Somehow, amid all the carnage in this season’s FA Cup, with top-flight teams vanishing in near-unprecedented numbers early on, we are still on track for a repeat of last year’s Wembley yawn-fest after Manchester United and Chelsea were kept apart in lunchtime’s quarter-final draw.

The two finalists from 2007, and the last two big clubs left, will strongly fancy their chances of reaching the semi-finals. United’s reward for thrashing Arsenal on Saturday is a home tie with Portsmouth.

True, Harry Redknapp’s side are well-fancied outsiders and the third-best team left in the competition, but at home, United will expect victory – which would disappoint the large number of neutrals hoping for Redknapp’s attractive side to break the “Big Four” strangehold and win the Cup for the first time since 1939. United beat Portsmouth 2-1 in the fourth round last year with two goals from Wayne Rooney and a late reply from Kanu. Portsmouth have not beaten United at Old Trafford since 1957.

Chelsea travel to Barnsley in the most intriguing tie of the round. Simon Davey’s giantkillers are well rewarded for their win at Anfield. And at last, the holders have to travel to a lower-league club, ending their long streak of cushy home ties against lowly opposition. They won’t need reminding at Oakwell that the last time the Blues visited, in the Premier League in 1997-98, Chelsea won 6-0.

Sheffield United or Middlesbrough host Cardiff City, a tough one for Dave Jones’s side whoever wins the replay, but a draw that will have Gareth Southgate eyeing up a trip to Wembley, especially since he has less to worry about now that Middlesbrough look increasingly stable in the league.

Bristol Rovers, conquerors of Southampton on Saturday, are at home to another Coca-Cola Championship side, West Bromwich Albion. It’ll provoke mixed emotions in the West Country: while not a glamour tie, it gives Paul Trollope’s men genuine hope of emulating Wycombe Wanderers and reaching the semi-finals as a third-tier club. It also guarantees a lower-league side in the last four: well deserved representation after the Football League’s stirling showing in this season’s tournament.

And at least the various controversies over which matches were and weren’t selected for live television coverage is over: from now on, they all are.

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