More of the same...

So over the past week we have seen some great games... Arse v Chelsea, ManU v Reading, and then Arse v Blackburn...

Everything swirling around Arse again because of their tries to get the suspensions lifted of their players for violent conduct. As I said before, Howard Webb did a great job in getting everything settled, taking his assistants advice and then dolling out justice. He gave Mikel and Toure reds before being at the start of the fight. And with that the FA came down and handed Toure a suspension and I believe Mikel one too. If you look at the replays the red and the suspension is hard done on Mikel, I know I am a Chelsea fan so I am biased but if you take a step back all Mikel tries to do is get away from the situation... Now here is where Wenger gets in the way, he does not believe Adebayor should have gotten his red even though replays show him coming in and throwing a punch, and Eboue gets off free in the end as well with his punch on W. Bridge. Like I have said, Wenger needs to come out and discipline his own players in the press, they are not perfect! this latest thing is ludicrous.

ManU v Reading - FA Cup 5th round Replay
Great game and unbelievable first 6 minutes. ManU destroyed a back four that had no communication and was basically invisible. However the red devils should consider themselves lucky cause in the end they deserved the extra half hour at least fight their way back to a respectable 3-2 defeat. I like that Howard Webb got to follow up the Carling Cup final with this game, it shows that the FA is behind their referees. I will still be partial to Reading for giving some Americans a chance and its unfortunate that Bobby is out for the rest of the season.


Arse v Blackburn - FA Cup 5th round Replay
The whistle sounded a lot I will give the critics that. Mr. Poll was up to his usual antics and I believed the game was going to end with a goal on a freekick. However McCarthy's goal was a piece of brillance and Senderos needs to check himself because he was horrible throughout the game. The one-nil scoreline is what many expected from the previous clash between the teams. The only American in the game, Friedel, made some great saves and the first 20 minutes had some great pace. The short passes were excellent. Another thing to come of this game is to show the bias of Football365.com. I usually like how they have opinions, they have a great referee section, and their articles are usually better that BBC and Soccernet, YET they have such a thing for Arse its rediculous. Everytime Arse lose its cause of the ref or the other team's lack of offensive football and everytime Tottenham win its because of the ref or some luck. This time they take it out of Mr. Poll who has the ManU v Liverpool game this weekend. Headline seen below:


Hopefully you can read that. I know Poll has made his mistakes such as the WC and one or two this season in the EPL but this is insane. The first was a clear dive and the 2nd would have been iffy at best.

looking forward to the weekend

Carling Cup Champions

Ahhh yes the first hardware of the year handed out to none other than the blues.... Since I havnt heard back from my red-headed friend (The one Arse fan amongst us - See the bottom photo) I will use the internets to show my celebration. I caught a little of the first half and then the last 25 minutes of the second.

First off credit to youngster Walcott for an amazing first goal and showing that England do have something to look forward to. From my understanding the gunners had excellent starts to both halves but just lost steam. On a note about the whole "young gunner" thing, yes Arse did play some of their younger players maybe 4 or 5 that dont normally start but if you looked at their bench and the people that came on (Helb, Adebayor, and Eboue) how much younger were they than normal? More on Arse - the stand in Captain should be ashamed of himself, the foul was miniscule and then for him to start a fight with such precious time to go? rediculous. Adebayor to also throw a punch or two when he came on as a sub and had a full load of steam to get one back. rediculous.

More on the fight. Howard Webb did a great job dealing with it. He tried to break up the original tussle but then let the teammates work it out and just took in everything that happened and was correct to send of Adebayor which was the hardest card to call because it happened in the thick of things. However I wonder what his reasoning is for the red card on Mikel was for... Mikel did commit a foul but then for Toure to come at him, Mikel did a lot to step away from the fight and not allow things to continue. He might have done a little shove back to give himself some space, i have no problems with the card, i think both had to be sent off if one was gone but Mikel was obviously upset because he had tried to get away from the situation. Webb should also be credited for handling the John Terry situation brillantly and relaying information to Jose and the Chelsea bench, he should receive a lot of applause for noticing it was a head injury and getting the right people involved. Overall Webb did a great job taking in information and talking to his other officials.

Now onto the champions!!! Chelsea were underfire at the start of both halves but they showed their composure. Especially after Terry went down again, and if you see the kick to the face it is unbelievable that he was back at the stadium to celebrate 2 hours later. Lamps showed his skill by leading his team on the charge after the incident - sparking interest back into the match with a long range shot that powerfully hit the crossbar. Once again I would like to point out that Sheva made a difference. He was a threat that had to be watched and thus drew attention away from Drogba. Sheva had a brillant strike only a little later that also hit the cross bar. Now finally to the man of the match - Drogba. If people arent talking about him as being the best striker they should be. Two more goals his 27th and 28th of the season should show that he is a force to be reckoned with.

Overall a great win and a great game that just was unfortunatly hurt with the injury to Terry and the brawl at the end.. I wonder what the Frenchman will say now and just which peice of hardware will be next.