F.A Cup Predictions

Hey, it has been a week of finals but don’t worry this isn’t to be my final blog.

Firstly, in the Tennis, where Nadal and Djokovic will meet in Sunday's final of the Australian open, the first grand slam of the year. The woman’s final is between Maria Sharavpova and Victoria Azarenka.

Also the Superbowl XLVI final is going to be between New England Patriots and New York Giants. The Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime 20-17, and the Ravens missed a last minute field goal allowing the Patriots to go through 20-23. This Superbowl will be Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s fifth Superbowl final! It should be interesting to watch and as I am English it is whether I can stay awake for it.

And the Carling cup finally has also been decided. The final will be between Cardiff City and Liverpool. Cardiff, who beat Crystal Palace on penalties, will be in their second final of recent years as they reached the F.A Cup final, only to lose to Portsmouth. Despite drawing at home to Manchester City, Liverpool made it through thanks to their first leg victory. This is the first time they will play at the ‘New’ Wembley and the first time they have reached Wembley since 1996. They won the F.A cup in 2006 but this was at Millennium Stadium. Cardiff should give Liverpool a tough game but I think that Liverpool will just about win.

Sticking to Cup competitions, these are my predictions for the F.A Cup Forth round:

Watford v Tottenham – Tottenham win
Everton v Fulham - Draw
QPR v Chelsea – Chelsea win
Liverpool v Man Utd – Manchester United win
Blackpool v Sheffield Wed - Draw
Bolton v Swansea – Bolton win
Derby v Stoke – Stoke win
Hull v Crawley Town - Draw
Leicester v Swindon – Leicester win
Millwall v Southampton – Millwall win
Sheffield Utd v Birmingham - Draw
Stevenage v Notts County – Stevenage win
West Brom v Norwich – West Brom win
Brighton v Newcastle – Newcastle win
Sunderland v Middlesbrough – Sunderland win  
Arsenal v Aston Villa – Arsenal win

Barclays Premier League Gameweek 22 Results

Hey. Did anyone enjoy the football this weekend? Yeah me too.

Manchester City v Tottenham: 3-2

Manchester City have remained three points ahead of United after a less than convincing win over third place Tottenham. The first half produced little chance but in the second half it changed completely. It was City that took control going two-nil up before the hour mark, with goals from Nasri and Lescott. Tottenham did get it back to two a piece, all this in the space of 10 minutes. In what was a crazy game, there wasn’t much doubt over who stole the game. Balotelli was bundled over by Ledley King in the last minute of injury time, and scored the resulting penalty, to seal the win. The main talking point of the game, though, was whether he should have been on the pitch in the first place. He had stamped on Parker’s head. I haven’t seen the incident but looking at various images it did look like he did it on purpose.

Star Man: Mario Balotelli – He will be on the back pages (as usual)

Arsenal v Manchester United: 1-2

Manchester United put more pressure on City after a close victory. Valencia nodded in a cross from Giggs for the opener on the stroke of Halftime. It was none other than Robin Van Persie who curled in a goal that Henry would have been happy with, as he looked from the crowd. However, Arsenal fell apart late on and allowed Valencia to sneak a cross to Welbeck for his third goal in three. I would like to see whether Wayne Rooney still thinks Arsenal are a threat to the title as he thought this on Friday. Overall it wasn’t as entertaining as the previous meeting (8-2) but it still was a decent game.


