Skip to content

FA Cup third-round replays: Wins for Swansea, Bournemouth and Chelsea, says Charlie Nicholas

Generic Charlie Nicholas image 10/08/2016
Image: Charlie Nicholas predicts this week's FA Cup third-round replays

Charlie Nicholas provides us with his FA Cup third-round replay predictions, backing big wins for the Premier League teams on Wednesday evening.

The former Arsenal forward correctly predicted Wolverhampton Wanderers to trouble higher-ranked league opponents in the first meeting, but expects Swansea City to both prevail this time around due to home advantage.

Wigan are the only lower-league side with home advantage on Wednesday, but Charlie is expecting order to be restored with a Bournemouth win, while he's also back Chelsea to reach the fourth-round.

Here's what he fancies in his Sky Bet tips...

Chelsea v Norwich City (Wednesday)

Chelsea are unconvincing at the moment and I think Antonio Conte has been embroiled in too many things. I don't think there's any doubt he'll be on his way this summer, perhaps beforehand.

The substitutions of Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas on Saturday was strange and they'll make further changes with Michy Batshuayi in for the out-of-sorts Alvaro Morata, who I feel for a bit as pretty much every striker other than Harry Kane goes through these sort of spells.

Charlie predicts: 3-0 and Willian to score first (22/1 with Sky Bet)

Also See:

Chelsea's Italian head coach Antonio Conte gestures on the pitch after the English Premier League football match between Everton and Chelsea at Goodison Pa
Image: Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is under pressure heading into Wednesday's FA Cup third-round replay with Norwich

Swansea City v Wolves (Wednesday)

I thought this was going to be the tie of the round and that Wolves would have seen them off. They've gone into a bit of awkwardness with scoring goals.

I covered Swansea at the weekend and they weren't bad. We all know about their issues scoring goals, but Ki Sung-yueng was good in midfield and it tells the story that Ollie McBurnie is keeping Wilfried Bony and Tammy Abraham out of the team.

There was enough to suggest they are improving and I'm going for them to see Wolves off, with Carlos Carvalhal motivated by having a crack at the FA Cup.

Charlie predicts: 2-0 and Abraham to score first (35/1 with Sky Bet)

Wigan Athletic v Bournemouth (Wednesday)

Well after that sensational result at the weekend I think Bournemouth will be thinking: 'why can't we have a cup run?'

I know it wasn't that long ago that they won the FA Cup, but Wigan will have less interest as they will just be focusing on getting out of League One, while the Cherries can rotate their forwards and still cause problems.

Charlie predicts: 1-3 Afobe to score first (95/1 with Sky Bet)

Super 6 £1m jackpot
Super 6 £1m jackpot

Simply predict six correct scores to win Jeff's £1 million. Enter your selections for free here.

Around Sky