This weekend decided the FA Cup Finals with Manchester United and Chelsea both claiming rights to lift the silverware. Man. U continued their overpowering dominance by defeating (4-1) Watford while Chelsea slugged out another victory (2-1) against an inspired Blackburn side that looked poised to spoil Mourinho’s pride in extra time. 

Usually the FA Cup is about a cinderella team making a name for themselves, but this year the FA Cup is really what it is about–The 2 top level teams of English Football progressing through the rounds and now striving for honors. This finals is by far the most impelling in recent history and could be the most damaging in terms of overall success. Remember if something never gained, then something never lost (or something like that).

With both Man. United and Chelsea proving their pedigree, this is the first of several possible final square offs between the 2 English giants, but the others remain to be seen. As for now we must be content with the FA Cup, knowing that both teams will be equally deserving of silverware.   

By the way, look for Man. U to take the spoils though as they will progress the game too far (3-1) for Chelsea to claw back! Ballack will be needing to do a better job if he wants to remember his own name next time around.

Though Man. United gave up the first goal at Old Trafford, Alex Ferguson’s men rebounded with 4 goals in the second half to remind Mark Hughes that he’s still the understudy at Blackburn.

Sholes showed his awkward class again as he pulled the Red Devils level and broke Blackburn’s spirit. The rout was finished by Carrick, Park, and the goal wonder-Ole goal himself, who seems to have come back right in time for Man. United’s trip to Rome for their Champions League Quarterfinal 1st Leg encounter with AS Roma.

Chelsea went into the last EPL match of the day on Saturday, knowing they needed to pull a victory on the road over the Watford Weightlifters. Certainly, Mourinho was sweating as Boothroyd’s men looked like they had just boxed Chelsea out of the match–when Chelsea finally found their class in the dying moments as Wright-Phillips and Sheva combined on the right with Sheva crossing perfectly to Kalou, whose snap header found itself in at the back post.

As it’s still a 6 pt. lead at the top for Man. United, Chelsea has still shown the character of a Champion giving themselves the opportunity to gain if Man. United slip up, but you’d be hard pressed to find any of Man. United’s last 8 fixtures (excepting the penultimate tie against Chelsea) as providing any true test. Die hards may argue that they still have to face Everton and a Manchester derby away from Old Trafford, so all’s still to play for.

Chelsea, on the other hand, have a much harder remaining schedule as they face tough opposition in the likes of Tottenham, an iffy Newcastle side, Bolton, Arsenal, Man. United and a final outing against Everton.

Still with both teams in the race for the Champions League and the FA Cup there are still trophies to spare.

The title should actually be Liverstinks vs. Arsecrud. Yes, the highly touted match up of years gone past is coming around this weekend; however, with Arsenal having a, shall we say, “A stinker this year,” and Liverpool finally finding an array of characters that might keep them in the limelight, circa the 80s, where Candy was written across there chests, literally, the game just doesn’t have the same appeal.

Liverpool, while having extraordinary success at the International Stage in the last few years, has been the whipping boys of the good Premiership teams.  I can’t comment on their style in the 80s, but Liverpool has been more like “Liverstinks” since then. Now with Kuyt, and The Android himself Peter Crouch, they are making a push for the next level. You don’t have to like Liverpool, but they still might hurt ya.

Arsenal F.C. is on the downslide since two years ago when they went undefeated and were appropriately named “The Invincibles.” That was before the regime of Jose Morinho and the Chelsea Berzerkers.

If you speak to an Arsenal fan, they might have their resent troubles chalked up to bringing in a fresher, younger team and a new stadium. Those things might be occurring right now, but it just could be up to a Supreme Commander that grew tired of winning with the new stadium in their sites.

So Wenger went with it and let his team get demolished along with Highbury. Wenger is calculating for the future, so he let Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires go and is trying to build some youngsters that can carry the name of Arsenal higher and farther, hoping they will come good in the Arsenal tradition.

Well the Emirates is now home, and the youngsters are settling in right into the team that is going to knock their block off. Rafael Benitez, does not go down without controversy, so Liverpool will either be destroyed as Arsenal Air flies over, or a Bellamy sting will have the little ones swatting at air.

In whichever case, I might not be as interested because, I think Real Madrid might be making a move por la Corona (for the Crown). They play Celta de Vigo on Sunday.

Something that does compel me to tune in to see Arsecrud is that last time they met up with Liverstinks this year, it was a 6-3 game with “The Beast” finding Arsenal Form.

Good Luck to anyone watching European games this weekend. Roma also plays Milan, with Inter vs. Parma.

Chelsea came into its Quarterfinal replay against Tottenham with a slight reshuffle to its traditional power lineup on Monday.