Star Man: Antonio Valencia - A goal and an assist from the Ecuadorian

Summed up in 10 words (or less):
Norwich v Chelsea: 0-0- Torres comes closes in a game that ended goalless

Everton v Blackburn: 1-1- Blackburn pick up a vital point thanks to Goodwillie’s equaliser

Fulham v Newcastle: 5-2 – Living the American dream. Dempsey hat-trick added to two penalties

QPR v Wigan: 3-1 – Wigan are bottom after losing to QPR who looked comfortable

Stoke v West Brom: 1-2 – Walters penalty miss proved costly as Stoke lose at home

Sunderland v Swansea: 2-0 – Sessegnon and Gardner gives Martin O’Niell another win as manager

Wolves v Aston Villa: 2-3 – Keane is back again. Striker’s double gives Villa the win

Bolton v Liverpool: 3-1- Liverpool failed to turn up, Bolton are out of relegation

Simply the Best:

Player of the weekend: Clint Dempsey – a hat-trick against Newcastle and a good performance from the American

Game of the Weekend: Had to be the one from today in Manchester. Four goals in 10 minutes and a last minute penalty.

Goal of the Weekend: Not really an incredible goal but the pressure and coolness of Balotelli penalty was pretty class

Stat of the Weekend: Fernando Torres has now gone 15 games without a goal. Will his luck ever change?

Barclays Premier League Gameweek 22

Hey again.
It has been a busy week of sport. The Australian tennis open began and Murray is the only British player remaining. The BDO darts champions was named as Dutch player, Christian Kist who beat Tony O’Shea. Also it was a good week for Birmingham and Brighton fans as they progressed to the fourth round after beating Wolves and Wrexham respectively. Lastly one goal was enough to separate Manchester City and Wigan as Dzeko’s goal proved to be the winner.

However the biggest story of the week is Gary Cahill finally joining Chelsea. There was a bit of disagreement with his personal terms but he is a Chelsea player and what a signing he is and he only cost £7 million. Bargain for the English defender

My two reviews this week are a repeat of a super Sunday clash. The two games produced 16 goals between them and proved how much dominance Manchester clubs have over London. Here they are:

Manchester City v Tottenham: 2-0
Tottenham fans would like to forget about any memories they had of this game. They lost the last one 5-1 but then went on their incredible winning streak. If this game didn’t count for much it does now as they drew last week and lost ground on City, who won on Monday night. Tottenham are without Adebayor as he is off to the African Cup of Nations. So they must rely on either Defoe or Pavlyuchenko to lead the attack. City have also been affected by the cup competition as they are without the Toure brothers. They also are missing Kompany who is still suspended.  Hopefully it will produce the same amount as goals or be as equally exciting. Despite Tottenham needing the points, I still think City will win this… just.

One to watch: Sergio Aguero – He has never lost his form this season and was close to scoring on Monday.

Arsenal v Manchester United: 1-0                                                             

For me the last game was the game of the season. It produced 10 goals, a red card, a hat-trick etc. basically it had everything a football fan had except an Arsenal win. That game is in the past, for them, and they seem to be in a fight for fourth place. I think (or should it be hope) that they will finish below Chelsea. Despite that I do think Arsenal have a chance. They always seem to pick up results here and there against the Manchester club. Both players have reintroduced legends to their clubs with Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes scoring in their second debut. Henry is desperate to play a first league game since 2007, but it suffering from a calf strain. It will be a last minute decision to whether he will play. Should be a good game and could be a turning point in the season for both clubs    

One to watch: Wayne Rooney – scored a hat-trick last time which included a free kick. A repeat is not impossible

Norwich v Chelsea: 0-3

One to watch: Fernando Torres (it’s now or never)

Everton v Blackburn: 1-1

One to watch: Mauro Formica

Fulham v Newcastle: 0-0

One to watch: Brete Hangeland

QPR v Wigan: 1-3

One to watch: Victor Moses

Stoke v West Brom: 2-2

One to watch: Peter Crouch

Sunderland v Swansea: 1-0

One to watch: Stephane Sessegnon

Wolves v Aston Villa: 1-1

One to watch: Darren Bent

Bolton v Liverpool: 1-2

One to watch: Charlie Adam

2012 Sport

Hey, Happy New Year and all that!  I know it is a bit late but it’s my first blog of the year. Yes I am back for 2012, a year that is going to be dominated by sport. This blog will cover the last couple of weeks that I have not written about then next week I will be back with my usual layout that you are so familiar with. So here goes…

