As two polar opposites in English society go head to head in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, Eurosport-Yahoo! investigates what exactly separates Ron from Barnsley and Hugo from Chelsea.

Instead of dusting off the usual comparisons about the cost of the squads and wealth of the owner, we begin with a topical gauge: house prices.

Foxtons are desperate to sell us a house in Chelsea, taking our name and trying in vain for our contact details before transferring us on to an enthusiastic agent.

"You're definitely looking at over a million for a three-bedroom house," he says, dollar signs possibly crossing his eyes. "In Earls Court for example we've a place for £1.1m. It depends on your compromises: it can be as low as £725,000 on some roads, but as high as five mil on others. So, how much are you willing to spend?"

To Barnsley: after six numbers that ring out - and this only at 17:30 on a Thursday - we finally reach someone at Simon Blyth Estate Agents. "It'd have to be a valuer that does that," the lady informs us. "There's no valuer here at the moment. Sorry I can't help you." And that is that: no offer of a phone number or call back.

Revealing perhaps, but E-Y! are not to be denied some idea of price. Thankfully William H Brown still has someone in the office. "A three-bed terraced place could be anything from £80k-120," the man says. "It's unlikely to be more than that, unless it's a really old Victorian property."

A bit of a gap then; however in the interests of perspective, we call up Reed Accountancy to discuss entry-level graduate salaries in the respective areas.

"They range from £18k-25 while you're training to be an assistant accountant," the west London fella reveals after some nitpicking about specific roles. "Later on you can make some real money."

His South Yorkshire equivalent is less eager to plug the prospects. "It doesn't pay very well at all in the beginning," he warns. "You're definitely looking at 10k in Barnsley, 12 maybe if you're a graduate."

You can imagine the Stamford Bridge regulars joking on whether the internet has reached Barnsley yet. We put it to the test with the customer service guy of a reputable broadband provider.

"Broadband moved into London first," he tells us, without any prompting. "It's close to the exchange so you're looking at 16 megabytes downwards. As a general rule in the UK it's about eight megs, but it could be as low as 4.5 in some areas like Barnsley, though I can't tell you for sure until you give me a phone number or a postcode."

Cue a hasty retreat, as E-Y! doesn't actually know anyone in Barnsley.

Then there are drinks, another standard by which we can measure the cost of living. With images of inebriated yet strangely alert bankers falling about in Kensington and the working men's club from Kes playing on our minds, we pick up the receiver; but there's no need for us to play to north-south stereotypes when these guys can do it for us.

An unquestioning, friendly Yates's on the brilliantly-named Shambles Street in Barnsley: "A pint o' bitter 'll set thee back a quid 75. Our most pop'lar drink? Apart from beer? Smirnoff Ice. That's on promotion for a quid 95." Maybe we exaggerated the accent a bit.

An irritated Chelsea Potter on the King's Road: "Our beers are Fosters, Stella, [etc etc] they're from three pounds to £3.50. Our most popular drink? Can I ask who's calling please? [We tell the truth for once, resulting in greater patience] Oh, fair enough. I don't know. Smirnoff Ice? £3.42."

Catching 'Bard of Barnsley' Ian McMillan on a news-starved 24-hour sports new channel then leads to contemplation of the clubs' respective celebrity fans - and some sketchy research to back us up.

Chelsea man David Mellor apparently pledged allegiance to Fulham in his first manifesto, for the benefit of the residents in his Putney constituency, while everyone remembers fallen former Soccer AM presenter Tim Lovejoy making millions sick every weekend with his smug assertions that the Blues have more money than anyone else.

Things are not rosy up north either: they are so sceptical that they even regard their own through suspicious eyes. There is a consensus in the town that Michael Parkinson, heavyweight of the chat show, only appears at Oakwell when there's a big match while cricket umpire Dickie Bird is also trotted out with yawnsome regularity. Then there's former England strike bowler Darren Gough, whose orange skin-red shirt combination would probably be warmly welcomed down on the fashion circuit in 'that London'.

Having shown that Peter Osgood-Norman Hunter, Neil Redfearn-Gianfranco Zola-esque comparisons are well-founded, we leave you with some 'interesting' stats you can expect to hear about several hundred times before Saturday:

Wealth of owner: Barnsley - Patrick Cryne (software) £32m / Chelsea - Roman Abramovich (oil) £10.8b

Cost of squad: £350,000 / £212.42m

Number of foreigners: 16 / 24

Ticket prices (adult, seat in stand): £20-22 / £45-60

Last trophy won: FA Cup - 1912 / FA Cup and Carling Cup - 2007

Last meeting at Oakwell: 1997-98 - 6-0 to Chelsea (Gianluca Vialli scored four)

Last meeting in the FA Cup: 1988-89 - 4-0 to Barnsley at Oakwell

Catch LIVE commentary on the FA Cup quarter-finals and Premier League programme this weekend on eurosport.yahoo.com!!

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport