It takes a lot of gall for a team to come to Old Trafford and play Manchester United mono – e – mono. Of course, Manchester City isn’t exactly a side short of such said gall at the moment. With accusations of “sock suckers” flying hither and tither, it makes for a massive Manchester derby match with a place in the Carling Cup final at stake and a warning signal from whoever wins that they are either a club to be reckoned with or a club to still be feared.
Ah, to be there to see that one in person. Without police personnel in the way, that is, as there is expected to be a bit more than usual at the ground. That will probably not deter all from trying to get into a pre-match scrap (at least keep it out of Old Trafford) and is probably, for the first time in some time, a derby match with so much on the line. Wednesday cannot get here fast enough.
Meanwhile, the rest of England is still mulling over the F.A. Cup 4th round. Two results jump off the page, with London sides Tottenham and Arsenal making the headlines, though for less than palpable reasons as Spurs managed to gift Leeds a 96th (!!!) minute penalty for Jermaine Beckford to show his namesake (Defoe) how to put one away and send what was a 75% Tottenham dominated contest to Elland Road for a replay that no one is more excited about than Ken Bates. If you have to ask, “Who is Ken Bates and why is he so excited about a replay?” you must have been living in America or have no idea how damning finances can play in the day-to-day operations of a football club. Look up the last six years in Leeds United history to see why many are scared in Portsmouth, Manchester and Liverpool about rising debt levels.
Arsenal, probably snickering at Spurs’ ineptness, promptly proceeded to lay a 20 lbs. goose egg against Stoke City, with the returning Sol Campbell hauling that egg around, judging by his huffing and puffing throughout the contest. His inability to mark Ricardo Fuller on the second Potters goal (the first doesn’t count; he’s never seen a Rory Delap bomb before) allowed Stoke to settle the tie, only to further undo things by losing track of Tuncay as he slipped into seal the deal at the Britannia. The combination of players on the field for Arsene Wenger left much to be desired, as not even Cesc Fabregas could keep that squad a rollin’ against a pesky Potters side.
Elsewhere, Birmingham still haven’t lost in forever, knocking out an Everton side that seemed to be on the uptick. Burnley proved that their away form is even worse than Reading’s home form, and Fulham got pushed at the playground that Accrington Stanley call home until the home side went to 10 men, and even then struggled to put away the milk box heroes.
While the F.A. Cup had most of the headlines, earlier in the week Spurs got roughed up then routed by Liverpool. This may sound stupid, but not having Gerrard, Torres, and Benayoun may have given the Reds the advantage, as the blueprint for beating Spurs was laid down for all to see: bludgeon them early, get a quick goal, and Tottenham will do the rest for you. Apparently, 8 defenders can win you a contest if you beat the crap out of the opposition long enough.
At the same time, Arsenal were again laughing at Spurs, though early it was certainly not the case as Botlon (yes, Botlon) took the early exchanges to the Gunners and grabbed a 0-2 lead before Arsenal decided to play and decked the Trotters 4-2. Many Wanderers fans feel undone by the decision to let Gallas whack Mark Davies before the equalizer, but when you consider Gallas damn near gets away with anything he wants to (along with Fletcher of United) it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Once that second goal was scored (with Davies done for the contest) it was inevitable that Arsenal had the contest in hand and got the winning and icing goals to put Botlon away.
And while those two matches were going on, a 10 goal fiesta was playing out at Villa Park, as Blackburn, confidence soaring after a win over Fulham, scared the everloving hell out of Villa early with two Nikola Kalinic goals before Villa restored some sanity…for about a half hour, anyway. It took some fortunate breaks (bowling over Ryan Nelson and Christopher Samba preceding Michael Dawson in dumb penalties on the week, not to mention an own goal by Steve N’Zonzi) for Villa to regain the contest, not to mention some major league fingernail chewing once Rovers grabbed two more goals after Emile Hesky scored, but Villa hung on and will play the winner of the Battle of Old Trafford.
Under the radar from the F.A. Cup contests was Wayne Rooney’s demolition job of Hull City. Scoring in the opening 10 minutes, nearly 70 minutes of watching Michael Owen not score finally pissed off Rooney enough to bag an additional hat trick in the last ten minutes, finally getting the fans to shut up about the Glazer family debt line (which is admittedly ridiculous…you mean they still aren’t making enough from not spending anything in Tampa Bay to pay off the United debts?) and enjoy the football on hand.
This leads us to the forthcoming week, with midweek matches starting today featuring Pompey v West Ham (yay), Tottenham v Fulham (intriguing…Fulham’s lack of front men might work in their favor), Wovles v Liverpool (the excitement level you feel is palpable everywhere) and the Owen Coyle Memorial Match (Bolton v Burnley). Wednesday is highlighted by the Mayhem in Manchester that will mask over two exceptional contests, Aston Villa v Arsenal and Chelsea v Birmingham, and two less than enthusiastic tilts featuring Blackburn v Wigan and Everton v Sunderland.
The weekend offers three more compelling matches in the form of Birmingham v Tottenham, Fulham v Villa Saturday and the marquee match up of Arsenal v Manchester United on Sunday.
Quite a week of football, wouldn’t you say?
