Knowledgeable eyes will be on West Brom striker and this year's Championship League POY Kevin Phillips, who's been this far in the FA Cup twice before (1998, 2007). Untrained eyes will be fixated on the corporate logos emblazoned on the jerseys and think, "Hey! This isn't NASCAR!"

The other semifinal is Barnsley and Cardiff City. (It's tomorrow morning, but what are the odds I'll remember it then?) Neither of these teams have winning records in the Championship League, and yet, here they are, one game away from the Shiny Trophy match.

For those who aren't into all that "trophy winning" business, the morning also brings us Arsenal and Liverpool. The Gunners still have a chance to win the title, despite ties in their last three games. But they are a single point behind second-place Chelsea, and if Chelsea loses to Man City, Arsenal can move up a dilly in the standings.

Premier League
7:45 a.m. ET: Arsenal-Liverpool
10 a.m.: Aston Villa-Bolton
10 a.m.: Blackburn-Tottenham
10 a.m.: Fulham-Sunderland
10 a.m.: Newcastle-Reading
10 a.m.: Wigan-Birmingham
10 a.m.: Man City-Chelsea

FA Cup
7:15 a.m.: West Brom-Portsmouth

It must've been a rough morning for our pal David Hirshey. Not only did Chelsea get a 1-0 win when Didier Drogba scored in extra time, but it came at the end of a game that's been described as "rubbish football" and "cack."

I can't verify that this is true ... I wasn't willing to part with the $24.99 to watch it on pay-per-view, which is just as well. Even if Chelsea had won at the end of a game that was the complete opposite of cack, I wouldn't have felt like that was money well-spent. There was plenty of other cack on television for free this morning.

And in case you missed, here's the one cack-free moment from the game.

Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United [alastair's heart monitor]
Chelsea 1 - 0 Manchester United [Stubblog]

• Middlesbrough 2-2 West Brom. There'll be a replay of this one, too, as Middlesbrough just refuses to beat lower level teams in the FA Cup. West Brom, who are on track to be a Premiership team again next year, forced the tie with a couple of come-from-behind goals.

• Chelsea 4-0 Norwich. They struggled a bit in the first half, but the second half was an out-and-out Chelsea ass-beating. They were a little bit lucky to have the lead at the half, after the Canaries (I love that) hit the post, but poured it on in the second half. Wright-Phillips, Drogba, Essien, and Shevchenko were your goal scorers. Chelsea did lose defender Khaild Boulahrouz, though. He's out for about six weeks.

• Manchester United 1-1 Reading. Reading just tied it up on a header from Brynjar Gunnarsson in the 66th minute. About fifteen minutes remain.

• West Ham 0-1 Watford. West Ham was the only Premiership team to lose in the FA Cup today, and it came at the hands of another Premiership team. Watford is that for a little while longer, anyway. The good news for West Ham is that this particular loss isn't a league game, so their status as the first team in the relegation zone isn't threatened. They've still got that going for them.

• Manchester United 0 1-0 Portsmouth. Another game between two Premiership teams, and it's scoreless through about 70 minutes. Wayne Rooney just entered the game about minutes ago for United ... they've had the better of the play so far, but haven't been able to poke one home. Oh, they just did ... look at that, right on cue. Wayne Rooney with a right-footer from the top of the six-yard box, converting the cross from Ryan Giggs... I feel like I'm liveblogging.

FA Cup Scoreboard

• Sheffield United 0-3 Swansea. Here's everything I know about Swansea: they're a League One team, a full two leagues below Sheffield United, and "Swansea" sounds like a premium brand of canned tuna fish. They not only upset Sheffield United today, they kind of beat their ass. And it was in Sheffield's own building, no less. Sheffield did have a bunch of starters out, but still... it's Swansea. That's embarrassing.

• Liverpool 1-3 Arsenal. Liverpool are the defending champions of this little FA Cup shindig, and they lost 3-1 at the hands of Arsenal today. Tomas Rosicky scored twice for Arsenal, Dirk Kurt pulled Liverpool to within 1, and then Thierry Henry finished it off with this goal. Enjoy the low-quality video.

• Nottingham Forest 2-0 Charlton. This will be today's second example of a bad Premiership team getting worked over by a League One side. Relegation-bound Charlton was shut out by a team calling themselves Nottingham Forest.

• Tottenham to Wigan: Hey, we'll give you £3m for that defender that doesn't want to play for you anymore. Wigan to Tottenham: £3m won't even get you his autograph. Pascal Chimbonda stays with Wigan... for now. By the way, can you imagine if NBA GM's could just call other teams and attempt to buy their players? How many times would conversations like this one go down?

Isiah Thomas: Hey, I'll give you $10 million for your best player.
Other GM: No.
Isiah Thomas: Alright. $40 million.
Other GM: No.
Isiah Thomas Alright. $75 million for your 7th best player.
Other GM: Deal.
Isiah Thomas: YES!

• Fulham has made it known that they'll consider offers for their midfielder, Steed Malbranque. I'm saving up. Because one day, when I hire a manservant, I want his name to be Steed Malbranque.

• Chelsea wants to acquire Ukrianian stud Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan. Shevchenko says he's thinking of leaving because of "family issues," but hasn't formally requested a transfer. Chelsea will probably end up just kidnapping him anyway.

• Brentford 2-1 Sunderland. Plucky, courageous, valiant Sunderland was outplucked by a tiny little team a couple of leagues below them today. Said Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy, "They got amongst us, upset us and ruffled our feathers. We were guilty of schoolboy defending." That sounds kinda dirty.

• Bolton 1-0 Arsenal. Defending FA Cup champion Arsenal has been eliminated from the competition. They played today without Theirry Henry, Jens Lehmann, and a bunch of other guys I've never heard of, but who are probably pretty good.

• Charlton 2-1 Leyton Orient. It took a 90th-minute deflected free-kick goal for Permiership team Charlton to vanquish League Two team Leyton Orient, which kinda sounds like the name of a Bond villain.

Anyway, in the Premiership, they don't have playoffs, just a regular season. But along with that season, there are a few tournaments that have really nothing to do with the season, and The FA Cup, which is comprised of everyone from the powers like Chelsea down to teams who's best players also work in construction, is one of them.

Today begins Round 3, when the big teams come in play the little teams, which gives soccer fans what is kind of like a full day of #1 seeds against #16 seeds. As an example, Liverpool, the European Champions, played Luton today, which is kind of like The Boston Red Sox playing against the Inland Empire 66ers of the California League. Luton actually led 3-1 before Liverpool stormed back to win 5-3 to chants of, according to Pete, "3-1 and you fucked it up."

Elsewhere, Nuneaton (which is not an activity that I condone) managed a tie with Middlesbrough, Millwall tied Everton, and Rangers got a 5-0 win over Peterhead (giggle).