If you have a glance at the FA Cup betting, you’ll quickly see that the same old suspects are the hottest favourites – namely, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, holders Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham.

Now true football fans love this competition like no other – but it has to be said that for the very top clubs, it’s a third priority after the Champions League and Premier League – in roughly equal measure.

There’s no let up in the Premier League schedule, whilst the Champions League knockout phase gets underway in late February.

The odd one out of the afore-mentioned teams is, of course, Man United as they have no European campaign to contend with – and they may well be a serious threat in the FA Cup. But all United fans are intent on their club finishing at the very least in the top four and, hopefully, finishing second and passing their city rivals on the way. And that will be the club’s absolute number one priority.

All this means there’s value to be had with solid second tier clubs. So, for example, Stoke City are currently a best-priced 40-1 with Unibet. This is the kind of FA wager that looks like excellent value. Stoke are hard to beat at home, they’re in no relegation difficulties but nor are they likely to break into the top five – so they have absolutely no distractions.

And Stoke City’s fans would love to get to Wembley for another FA Cup final. They’ve only managed one, in 2011 when they lost 1-0 to Manchester City. It would be very easy to see them going one better and that 40-1 looks a great price. There are others at similar odds, so it’s your pick. But whatever way you look at it, there’s certainly F.A. value to be had.