Two Championship sides put a break on league action to kick off their FA Cup campaigns at The Den with Millwall set to take on Leicester City in the fourth round that finally introduces Championship and Premier League sides.
Despite sitting in the same league, these two sides sit in completely contrasting bouts of form with Millwall putting in one of their worst runs in recent Championship seasons. The Lions are closer to relegation than they have been for a handful of years with a gap of 10 points on the bottom three and a distance of eight points on the playoffs. Of course, this means their hopes of getting into the playoffs for the Premier League are far, far from over, but in contrast to last season, Millwall are in much worse form.
The club head into this FA Cup battle with eight wins, eight draws and 10 defeats on the board and a poor goals difference record of 31 goals let in and 28 goals scored off the back of finishing behind the playoff spots by just one point last season.
In fact, Millwall are behind Leicester City in first place by 33 points, although they have shot up the league in recent weeks with victories in a row over Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Bristol City. They also kept three clean sheets in a row in these games, and a 0-0 draw with Stoke City and a 1-1 draw with Huddersfield before that means just one goal let in from the past five outings since, ironically, losing to Leicester back in the league.
The defeat to the Foxes saw Tom Bradshaw get the ball rolling for Millwally, although goals from Jannik Vestergaard, Patson Daka and Ricardo Pereira won it for the league leaders. Kevin Nisbet also bagged for the Loons, but with 78% of the ball for Leicester, the club were by far the second-best team on the day.
As for the Foxes, it's been an excellent season for them, and the drop in form by Ipswich Town in the past month now gives Leicester a 10-point gap at the top of the Championship. In fact, it feels like they already have one foot immediately back in the Premier League, which is what a lot of people predicted.