FA Cup

Big weekend of FA Cup football, quality seeing sunny winter days, hard pitches and small grounds.

Saturday saw Blackburn grind out a draw versus Arsenal and Man Utd mess around and end up going to a replay versus Reading.

Both of these results raise interesting questions. Firstly, Arsenal struggled again versus a team set out to frustrate them, they really are one dimension, it may be a pretty dimension, but they are lots of style and little substance, Henry who is hailed as being a great of the modern game, but it is obvious that something is amiss with the Frenchman, he is more petulant than usual, he got involved in a nasty spat with Kirkland the Wigan Goalkeeper last week and is failing to influence games, to the degree that Arsenal looked more effective when they played with Van Persie and Adebayor when Henry was injured. In form he is an irresistible force he is not in form right now.

Equally of note from that game was the spat at the full time whistle, between teenage midfielder Fabregas of Arsenal and Blackburn's manager Mark Hughes, now I appreciate Fabregas is young but he must have knowledge of Hughes, a great player in his time and a multiple FA Cup and League winner with Man Utd and Chelsea, more relevantly though perhaps is that fact that he was HARD AS NAILS, and knocked defenders all over the park in his pomp, he also had a short fuse and didn't take crap from anyone, I vividly remember him giving a Sheffield United defender a boot up the arse after he'd committed a foul against Hughes. Not a man to be trifled with, someone really should school these youngsters about who to take on and who not to. A quick note for Cesc, don't mess with Pearce at Man City either...

Reading got a draw when they were hammered at OT versus Man Utd, they should have lost by 3 or 4 but scored a set piece and saw it out. Job done. Teams have no obligation to get hammered by taking on the best teams as they are man for man less talented than Man Utd's lesser strength team or Arsenal's, they have an obligation to try to do the right thing for them, which Reading did in earning a money spinning replay, and their fans get the chance to host Utd and it gives Reading a better chance of progressing than going to OT and trying to ply with Utd. Of course the team picked by Steve Coppell was criticised prior to the game by the media as it was an 'understrength' side, as always we learn that they know little...

Sunday's games were poor Man City outplayed, outfought and out muscled Preston in a game PNE hope to repeat next year in the top division, another impressive performance from Nugent against Premiership opposition is likely to see him in that League next year whether his team mates are or not.
Fulham dominated large sections of the game against Spurs, had no cutting edge and ended up getting beat 0-4. Shame for them but Spurs could be a decent gamble for this year's Cup.