Jose Mourinho tinkered with his squad tactic at an unpredictable moment and reaped the dividends by orchestrating probably what has been Chelsea’s best team performance this season.

With the two teams nil at halftime, Chelsea exploded in the 2nd half with two superb, breathtaking goals that all but gutted the Tottenham spirit that in truth had pressed and asked questions of Chelsea before the thunderbolts fell from the sky.

What turned out to be the true stroke of genius was giving Wright-Phillips the license and belief that he could pull the strings from a central midfield position. With the ex-Man. City winger operating away from his accepted role, Jose just might have unveiled England’s best central midfielder.

At least today, his quickness and mobility was enough to silence White Hart Lane. His first contribution was laying off and setting up for a wonder strike by Shevchenko in the 55th min. Even “The Drogba” stood mesmerized in disbelief as Sheva finally showed his master-class by hitting a left-footed bullet that curled into the back post upper 90.

Shaun Wright-Phillips finished what he started in the 61st min. by hitting an excellent volley again past Paul Robinson to the back post—“The Drogba” assisting with a set-up chester in the penalty area.

Spurs striker Robbie Keane pulled one goal back in the 79th min. from the penalty spot, but only to stop the bleeding as the damaged had already been done.

Next up is the Semifinal match against Blackburn on Saturday, April 14th. Hopefully, the resolute and stingy defense of Mark Hughes’ men won’t entice Mourinho to settle back into the Chelsea power surge.

Some of us might be preoccupied with the Champions League, the F.A. Cup, or the impending doom that will rise when David Beckham hits our shores, but I have to keep my eye on Manchester United and their plight to regain a title that once sported their name and their lineage, but has been captured by probably the best team in football.

The reason Chelsea is the best team in football is because of Arjen Robben and his ability to cut through his environment like a Spider Monkey in the trees. Branches or obstacles come up and with swift agility he is up, over, or through the situation with the greatest of ease.

I haven’t seen this level of athleticism since Michael Jordan. He is the new Cruyff, working the midfield with genius to spare.

With this player’s introduction, the game is all his to command. Just get the ball to him and work off of it. Now it is nice to also have players around Robben who understand and can work at his pace, even though they are not the most likeable of players, i.e. Michael Ballack. I’m sure Robben in the locker room is laughing at Ballack’s Oafish ability, even if he can work off the play that Robben sets in motion.

Why do I praise this Dutchmen on the second place team in England? It is because he is the only thing between Man. U. and the next Premiership title.

What is against Man. U right now? As a team, the only thing that can go wrong is Larsson leaving and Alan Smith being the only player that can fill his shoes (Shout out to the Dagger). Their offense would be reduced to battling rubble, but even Giggs can rebuild on that.

It can’t be their schedule. Not until the last four games of the season, then that will be a factor. Right now they are hovering on eight games, and these next four are ducks in a barrel.

For now, be distracted with the Champions League, F.A. Cup, and throw on some Libertadores thought. In a month, The Prem. will be down to it, and we should all be ready for Man. U. to lose it.

Arjen Robben should be European player of the year with a title this year, and a title at the Euro’s next year.

The Hammers looked as though they were going to finally take 3 precious points on Sunday as they jumped out to 2-0 lead at half time against Tottenham thanks largely to the tenacity and skill of Argentine striker Carlos Tevez.

While it’s obvious that Tevez’s skill and ability out weighs the sum of the rest of the West Ham players, the little striker has not let that affect his effort on the field as on Sunday, he ran about chasing everything in his sight—his time playing as in Argentine in Brazil obviously helping his cause. 

It was no doubt that Tevez had his hand in all the goals that West Ham scored as he set up the first with a chest trap that fell into the strike path of Mark Noble who volleyed home for the Hammers. Tevez then finally scored his first EPL goal as he placed an excellent free kick into the back of the net beating England keeper Paul Robinson.

Having given away the two goal lead in the 2nd half, Tevez then swerved in a free kick that the substitute Bobby Zamora headed home to restore the lead in the 85 min.

Lightening struck twice, however, as Tottenham hit back with their own free kick masterpiece as Dimitar Berbatov curled one in, and all was lost in stoppage time as Tottenham finished another goal as West Ham tried to push forward for all three points.

The Hammers now find themselves rock bottom with relegation looming once again.

This week played host to the three FA Cup 5th Round replays needed to complete the field for the Quarterfinals. Having played to draws on their own turfs the first time around, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, and Arsenal had to claim victory on the road if they were to continue their run through the cup finals.

Middlesbrough had to come from behind at the Hawthorns to level the score through Australian striker Mark Viduka and then overcame Coca Cola league side West Brom via penalties (5-4).

