CHELSEA and Manchester City both crashed out of the FA Cup after being sensationally beaten by lower-league opponents in the fourth round Saturday.

    Four of the English Premier League’s top six were ousted on a classic FA Cup day, with leader Chelsea squandering a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 to third-tier Bradford at Stamford Bridge in the biggest surprise of them all.

    “It was a ‘Black Saturday’ for the Premier League teams,” Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech said. “Every year you can see this kind of result in the FA Cup. It’s just unfortunate that today, for the first time, I was on the wrong side of this miracle.”

    A virtually full-strength Man City lost 2-0 to second-tier Middlesbrough at Etihad Stadium, raising questions about the wisdom of the English champions’ decision to travel to Abu Dhabi for a five-day warm-weather training camp in the build-up to the game. They only returned late Friday and the team faded in the second half.

    “It’s easy to have an excuse,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said, “but I don’t think (tiredness) was the case.”

    Southampton, which is third in the Premier League, twice surrendered the lead to lose 3-2 at home to Crystal Palace, and Tottenham — sixth in the league — conceded an injury-time winner to lose 2-1 to Leicester. They were both all-Premier League games.(SD-Agencies)