Bluffer’s Guide To The Weekend: A dangerous FA Cup weekend for Manchester managers, Djokovic’s personality choice, and England’s opening numbers

Bluffers provides an essential statistical guide to the sporting weekend including the FA Cup and Australian Open.

It’s the Fourth Round of the FA Cup this weekend, which as any bluffer can tell you is a little bit like the third round but less romantic and with fewer minnows. It also means a weekend free of Premier League fixtures but not entirely without PL interest.

Football bluffers can point out that this is essentially a worry-free weekend for managers of struggling Premier League clubs. If they are already out of the Cup they can put their feet up.

If, like Remi Garde of Aston Villa (who play Manchester City this weekend) and Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe (whose team play Portsmouth) they are still in the FA Cup, they need not worry.

A win will be good news. And if they lose they can claim to be relieved that their team can now concentrate on League survival without distractions.

The same is true, the FA Cup bluffer can point out, for managers whose teams are at the very apex of the football pyramid.

It is true that Arsene Wenger will look even more peeved than usual if his Arsenal side lose to Burnley at The Emirates on Saturday, but in his heart that will be relief that his best chance in years of the Premiership crown will be unencumbered by pesky cup ties.

Mauricio Pochettino will certainly be embarrassed if Spurs are unexpectedly humbled by Colchester, but he too would love an uninterrupted run at the title or, failing that, the Champions League.

The managers whom the FA Cup bluffer will consider have the most to lose this weekend are the Manchester pair.

Manuel Pellegrini is widely thought to be on borrowed time at City, and defeat by Aston Villa will not advance his cause.

Louis van Gaal’s tenure at United is even more tenuous (“reviewed on a game by game basis” is apparently the current status) and the Fourth Round tie against Derby County, managed by the excitingly ascendant Paul Clement, has all the appearance of a booby trap for the irascible Dutchman.

Bluffers who wish to further spice up this fixture may point out that the FA Cup was also the most successful of all competitions for Sir Alex Ferguson, who may well be watching from the stands.

His win record with United in the Cup was 67 per cent, better than the 65 percent he achieved with them in the League and better indeed than his percentage as United manager in any other major competition.

Far from these contests in distant Melbourne, Novak Djokovic will seek a record-equalling sixth Australian Open tennis title, which would also be the first step towards the calendar Grand Slam – an achievement narrowly denied him by Stanislas Wawrinka last year.

Whoever he faces in the final, Djokovic’s most troubling opponent is likely to be his state of mind.

The tennis bluffer may wish to recall another remarkable player from the Balkans, Goran Ivanesevic, who was capable of startling personality changes on court and could whistle up a Superhero persona whenever he most needed it.

Djokovic will be wanting to ensure that Not-Bothered Novak, who committed no fewer than 100 unforced errors while struggling to beat Gilles Simon in the fourth round, is banished from the premises for the final, calling instead upon Invincible Novak, who made just half a dozen unforced errors while dismissing the great Roger Federer in the semis.

Cricketing bluffers will be absorbing and processing the stats from England’s largely successful tour of South Africa.

The numbers attached to gloomstruck opener Alex Hales are bound to come up for discussion: 136 runs in four matches at an average of 17 is a lousy start to a Test career, even allowing for playing on tour against quality opposition.

Pro-Hales bluffers could credibly make the case for persisting with their man when Sri Lanka visit this summer, most tellingly by pointing out that he is the eighth opening partner that Alastair Cook has accompanied to the crease since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012.

Short of coaxing Strauss away from his carpet slippers, the selectors will be looking at other options to reinforce the batting line-up, and here the bluffers too need to be aware of the relevant numbers for the candidates.

Alex Lees, the Yorkshire opener, is one lively option: he didn’t break many records last year but averaged a very handy 44.13 in first-class cricket in 2014.

Nick Browne, who heads the order at Essex, has similar numbers from last summer: 1,157 at 42.85, including five centuries, and more recently still James Vince, the England Lions captain, scored a century against Pakistan A just this week.

Bluffers craving live sport this weekend should bone up on their netball: the season gets underway with Super Saturday and the knowledgeable suggest a close eye should be kept on England captain Sara Bayman, who will be leading the Superleague title challenge of Manchester Thunder.

The only title Manchester is likely to secure this year? That’s a harsh call.