When Sheffield United drew Southampton back in October, it looked like a bit of a mis-match - Ronald Koeman's side were second in the Premier League, looking in fine form, and clearly Sheffield would be no match. You would still expect Koeman's side to come out on top on Tuesday night, but with his side's bad form of late, the Blades will have a little more confidence.
Sheffield boss Nigel Clough will see this as a perfect chance to prove themselves against one of the big boys - such as they did in August when they ended West Ham's League Cup hopes. Their record in cup competitions is quite remarkable, losing just two of 17 games since Clough took charge. On their way to last year's FA Cup semi-finals, the Blades took care of both Aston Villa and Fulham.
Still, although Sheffield can take heart from this, at the end of the day it will be a tough ask for Clough's side to progress to the semi-finals. Nevertheless, the club are having a successful season, and sit 5th in League One - nine points adrift of the automatic promotion places. That is the ultimate goal for Clough's side: promotion into the Championship by whatever means neccessary - and, if they can take a scalp in the form of Koeman's Southampton on Tuesday night, it will be a welcome Christmas bonus.
"We won't take a risk because of the programme, but we'll play a strong team"
- Ronald Koeman
Southampton boss Koeman has resisted the urge to field a weakened team in the earlier rounds of the competition, and speaking to the press ahead of the game the Southampton boss suggest he would like to continue putting a strong squad out: "I’d like to go on doing what we did before, which means we don’t make a lot of changes in the team, but of course we have to look at the freshness of the players,” he said. “We won’t take a risk because of the programme we have, but we’ll play a strong team."
Despite Southampton's sudden dip in form - where they have lost all four of their Premier League fixtures in recent weeks - they still sit 5th in the league table, just three points adrift of West Ham United in the Champions League places. The 1-0 defeat to Burnley last weekened really hit Koeman's side in terms of confidence, and Tuesday night's game - which one would expect them to win - against Sheffield - could be the perfect chance to rebuild some of that lost morale.
The home side will be without on-loan defender Paddy McCarthy who is cup-tied, but midfielder Chris Basham should be first to make the starting line-up. Clough will have Craig Alcock in contention also, after missing the last four games.
The visitors could see the starting return of James Ward-Prowse after he made his comeback at the weekend off the bench. Koeman has bad news in the form of Graziano Pelle - Southampton's top scorer - though, as he is suspended. Morgan Schneiderlin and Jake Hesketh are both doubts.