Olympics 2012

We have waited as a nation for almost seven years. Given the chance to host the Olympics, the first time since 1948. I can’t wait. It is coming round fast and it is 195 days until the opening ceremony. Let’s just hope that we are ready. A lot has changed since we last hosted the event. In 60 years, from London to Beijing in 2008, the number of athletes increased from 4104 from 59 nations to 11,196 from 204 nations. London looks set to have a record amount of people participating in over 300 events. There are no new events but golf and rugby 7’s have been put into the 2016 Olympics, which is due to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

So will we improve on last time I hear you asking? Yes I think so. We have the confidence and the belief to do better than in Beijing which saw us finish fourth with 47 medals including 19 gold. Our best chance of gold is where we have always dominated, the rowing and the cycling.  However Jessica Ennis, Chris Hoy, Phillips Idowu and Rebecca Adlington look like strong contenders for gold.

I have no tickets, but I get the best view from the television. The main broadcaster of the event is going to be the BBC, again. I am sure they will provide a great service and their red button will allow all sports to be shown. I will be commenting on the Olympics nearer the time but it is exciting times for Great Britain.

Euro 2012

Has anyone really recovered from are abysmal World Cup campaign… because England are back. Yes, it is soon that time again where we are stupid enough to believe that England have a good chance to win a trophy, but only see these dreams crushed as we are usually knocked out early on.  We even came last coming out of the draw. Well we have already advanced on our 2008 campaign where we were knocked out before it even started, a time where we were managed by a guy now known as the ‘Wally with the Brolly.’ Not the greatest nickname but he did ruin our footballing summer.

Our chances are promising but with Rooney banned from the first two games, we need a striker in form, a striker that will score. Step forward Daniel Sturridge. I might be bias being a Chelsea fan but name an English striker in better form. At last we have a decent goalkeeper in Joe Hart. That is usually our biggest worry. Paul Robinson’s miskick against Croatia, David Seaman being lobbed by Ronaldinho and has anyone forgotten about Robert Green’s howler in the World Cup. Nah me neither. We have a fairly easy group and on paper it is only Sweden that proposes a threat to us, but we must think back to the game in November when we beat them 1-0.

So with that in mind, we have a good chance but it is England. You know what they are like.

Stevenage F.C

I am just going to give a quick shout out to my local team, Stevenage F.C. It has been somewhat of a chaotic week for them. I was there when they beat Reading 1-0 in the F.A cup third round. Then the rumours started to turn true as Graham Westley and some of his staff were in talks with Preston North End. It was confirmed on Friday that he will in fact move to them. He has been a fantastic manager for us and led us to three F.A trophy finals and back to back promotions. I was worried what would happen to us on Saturday against Rochdale, who too are without a manager, and whether our form would take a dip. However things couldn’t have been any better as we thrashed them 5-1. Fair play to the players and the supporters.

Darts

Darts have already finished their biggest tournaments of the year with the PDC champions already named and the BDO championship is tonight. Adrian Lewis beat Andy Hamilton to regain his title as the PDC world champion. Both players who were born in Stoke on Trent, the same birthplace as darts legend Phil Taylor hadn’t been playing their best darts and Lewis was lucky to be in the final. He almost lost in the first round but picked it up in the semi-final and final to take home £200,000. Hamilton shouldn’t feel disappointed as it was his first final. Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor had his worst year in the tournament. He was knocked out by world number 38 Dave Chisnall in the second round. I heard rumours that he would retire from darts. I hope not, he has been the main reason why the sport is so popular.

I finish this blog with my…

2012 Top 12 sporting events

1. Olympics

2.  European 2012

3.  Champions league

4.  The English Football League 2011/2012 and 2012/2013

5.  Wimbledon

6.  Superbowl XLVI

7.  Six Nations

8.  Ryder Cup

9.  F.A Cup

10. Snooker World Championship

11. Grand National

12. Europa League