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Manchester United appeared to be the laughingstock of the soccer world on Friday night (Jan. 23) when the famous English club was held to a 0-0 draw in Cambridge by lowly Cambridge United. Man United went into the match in fourth place in the Premier League while Cambridge sat 76 positions below them in 12th place in League Two, which is the fourth tier of professional football in the country. Since there are 92 pro clubs in the land, we saw Man United ranked at number four, being held by the 80th-ranked side. In addition, Man United has won the English championship a total of 20 times in their history as well as 11 FA Cups. This is Cambridge’s first season back in England’s top-92 after spending the past two campaigns in non-league football.

However, Man United looked like champions less than 24 hours later when compared to Premier League leaders Chelsea and reigning league champions Manchester City, who were both knocked out of the FA Cup at home by lower-ranked clubs. Chelsea took a 2-0 lead at home at Stamford Bridge against Bradford City and then suffered the humiliation of a 4-2 defeat while Man City, who are currently second in the Premier League, five points behind Chelsea, were beaten 2-0 at home at the Etihad Stadium by Championship League (second tier) squad Middlesbrough. Chelsea had won all 10 of their home games this season and manager Jose Mourinho said his players should be embarrassed and ashamed of their performance against the seventh-place team in League One (third-tier).

To make matter worse for the overpaid and overrated Premier League players, third-place Southampton was also knocked out of the competition at home and fans also saw sixth-place Tottenham Hotspur and ninth-place Swansea City lose while eighth-place Liverpool could only manage a 0-0 draw at home to Championship League (second tier) Bolton Wanderers. At least Tottenham and Southampton were beaten by Fellow Premier League teams as Southampton was beaten 3-2 by 13th-place Crystal Palace and Tottenham was edged 2-1 by the league’s last-place team Leicester City in the last minute of the match.

The results meant four of the top six Premier League clubs were eliminated from the FA Cup while the other (Man United) has to engage in a replay at home against Cambridge and fifth-place Arsenal snuck through with a 3-2 away win over second-tier Brighton. When all was said and done at the end of Sunday’s games, just one of the Premier League’s top six teams managed to win (Arsenal), and just two of the top nine earned victories, as seventh-place West Ham managed to beat Bristol City away 1-0. It was certainly a day which saw many Premier League clubs embarrass themselves against second, third, and fourth-rate opposition.