Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football.

This was the weekend the FA Cup continued to open up, with holders Manchester United dumped out on their own turf after another mediocre display under Ruben Amorim (who obviously insisted winning the Premier League was the goal anyway).

Here, we’ll discuss why this is one of the best FA Cups in recent memory, question whether a change in the English football rules is needed, and ponder if one of the Premier League’s most gifted players needs to tone down his act.

Is this actually the best FA Cup in years?

It was an FA Cup weekend you would term engrossing rather than brilliant. There were ample dramatic incidents but not a huge amount of quality on show, kind of like watching the EFL or Eastenders.

However, with apologies and due respect to supporters of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, that is a tremendous FA Cup quarter-final line-up.

Fulham’s win on penalties at Old Trafford on Sunday night set up one of the most unusual last eights in the competition’s recent history, up there with 2007-08 when eventual winners Portsmouth, West Bromwich Albion, Barnsley, Cardiff City and Bristol Rovers were among the final teams left in the tournament.

Bosses at BBC, ITV and the FA probably won’t agree given viewing figures will suffer for only having one recognised big club left, but an open FA Cup shorn of the usual suspects is a very good thing.

Why? It keeps the tournament fresh and adds an increasingly rare angle to a competition that has been dominated by the aforementioned big five (sorry Spurs, you don’t count here), who have won 22 of the 25 FA Cups this century.

It also reflects this season’s Premier League trend of mid-sized clubs like Fulham, Bournemouth and Brighton showing up the established elite via canny management and smart recruitment.

Of the final nine teams left in the competition (Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town play tonight), four have never won it (Fulham, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Brighton) and three haven’t lifted the trophy since The Beatles released Love Me Do (Aston Villa’s last triumph was in 1957, Forest’s was in 1959 and Preston’s in 1938).

Then there’s Manchester City. We had something similar in 2019 when Pep Guardiola’s team were joined by Wolves, Watford and Brighton in the last four, but just went and won the final 6-0 anyway.

However, with City at their most fallible for almost a decade and having been handed a tough draw away at Bournemouth, this could be the year not just for an unusual name on the famous old trophy, but perhaps even a new one, which has only happened twice in the past 37 years.

Rumours of the FA Cup’s demise have long been exaggerated, but this year’s competition is shaping up to be one of the most interesting for some time.

FA Cup quarter-final draw

Fulham v Crystal Palace
Preston North End v Aston Villa
Bournemouth v Manchester City
Brighton & Hove Albion v Nottingham Forest or Ipswich

Should Gordon really miss the Carabao Cup final?

Oh Anthony Gordon, what were you thinking?

Gordon’s completely unnecessary shove of Jan Paul van Hecke’s head, after the referee’s whistle had gone, deserves no sympathy in terms of the decision to award a red card.

However, is it right that he now misses the Carabao Cup final — appeal pending — due to being sent off in a different competition?

Newcastle have been here before. Two years ago, when they last reached the final, Nick Pope missed the match because he’d been sent off in a Premier League game. Conversely, Bruno Guimaraes did play in the final against Manchester United despite having been sent off in the semi-final. He served his three-match ban in the intervening league games. Confusing and a bit bizarre? Well, yeah.

Gordon’s red card was deserved, but does his punishment make sense? (ITV)

There are other recent examples, such as Manchester United’s Amad being sent off after his late extra-time winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-finals last year, but he was free to play in the semi-final against Coventry City, while Leandro Trossard’s suspension for being sent off against Manchester City in the Premier League earlier this season was served in the Carabao Cup against Bolton Wanderers when he probably would have been rested anyway. Trossard then scored and set up the decisive goal in Arsenal’s next league game against Leicester City.

A contradiction in the English rules comes in that red card bans are served in the following game or games, whatever competition that might be. For an accumulation of yellows in a specific competition, though, that ban is served in the same tournament.

Look, Gordon should have been (and probably was) told in no uncertain terms not to get a red card on Sunday or he’d miss one of the biggest games of his career. He only has himself to blame, but the rules feel outdated, especially in an era when huge squads are rotated for specific competitions.

