Quarter final cup date confirmed

Robles. Coleman. Stones. Funes Mori. Galloway. Deulofeu. McCarthy. Cleverley. Oviedo. Barkley. Lukaku.

With Howard, Mirallas, Browning, Kone, Pienaar, Gibson and Henen on the bench.

In all honestly Middlesborough is probably just as good as Norwich and we are at their place so we'd better be up for a fight. Can't wait!

It will probably be Lennon and Naismith though...

A cup-tie is what it is: sudden death, against whichever team you get drawn against. The best/luckiest team on the night will be through to the next round; it has always been thus.

Coincidentally, December 1st is the date an Everton side travelled to Old Trafford at the same stage of this competition; they were written off by many when the draw was made but due to Andy King and Martin Dobson scoring three times between them, Everton triumphed and went on to play at Wembley in 1977.

There is far too much angst and fretting about which team Roberto will pick and how the players will react in games that are scheduled to take place some time in the future. Take each game as it comes, judge each performance as it unfolds, and enjoy the ride whilst it lasts.

Cups can be won by any team against any opposition; the league, however, is a different kettle of fish... That is the competition where you need consistency of performance in order to gain positive results on a regular basis.

Question is: where the heck was he on Tuesday night? Eight changes but no sign of Tom. Not even on the bench... where he was sat all through the game at The Emirates, after having made his 'comeback' from that awful scissors tackle by Eric DIer two months ago, playing for 60 mins in the U21s against Schalke last week.

I wonder if he's suffered a reaction? I guess we'll know on Sunday lunchtime.