Arsenal Stutter, Chelsea Rampant
It's fair to say that this weekend's FA Cup results and games have more than lived up to expectation. Even yesterday's early kick off between Arsenal and Hull, which ended goalless, was a very good game of football, and in itself was a huge story. Overall, Arsenal probably should have won the game, as you would expect for a side of their calibre, as they piled the pressure on and created lots of chances. But Hull were a side who refused to give in, refused to let Arsenal rip into them and Arsenal were just unable to break them down. This is in truth a disastrous result for Arsenal, as they now face a replay, which is yet another fixture in their long list of fixtures, on top of two games against Barcelona and their league campaign. And a lot of credit has to go to Hull, who defended terrifically all game and thoroughly deserved a replay. Ultimately, it's going to be fascinating to see how that replay goes, with Arsenal still clear favourites to move into the quarter finals, where they would face a Watford side who ended up beating Leeds 1-0 in probably the least interesting tie of the round, where at the very least we got to see it decided by a comical own goal from Leeds defender Wooton.
Meanwhile yesterday, Everton eventually saw off Bournemouth in what looks on paper like a relatively straightforward performance and result, with Everton 2-0 winners with goals from Barkley and Lukaku, but in truth it was anything but, as Joel Robles made a stunning save from the penalty spot before Barkley's shot took an unfortunate deflection that looped over Bournemouth keeper Federici. Bournemouth created a string of good chances after that, but simply put, it was Everton who had the greater cutting edge and Lukaku showed predatory instinct to net his 20th goal of the season after some sloppy defending off a corner and put the tie to bed.
And Reading produced the shock of the round so far by putting out West Brom, who took the lead through Darren Fletcher before goals from Paul McShane, Michael Hector and Lucas Piazon knocked West Brom out of the cup. Two brilliant headers turned this tie on its head before Piazon, on loan from Chelsea, struck late on to put a gloss on it. This game always had cup shock written all over it, but I'm still surprised to see a Tony Pulis side go down so easily, and this is another in a string of largely disappointing results for the Albion. And this was a game marred by an awful incident, as someone threw a coin at West Brom's Chris Brunt, allegedly someone from his own supporters. Absolute disgrace.
Today's games were even more interesting, producing thirteen goals, several red cards and another missed penalty. We'll start with the West Ham game, which came first and produced a masterful performance from Dimitri Payet. There were three marvelous goals in the first half, Ben Marshall's low drive getting Blackburn off to the perfect start before Victor Moses was given all the time in the world to pull the trigger twenty five yards from goal and the keeper really should have kept out. But he was powerless to deny Payet, as the magician pulled a stunning free kick out of the bag to give West Ham the lead before half time. And from there it was a riot, Emineke taking advantage of a shocking tactical decision from Taylor, who earned himself a second yellow card to score two simple goals to put the tie to bed, either side of a slightly harsh red card for Kouyate, who was judged to be last man as he commited a foul on the edge of the box. But it was the magnificent Payet who had the last word, with a lovely run and a sumptuous finish to make it 5-1 and confirm a brilliant win for West Ham. Their reward is a trip to Old Trafford, assuming United knock out Shrewsbury.
Another brilliant result was for Crystal Palace, who knocked out Spurs, who will be at the least glad that they're now only fighting on two fronts, and don't have a replay to add to their increasingly busy fixture list. It was a stunning game of football for one with only one goal in it and both teams could easily have scored three or four, Dele Alli desperately unlucky as he missed two golden openings in the first half, including one that hit both posts. And for Spurs in particular, it was just one of those days, where blocks, goal line clearances and top saves from Hennessey kept them at bay all day, Harry Kane's delightful free kick the best stop that they forced the Palace keeper into. And Palace themselves had chances: Vorm with a great save after the ball looped over his head and Connor Wickham's selfish behaviour costing his side two clear goals late on. But the winning goal was scored by Martin Kelly, the ex-Liverpool right back, who was freed down the right and powerfully fired home past Vorm. It's fair to say that no keeper likes being beaten at his near post, and that Hugo Lloris probably would have saved it. Either way, this is a disappointing result for Spurs who would have wanted to keep going, as the FA Cup was probably still their best opportunity at silverware. As for Palace, a draw away at Reading represents a real opportunity to make the semi-finals and go on to win the trophy.
And Manchester City made a major blunder by sending out a side including five debutants, their reserve goalkeeper, and a makeshift back four, and they were summarily swept aside by a Chelsea side that actually decided to take the FA Cup seriously. This is a damning result for Manuel Pellegrini on a number of levels. Not only is it a humiliating result, psychologically damaging for his young players, and they're now out of the FA Cup, but it makes his team selection foolish, as he essentially threw the game and the competition. And it was Chelsea who respected the competition and the result reflected that. That said, it was appalling performances from Demichellis and Caballero that cost City, as Demichellis lost his man completely, allowing Costa to head Chelsea in front before a wonderful move from City was turned home by Faupala.
But in the second half it was all Chelsea, a brilliantly worked goal seeing Hazard free Willian for him to fire home before a poor clearance from Fernando was hammered home by Gary Cahill, despite being straight at Caballero, whose performance for Chelsea's fourth goal, a nonetheless exceptional free kick from Eden Hazard, was unacceptable, as he meekly stepped the wrong way. He did however, put in a top save to deny Oscar from the spot after Traore went down under almost no pressure from Demichellis. But it was Traore who had the last laugh, as his flicked header looped over Caballero and put City out of their misery. Chelsea go on to face Everton.
England Crushed
And in the cricket, England's woeful limited overs form came to a head, as they lost 7 wickets for just 14 runs and then saw South Africa chase their respectable total of 171 in less than 15 overs with 9 wickets to spare. This was an absolute embarrassment for England, as first their batting performance, and then their bowling fell off a cliff, with Jos Buttler's 54 the highlight of their batting. But when Buttler and Morgan, who were nicely set to launch England towards 200 fell, the rest of the dominoes fell with them, a total and utter calamity once again from the lower middle order. And then the bowlers were put to the sword as AB De Villiers and Hashim Amla, South Africa's two best players and two foremost batsmen, absolutely ravaged them, hitting 100 within 7 overs as De Villiers brutally hacked England apart, scoring 71 runs off 29 balls before he eventually holed out to Root off the bowling of Rashid. But by then the damage was done and Amla's similarly exceptional 69* off 38 balls saw South Africa home by 9 wickets with 32 balls to spare. This was a ravaging, a batting performance of the very highest order from the South African openers that England's bowlers simply had no answer to. Topley and Jordan in particular were brutalised, but none of the bowlers were able to cope with the spell of bombastic cricket that South Africa produced. Simply put, England were humbled.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Real Madrid drew, Ronaldo missed a penalty. Oh dear.
- Barca are now 9 points clear. Wow.
- Saints lost away yet again. Jesus Christ.
- At least England's women won. Sarah Taylor again the star.
- And Leamington won 3-1 away. Boom.
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