{"id":79863,"date":"2025-12-09T08:45:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T08:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=79863"},"modified":"2025-12-09T08:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T08:45:03","slug":"2025-26-fa-cup-premier-league-clubs-draw-lower-league-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/09\/2025-26-fa-cup-premier-league-clubs-draw-lower-league-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"2025\/26 FA Cup: Premier League Clubs Draw Lower-League Opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola<\/p>\n<p>The draw for the Third Round Proper of the 2025\/26 Emirates FA Cup has set the stage for classic David-versus-Goliath clashes as Premier League teams enter the competition to face lower-league challengers.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and other top-flight sides will meet opponents from across the Championship, League One, League Two and the non-league ranks, creating the prospect of dramatic upsets that define the historic tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Among the standout ties, Portsmouth will host Arsenal, Macclesfield will face Crystal Palace, Wrexham take on Nottingham Forest, Charlton meet Chelsea, and Manchester United welcome Brighton.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City will play Exeter City, while Liverpool are paired with Barnsley and Tottenham draw Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>The fixtures will be played over the weekend of January 10 and 11, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>With elite teams travelling to smaller grounds and underdogs eyeing famous victories, fans are bracing for a weekend filled with suspense, surprises and the enduring magic of the FA Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola The draw for the Third Round Proper of the 2025\/26 Emirates FA Cup has set the stage for classic David-versus-Goliath clashes as Premier League teams enter the competition to face lower-league challengers. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and other top-flight sides will meet opponents from across the Championship, League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":79864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-79863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79865,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79863\/revisions\/79865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}