Not only do Manchester United have the already big disadvantage of having to play an FA Cup semi-final in London, against a team from London, they also have 48 hours less recovery time from their previous game.
Chelsea played, at home, against an already relegated Norwich side, (and actually struggled to beat them 1-0), on Tuesday, whilst United had to wait until Thursday to travel to London and play Crystal Palace. (more…)
How can a club like Manchester United not know that one of their star players does not have a visa?
The pre-season tour will already be starting without their new signings Fred and Diogo Dalot. The former because he still has a week off from not playing in the World Cup and the latter because he is recovering from injury.
Most of the rest of the World Cup participants will not be joining the tour at all so it is quite important during these friendly games that alternative tactics and set-ups can be worked on. (more…)
How can selling Wembley be described as a betrayal? The idiots who massively overspent in building a stadium nobody outside of London really wanted cannot be accused of selling the soul of football, as some people have put it.
Wembley never was and never will be the “soul of football”. That title belongs to grounds such as Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park and Stamford Bridge. In the past it would have included Highbury, Main Road, Roker Park and others too numerous to mention. (more…)
Arsenal, yet again, stand on the brink of exiting a European competition. They need to beat Atlético Madrid in Spain, (or draw by a score of 2-2 or greater), to progress to the final of the Europa League.
For a club which likes to think of itself as one of Europe’s biggest, their record in the European trophy department is absolutely pathetic. In all of Arséne Wenger’s 22 years at the club they have made it to the final of the Champion’s League ONCE, in 2006 when they were beaten by Barcelona.
In 2009 they got to the final of the UEFA Cup but were beaten by Galatasaray. (more…)
The FA is, once again, trying to redeem itself over the pathetic way it managed to massively overpay for the “new” Wembley.
As usual, the way it chooses to redeem itself involves ripping off supporters, this time those of Chelsea and Manchester United who are, totally unfairly, expected to pay back some of the lost revenue.
They have increased ticket prices at Wembley by up to 35% from the semi-finals. Why? Other than blatant profiteering, (which we thought was illegal), there is no other excuse for it. (more…)
It’s that time again folks! Yes, it’s approaching FA Cup semi-finals day, so we now have to rant on for a while about how unfair life is when you’re just a poor little northern team having to play one of those rich teams from that big place, in that big place, at their home big place!
The draw for the semi-finals of the FA Cup has been made and the two London clubs have been kept apart. No real surprise there! Do they have any other advantages over their opponents which would make them favourites to progress to the final? (more…)
(The nearest there was to an interactive wall-chart in 1904! The numbers on the colours correspond to the number of the team wearing them and there are some interesting names amongst the previous winners. The winners that year were…..Manchester City!)
The FA Cup may not be quite as glamorous as it used to be but it is still a trophy that the top clubs want to win.
An appearance at Wembley nowadays is no reward for reaching the final. After all, drawing Tottenham Hotspur away will have the same outcome this season, as will reaching the semi-final and it is this devaluation of the national stadium which has been a major contributor to the FA Cup losing much of it’s gloss. (more…)
London
So, having managed a full season undefeated at White Hart Lane, Tottenham fell at the first hurdle following their temporary move to Wembley.
They actually played reasonably well but, with Harry Kane not joining the goalscoring race until around October, Spurs will struggle for goals unless somebody else steps up to the plate.
The player who stepped up on Sunday was Michy Batshuayi. The problem? He’s a Chelsea player so scoring for Spurs is not part of his job description. (more…)
Yet again that mediocre La Liga has three teams through to the quarter finals of the Champion’s League, while that brilliant, exciting, competitive and just all-round good egg Premier League has one.
The good thing is that to prove it’s massive superiority over La Liga, it was a Premier League club which knocked out Sevilla. Yes, little old Leicester did what Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur couldn’t do, they made it through to the quarter finals. (more…)
Get ready for the usual sting. If Manchester United can find a way to beat Chelsea, (which seems unlikely with two donkeys like Smalling and Young in the team), what is the betting that their next FA Cup game will be against Manchester City?
There is a force at work somewhere which endeavours to ensure that these two teams never meet in the final.
It may be that they want a London team in the final and one way of making sure of that is to have Tottenham play Arsenal in the semi-final. Guess what that would mean? Correct, City would play United in the other semi. (more…)
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 