Mark Langdon: Two outsiders worth backing to win the FA Cup

The FA Cup is supposed to have a certain amount of randomness to it, but in the last eight years only seven teams have reached the final and in the past 12 years only Leicester have managed to break the monopoly of the elite when it comes to lifting the famous old trophy.

Leicester themselves have been Premier League champions in the last ten years and normally you don't need to look far down the betting market to find the winner as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal have had a stranglehold on the competition. The last two finals have been Manchester derbies and before that Chelsea reached (and lost) three in a row, but the state of this season's Premier League could suggest a more open competition this time.

There were even two upsets in the first legs of this week's EFL Cup semi-finals as Tottenham and Newcastle took a step towards Wembley at the possible expense of Arsenal and Liverpool to highlight a sense that we might get a few strange results in the FA Cup between now and the final that could lead to a surprise outcome. You'd know something strange was in the air if we had a Newcastle v Spurs League Cup final given their aversion to trophies, but as a general rule the non-stop nature of this season with the added European fixtures following on from a Euros/Copa America summer has left bigger teams slightly more vulnerable.

Good mid-table sides with top coaches are getting a full week to prepare and they should be in a good position to give the FA Cup a proper go while relegation already looks as if it will be any three (well any two and Southampton) from the five of Saints, Leicester, Ipswich, Wolves and Everton in realistic danger of the drop. 

My two each-way goes would be Fulham at 25-1 and 33-1 Bournemouth.

Fulham, safely through to round four after walloping Watford 4-1 on Thursday, are one of the best teams I have seen live this season. They look so well organised under the astute Marco Silva and have taken some serious scalps already this campaign, most notably beating local rivals Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

Silva's golden touch has enabled Fulham to draw at Anfield, win at third-placed Forest and beat Newcastle at Craven Cottage. They have drawn at home to Arsenal and away at Tottenham and were the better side at City only to lose 3-2.

Fulham fans should be satisfied with ninth spot in the league, but there will also be a frustration at a couple of draws with Ipswich and a 0-0 at home to Southampton which really should have been a three-point return.

However, their total of just four defeats this season is bettered only by Liverpool and Arsenal, and there is decent depth on the bench. Rodrigo Muniz, Adama Traore, Andreas Pereira and Emile Smith Rowe were among the subs for last week's league game which means that even if Silva does juggle the line-up it shouldn't mean the end of Fulham's Wembley dream.

Bournemouth are flying higher than Fulham in seventh, but their underlying data suggests the Cherries still have plenty left on the table. Their expected goal difference is third-best in the league behind Liverpool and Arsenal and they are also third on expected points.  

Andoni Iraola has taken liberties with team selection in the past in the FA Cup, but he is timing his run nicely for a bigger job and a decent run in this competition would only improve his chances of career progress.

Enes Unal and Evanilson, Bournemouth's strikers, are currently injured but the club are being linked with January reinforcements and have increasingly become shrewd operators in transfer dealings with a number of impressive signings.