A Slow Week?

Only a few things to review but a lot coming up with weekend and mid-week matches.  Spirits Tyneside could be much improved by Tuesday night.  Or not.


FA Cup

A flattering picture of Newport County's pitch;
 I didn't remember that much grass

Not much memorable in the 5th round matches.   I did catch AFC Wimbledon lose 0-1 to Millwall in front of an enthusiastic 4,795 fans. Biggest thing I saw was League Two Newport County hold Man City scoreless until 50:32 on a pitch that made the Water Tower field look like a paradise.  That was the first time the Citizens hadn't scored in the first half since being shut out by Chelsea back on December 8.  Back when Chelsea seemed like they might be good.  The Blues exited the FA Cup looking mostly disinterested or maybe disoriented in a 0-2 loss to Man United.  Reports of Maurizio Sarri's departure are rampant.  This article goes as far as identifying potential replacements.  If he does get sacked, the obvious headline should be "Sorry, Not Sarri."  You heard it here first.

The quarterfinals are set and tournament officials are probably breathing a deep sigh of relief that the draw did not end up with Man City facing Man United.  Complete match ups can be found here.  I guess my rooting interests now shift to Crystal Palace, who are enjoying a deep run in the Cup despite a less than stellar season in the EPL.


Fourth Most Important Competition Final on Sunday

Ranking a distant fourth behind the EPL, the Champions League and the FA Cup title is the League Cup, commercially known as the Carabao Cup.  In Football Manager, the board of my Chester Blues has set these objectives for my team:

EPL - challenge for title
Champions League - reach semi-final
FA Cup - reach final
League Cup - not high on our list of priorities

Not much different in real life. The final is this Sunday at 11:30 between Man City and Chelsea.  Consistent with the step-sister treatment of this tournament, the only place you can see it in the US is on ESPN+.  I will be very interested to see the squads that each team fields for this championship.  Chelsea have a critical match with Tottenham on Wednesday and Man City will have to deal with West Ham.  Not saying I won't watch but going in with low expectations.


Speaking of Chester

Between too many other activities, in cyber time I'm about a month behind.  The team is doing okay but we have had issues.  We sit second in the table, five behind Liverpool but with two games in hand.  We're into the knockout round in Champions League, just got a fourth round win in the FA Cup and have made it to the League Cup final.  Sounds good enough but we can struggle.  Spending much of the time figuring out how to deal with match congestion; more than once we've had four matches in the space of 10 days.  I thought we improved our depth in the off season but it may be that with so many players, we're not gelling as a squad.  Could be worse but could be better.


Champions League

So that Michael B doesn't give me crap for writing about Chester but not Champions League, I note that Atletico posted a convincing 2-0 home win against Juventus in their first leg knockout match.   The Man City Schalke match might have been a good one too with the Citizens scoring a stoppage time goal, down a man, to take a 3-2 road win.  Tuesday's enticing matches ended up as 0-0 draws  involving Liverpool-Bayern and Lyon-Barcelona; I believe I was caught napping during the second half of the Liverpool contest.


A Critical Four Days

Newcastle are staring six big points right in the face.   The Magpies have home matches with Huddersfield and Burnley on Saturday and Tuesday.  This is a big chance to put the relegation zone farther back in the rear view mirror.  And for some reason, the schedulers have decided that both should be on TV - Saturday at 10 am on Tuesday at 3 pm, both on NBCSN.

Feature match of the bunch is Man United hosting Liverpool on Sunday at 9:05 on NBCSN.  Spurs at Chelsea on Wednesday at 3 pm (NBCSN) is probably worth a look too.

The rest of the TV schedule is "interesting."  Friday (probably too late by the time you read this) you can catch a London derby between West Ham and Fulham at 2:45 (NBCSN).  Saturday's early game is Burnley-Tottenham.  Magpie fans will be Spurs fans for that one.  The Saturday NBC match is Crystal Palace away to Leicester; that might not be too bad.  There's a relegation special between Southampton and Fulham on Wednesday.  The weekend's matches are nicely spread out over three days and different starting times.  The midweek stuff is crammed into two days with similar starting times; makes it harder to see multiple contests.  Hashtag First World Problems.