4 Premier League leaders we can’t believe lost to lower-league sides in the FA Cup
With the financial disparity between the Premier League and the lower divisions, FA Cup shocks just shouldn’t happen – but sometimes the best teams around can be overturned.
Since the Premier League’s inception in 1992, four teams who led the table were beaten in huge FA Cup upsets.
We’ve trawled through the archives to pick out the four times that Premier League table-toppers were upset against lower-league opponents in the competition.
Cardiff 2-1 Leeds (2002)
Cardiff’s shock win over Leeds in the Third Round back in January 2002 – but not because of the football.
Managed by David O’Leary and packed with stars like Rio Ferdinand, Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka, Leeds travelled to Wales with most expecting them to roll over third-tier Cardiff.
Viduka scored first, but Leeds firebrand Alan Smith was sent off for violent conduct and goals from Graham Kavanagh and Scott Young secured a famous win for the Bluebirds.
The match was overshadowed by violent scenes on the ramshackle Ninian Park terraces, with numerous missiles launched from the home end into the section of Leeds supporters and an unsavoury pitch invasion on the full-time whistle.
Cardiff’s wallflower chairman Sam Hammam had altercations with a BBC reporter and O’Leary in the immediate aftermath of the game.
Leeds collapsed after this defeat, eventually finishing fifth in the league and were relegated two years later.
It would take them 16 years to return to the Premier League.
Chelsea 2-4 Bradford (2015)
Chelsea took the FA Cup very seriously in the Roman Abramovich era, winning the tournament five times in the 12 seasons between 2006 and 2018.
Their joint-earliest exit in that time came in 2014-15, when they were on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in recent memory.
The Premier League leaders, managed by Jose Mourinho, went 2-0 up against League One side Bradford and appeared to have one foot in the next round.
Yet the Bantams came roaring back, scoring four times without reply to stun Stamford Bridge and delight neutrals across the country.
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Wigan 1-0 Manchester City (2018)
Five years after beating City in the FA Cup final, Wigan sprung another huge upset by eliminating Pep Guardiola’s runaway leaders in the Fifth Round.
Having slipped into League One, few gave the Latics any hope against a City side that would eventually record 100 league points.
But Wigan survived virtually constant pressure from City, eventually capitalising on Fabian Delph’s controversial first-half red card when Will Grigg struck 11 minutes from time.
There were unedifying scenes at full-time, with Sergio Aguero involved in an altercation with one of the many home fans who invaded the pitch.
But that couldn’t take anything away from Wigan’s night of glory.
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Plymouth 1-0 Liverpool (2025)
Plymouth produced a classic FA Cup giant-killing in February 2025, as the Championship’s bottom club stunned Premier League leaders Liverpool at a raucous Home Park.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot made 10 changes from the side that swept Tottenham aside to reach the League Cup final three days previously.
And the Reds paid the price as Ryan Hardie’s second-half penalty won the tie for Argyle.
Liverpool applied some pressure in the closing stages, with Plymouth keeper Conor Hazard saving superbly from both Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez to make history.