Premiership champions Chelsea will have home advantage when they face Newcastle in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

The FA Cup represents Alan Shearer’s last hope of a trophy at Newcastle before retiring and it was the toughest possible draw for the six-time winners, who have proven notoriously bad travellers to the capital in recent seasons.

Liverpool, also six-time winners of the FA Cup, go to Birmingham, while Charlton will take on Middlesbrough at The Valley.

The remaining tie will see either Aston Villa or Manchester City having home advantage, with their opponents either Bolton or West Ham.

The ties are to be played between Monday March 20th and Thursday March 23rd.

Chelsea are chasing the domestic league and cup double, as well as Champions League glory.

They appear shoo-ins for the Premiership trophy, taking a 12-point lead over Manchester United into the last 12 games of the season.

And they are also firm favourites for the cup, even though they made hard work of beating Colchester of League One in the fifth round.

Newcastle battled past Southampton to inch closer to a first major trophy since the 1969 Inter-City Fairs Cup. The last of their FA Cup triumphs came in 1955, while Chelsea have claimed the cup three times, most recently in 2000.

The Stamford Bridge league fixture this season ended in a 3-0 win for Chelsea.

Liverpool drew both their league games against Birmingham this season, and were beaten twice by the Blues in 2004-05.

Charlton won the FA Cup in 1947, while opponents Middlesbrough have never laid their hands on the trophy.

The quarter-finals games are being staged in midweek to allow for league fixtures to be played the following weekend and for the season to end early, allowing England extra time to prepare for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the FA are refusing to comment on reports that confirmation this
year's final will be played at the Millennium Stadium will be made on Thursday.

Long-held doubts over the availability of the 'new' Wembley look certain to
mean a sixth successive Cardiff final, a move which would also see the Football League play-offs moved, as well as England's two pre-World Cup friendlies against Hungary and Jamaica, which seem set to be shifted to Old Trafford.

The next FA board meeting is scheduled for next Monday, with clarification
over the issue expected before the FA Cup sixth round on March 22.

Quarter-final draw

Charlton v Middlesbrough
Aston Villa or Manchester City v Bolton or West Ham
Chelsea v Newcastle
Birmingham  v Liverpool

Ties to be played week commencing 20th March