Other countries are more sensible, such as Spain, for example, where a red in a Copa del Rey match equals a suspension in the — bear with us here, folks — Copa del Rey, even if that means waiting until the following season to serve the ban because either the team involved were knocked out or it was the final.

Rules have been changed in knockout competitions across the world (including the FA and Carabao Cups) to wipe yellow cards after quarter-finals to eradicate the prospect of a booking ruling a player out of a final, ala Manchester United’s Roy Keane in the 1999 Champions League or Germany’s Michael Ballack in the 2002 World Cup.

This feels like another instance of rule-changing that should be looked at.

Is Cunha’s temper going to cost him a big move?

Speaking of players needlessly getting themselves sent off after play had been stopped by an offside flag, Wolves’ gifted forward Matheus Cunha is one of the most interesting players in English football right now.

On the one hand, the impressive ratio (five strikes in six games in all competitions) and manner (a flamboyant 25-yard belter at Bournemouth on Saturday) of his goals and general array of skills and match-winning abilities make a much-publicised £62million release clause this summer a no-brainer for, say, a club like Arsenal who will surely look to strengthen in attacking areas.

On the other hand, Cunha’s erratic, I-want-a-lollipop-now petulance will be a red flag to Europe’s top clubs.

And petulant really is the word. If you’re going to steal a civilian’s glasses, as he did at the end of a recent match against Ipswich when depriving a backroom staff member of his eyesight, or if you’re going to swing an arm, attempt to kick and then motion a headbutt at someone just because they pulled your shirt a bit, well, there’s an issue.

Cunha, who has a maverick-style penchant for strolling around up front when he’s not in the mood, also refused to head down the tunnel after being sent off against Bournemouth, pushing team-mates out the way, not to mention this happened just seconds away from Wolves achieving their aim of taking the game to penalties (Matt Doherty ended up missing what would have been their winning fifth penalty, which Cunha surely would have taken had he not been sulking in the dressing room).

Cunha had still not calmed down after his red card (Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)

There are a couple of pertinent points here. Cunha is no kid — he turns 26 in a couple of months — and if he wants to progress his career quickly, he needs to be mindful of respecting the club that has provided him with the stage on which he currently stands. It was only two seasons ago when the Brazilian earned a reputation for missing sitters when he scored only twice in 37 appearances for Atletico Madrid and Wolves in 2022-23, but Wolves have nurtured his talent.

His fearless aggression leads him to do things like making at least five tackles and having at least five shots on target in a match, which he did at Blackburn away in the fourth round, the only player from Europe’s big-five leagues to do so in any game all season.

But at times he crosses that line between genius and madness with his moody, antagonistic streak that is reminiscent of Eric Cantona or Paolo Di Canio. Either way, he’s extremely watchable, but who we watch him play for next season may depend on whether he can harness that aggression.

Coming up

• The FA Cup fifth round concludes tonight (Monday) when third-top in the Premier League, Nottingham Forest, take on third-bottom, Ipswich Town.
• After 160 matches, this season’s Champions League finally gets to the good bit on Tuesday with the last 16 knockout phase. The Madrid derby between Real Madrid and Atletico is the standout tie, Arsenal head to PSV, while hipsters can watch Borussia Dortmund against Lille and underdog fans have Club Brugge versus Aston Villa.
• Then on Wednesday, it’s Paris Saint-Germain hosting Liverpool in the blockbuster clash, plus Benfica against Barcelona for fans of goals and wiffy defences (Barca won 5-4 in Lisbon in the group stage), plus Germany’s big two meet when Bayern Munich host Bayer Leverkusen, while Robin van Persie takes charge of his first Champions League tie with Feyenoord who, after knocking out Milan last month, now face Inter.
• The Europa League last 16 follows on Thursday, with Tottenham Hotspur going to AZ and Manchester United travelling to Real Sociedad. Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce host beleaguered Rangers and the tie of the round sees Claudio Ranieri’s in-form Roma take on Athletic Club, who are fourth in La Liga and host the final in May. Tasty.

Recommended reading

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)