Social Chatter: Did Manuel Pellegrini and Manchester City disrespect the FA Cup?

James Matthews looks at social media’s reaction to Manchester City’s youthful team selection as they lost 5-1 to Chelsea in the FA Cup.

Did Manchester City and their manager Manuel Pellegrini disrespect the FA Cup? Social media thinks they might well have.

With his side fighting on four fronts this season - including a Champions League Round of 16 clash trip to Ukraine to face Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday, Pellegrini opted to play the kids against Chelsea on Sunday.

The team sheet read like a who? rather than a who’s who? And it backfired massively as a near full strength Chelsea ran riot to progress to the quarter-finals with a 5-1 victory.

So did the decision to play the likes of Tosin Adarabioyo, Bersant Celina and David Faupala disrespect the FA Cup?

Despite his own side Arsenal not being adverse to playing “the kids” down the years, Piers Morgan was on hand to add his 10 pence worth to the argument.

DJ Trevor Nelson, a Chelsea fan, even believes Manchester City could have saved everyone time and money by forfeiting the game.

Injuries played a part with Jesus Navas, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony, Eliaquim Mangala, Fabian Delph, Kevin de Bruyne and Bacary Sagna all out.

But never before have squad numbers 51, 53, 59, 72, 75 and 76 been seen at the same time - not unless the six players turned up a bingo hall.

But the young talents already had history with Chelsea it seems. Maybe that was Pellegrini’s thinking?

And commentator Sam Matterface, for one, was glad he’d seen that FA Youth Cup Final.

Forward David Faupala at least enjoyed his day, grabbing a first-half equaliser for City as he scored his first first-team goal for the club.

But just to underline how youthful this Manchester City line-up actually was, it emerged that Faupala didn’t even have his own Wikipedia page.