In what is surely one of the most compelling matchups among the FA Cup fourth-round slate, Chelsea take on Aston Villa Friday at Stamford Bridge. Historical success, team salary and home-field advantage would all paint Chelsea as the favorites, but Unai Emery’s squad has been flying in Premier League play and has taken down the Blues in each of their last two meetings, with both of those coming away from home.
If you had to pick just one FA Cup match to watch this round (hopefully that isn’t the case), this one would certainly be near the top of the list. And if you want to watch, you’ll need ESPN+ if you’re in the United States. The match is about to start at 2:45 p.m. ET.
It’s pretty simple: If you live in the United States and you want to watch the FA Cup, you’re going to need an ESPN+ subscription. Every single match of the tournament, including Chelsea vs Aston Villa on Friday, will stream on ESPN+, and all of them will almost certainly be exclusive (meaning they won’t be on TV anywhere, though the final may be simulcast on ESPN2 or another channel) to the streaming service.
Unfortunately there is no ESPN+ free trial offer, but soccer fans should be very confident that they’ll get their money’s worth in short order. ESPN+ costs just $11 per month (or $15 for a bundle of ESPN+, Hulu and Disney+), and with it you can watch every FA Cup match, every Bundesliga match, every La Liga match and every Copa del Rey match, as well as smaller leagues and dozens of other live sports, including college football and basketball, cricket, NHL, PGA Tour, NBA G-League and more. If you like watching sports even a little bit, you will enjoy ESPN+ a lot.
ESPN+ is only available if you are in the United States. However, if you find yourself outside of the country but you want to watch Chelsea vs Aston Villa, you could try a virtual private network (VPN), which essentially hides your IP address and “tricks” your computer into thinking you’re somewhere else. We have a more detailed rundown of different VPN deals, but if you want to quickly go with one of the safest and most reliable ones, NordVPN is a good choice. You’ll need to pay when you sign up, but they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re unsure.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.