After jumping out to an early 3 goal lead in the first 10 minutes, Manchester United narrowly defeated EPL newcomers Reading (3-2), blessed by the help of the crossbar in the dying moments to deny any extra-time dramatics.

Coming off a sensational defeat to Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final, Arsenal were looking to the tie with Blackburn Rovers as a chance to keep a trophy run alive. This time Arsene used a mixture of young and old, but Blackburn remained too stubborn and worked hard to cancel out the Gunners.

Then with the game beckoning toward extra-time, substitute, South African striker Benny McCarthy skipped inside past a reshuffled Arsenal backline and fired home an absolute thunderbolt that ended the Gunner dream.

March 10th and 11th will be the dates for the following fixtures:
Middlesbrough vs. Manchester United
Chelsea vs. Tottenham
Blackburn vs. Manchester City
Plymouth vs. Watford    

On a day when Theo Walcott scored his first senior goal for Arsenal, Arsene’s juniors just didn’t have enough to hold off a full strength Chelsea, and it was Didier Drogba’s goals that spared the blushes and lifted the glasses of the “highest-paid” club in Europe.

It was an intriguing cup final throughout, poised between a traditionally sharper, ever-green Gunner side and a smoldering heavy weight Chelsea side, that need to rely on all its experience to claim the cup against the run of play.

After falling behind to Walcott’s early, clinical finish, Chelsea responded quickly through “The Drogba” with an equalizer only minutes later. The African striker pulled up trumps again late in the 2nd half with the winner as his snap header (set up by Robben’s cross) beat Arsenal no. 2 keeper Alumnia.  

It was also a match overshadowed by extra-ordinary incidents as Chelsea’s captain John Terry suffered a horrible head injury in the 2nd half, as he bravely went searching for a header in the box from a corner kick, only to find Arsenal’s young midfielder Diaby’s boot square in the jaw, and had to be stretched off with the application of neck restraints and an oxygen mask. 

The final minutes also darkened the match when player confrontations boiled over into controversy with both teams and managers running on to the field to join the fracas. Chelsea’s Mikel Obi and Arsenal’s Kolo Toure were shown red for their initial bust up, but Adebayor was also shown red for his involvement in the melee while young Fabregas and Frank Lampard were each shown the yellow card. 

Of course Chelsea celebrate as champions, yet it was easy to see the purpose of each club before kick off with each managers’ starting 11. Chelsea, perhaps impelled by their struggling league form, came at the game with all their aces, yet it was the craft and style of the Arsenal youth that showed clearly the different levels of “class” between these two EPL giants.

Arsenal’s junior Gunners (though Arsenal amazingly plays juniors in their senior side) edged out Tottenham in the Carling Cup to set up a tantalizing final against reigning EPL Champions, Chelsea.

Aided by Baptista’s two away goals at White Hart Lane, Arsenal always looked the likelier to claim the 2nd leg tense cup elimination tie if even by just a goal.

With Baptista injured and most of the other senior players given the night off, Arsenal lined up the youth with only the center-back Kolo Toure and midfielder Gilberto Silva, providing the backbone of the side—of course the Gunners held a few of their aces on the substitute’s bench in the form of Rosicky, Clichy, and Fabregas.  

In a game that was going down to the wire, Arsenal’s patience and (senior subbing) finally turned the game as it was the earlier disjointed Adebayor (pushed in by the brilliance of Rosicky), who found the back of the net in the 77 min. against a Spurs side that was being dominated by the immense amount of Arsenal possession.

Perhaps lacking the technical ability, Spurs showed their nerve though as Egyptian striker, Mido (also a substitute) reminded the young guns that there was still a game to play as he headed the equalizer past Toure and Almunia in the 85 min. and forced extra-time.

But the Gunners were not to be denied and avoided the dreadful penalty shoot out when young traveling striker, Aliadiere became the hero with his 105 min. strike as he punished Rocha’s defense blunder. In the end, Spurs completely capitulated as left-back Chimbonda forced a third into his own goal.

Imagine a striker that hits goals like a tiger shredding carrion across the Serengeti, let loose to ravish the field, then you have seen Baptista at his best as he ripped 6 past The Reds in two games, knocking Liverpool out of both cups. The Brazilian then kept the dream alive in the Carling Cup Semi-final 1^st Leg at White Heart Lane by adding two more to take scores level back to the Emirates.

Not as prolific at Madrid and rarely a chance at the Gunner’s, still Baptista has finally satiated his hunger for goals in Arsenal’s double cup runs. Will it be enough to keep the beast at the Emirates? Only Wenger can say…but it is almost certain that the beast will keep his place in Arsenal’s cup sides as Wenger likes to awarded players in this fashion.  

Hopefully, the beast will continue his cup runs and soon be let loose on the Gunner’s 1^st team to make them real contenders in the league.