The weekend's FA Cup saw the Premier League teams rest a number of first team players.

While Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea have Champions League commitments, Southampton are not playing for anything as they are virtually assured of safety.

Using Oscar's travel itinerary for Chelsea and Brazil, Pat Nevin believes the elite players who play in the Champions League and major tournaments are prone to fatigue. But he was saddened by the fact that Southampton rested players in their FA Cup defeat to Sunderland, despite what should be the enticing carrot of a cup run.

"They do play a huge amount of games, they do travel an awful lot more and a lot of these players are not getting breaks in the summertime anymore. They're playing in Confederation Cups, World Cups and the Euros. How that affects Southampton however, I'm not too sure," said Nevin who pointed out that Sunderland made far more changes to their team than the Saints.

Nevin also discussed Fulham's decision to bring in Felix Magath who has a reputation for authoritarianism and looked ahead to Manchester City and Arsenal's Champions League ties against Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively.

Image: A general view of Craven Cottage, home of Fulham FC ©INPHO/Donall Farmer