Tottenham men drawn away to Wrexham/Sheffield United in FA Cup; Women drawn home vs. Reading

Both Tottenham Hotspur and Tottenham Hotspur Women will be playing in the fifth round of the FA Cup next month, and both teams found out their opponents today after the fifth round draw.

First, the men — Tottenham will be again heading on the road against a lower-division opponent, but they’ll need to wait for the winner of a fourth round replay between Sheffield United and Wrexham.

I think a fair number of us tuned in for at least a part of Wrexham vs. Sheffield this past weekend — non-league Wrexham was within a whisker of knocking off the team currently second in the Championship table at the Racecourse Ground. Sheffield was down to ten men but improbably scored off a set piece in added time to earn a 3-3 draw and a rematch at Bramall Lane next week. That will earn Wrexham a tidy sum of ticket proceeds, but will make it very difficult to advance to face Tottenham.

Either way, it’s a favorable draw, though Sheffield will likely be a much tougher test than Spurs faced against Preston North End at the weekend. Wrexham are, of course, American TV darlings after they were purchased by “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny, and if they somehow managed to advance, it would be undoubtedly the pick of the round and the banana peel match to end all banana peel matches.

By the way, I totally called this.

Unfortunately, apart from this potential one, this round was devoid of any really juicy matchups. Here’s the draw in full.

• Southampton vs Luton Town/Grimsby Town
• Leicester vs Blackburn/Birmingham
• Stoke vs Brighton
• Wrexham/Sheffield United vs Tottenham
• Fulham/Sunderland vs Leeds United
• Bristol City vs Manchester City
• Manchester United vs Derby/West Ham
• Ipswich/Burnley vs Sheffield Wednesday/Fleetwood

It was a similarly easyish draw for Tottenham Hotspur Women, who an hour earlier were drawn at home to Reading in the Fifth Round of the Vitality FA Women’s Cup.

Spurs have had kind of a rough time in the WSL and this is a top-flight opponent (in contrast to Spurs’ 5-0 flattening of London City Lionesses last weekend). But Reading are also struggling, and with Spurs’ recent acquisition of Beth England and Mana Iwabuchi, it would be disappointing if they weren’t able to progress to the quarterfinals, especially with the match taking place at Brisbane Road.

The big tie in this one is an especially tasty match between Chelsea and Arsenal. Here’s the full draw.

• Charlton v Birmingham
• Man United v Durham
• West Ham v Aston Villa
• Lewes v Cardiff City
• Tottenham Hotspur v Reading
• Chelsea v Arsenal
• Brighton v Coventry
• Bristol City v Man City