton, Leeds United, Southampton
• 66/1 – Brentford, Fulham
• 80/1 – Wolves, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest
• 100/1 bar

It is no surprise that Manchester City are the favourites to win the FA Cup this year. The Citizens have a very strong cup record under Pep Guardiola and despite not winning the trophy in 2022 or 2021, they did last win it in 2019 plus they have been in great form this season in the main.

However, they do face a Chelsea side who have reached the final five times in the past six years, although they have won just one of those games and lost the other four, two to Arsenal, one to Leicester and last year to Liverpool on penalties.

One team to watch in this competition I believe is Newcastle United. They are doing very well in the Premier League but Eddie Howe will know that the Geordie fan base are desperate for a trophy of any sort and the FA Cup may offer them a very real chance of ending their long wait for silverware.

A good outside or each way bet is also Brentford who have won four of six games against the big six in the Premier League and who look very dangerous especially at home.

We will check back in on the fourth round action later on in 2023 once the third round has been completed and the draw for the next round has been made.