The Minnowest of Minnows

We had few moments of the stuff that makes the FA Cup worth watching, then Matchweek 22 from Tuesday-Thursday.  A lot of football.  Newcastle won twice in four days.  What is going on here?

Sunny and Schar (hat tip Jon Champion)

Schar nearly became the first defender to 
bag a hat trick in the EPL

Hard to figure out how to organize all this stuff.  We'll start with a quick review of Newcastle's unlikely week.  For the 2-0 win at Fulham in the FA Cup the stats favor Fulham (possession 37/63, shots 8/12, xG 1.54/1.22) but I recall a sense of confidence that we were going to be fine.  This means a rare trip to the 5th round (against Blackburn) for the Magpies.  On Tuesday at Villa, we were fully prepared to have our butts kicked.  How to explain then the 3-1 win?   Though I've seen Aston Villa lose before Tuesday, I don't think I'd ever seen them outplayed since Emery took over.  Not sure what that's about.  Also, not the best game from keeper Martinez.  Newcastle clearly benefited from some down time and they did not run out of gas late in this one.  A brace from defender Fabian Schar didn't hurt; he definitely got a bit lucky on the second one, which came off the crossbar, deflected off Martinez and basically fell at his feet inside the six.  The third was an own goal, allbeit at the end of some beautiful buildup play that put the ball at the far post.   Arguably, these two sides are pretty much equal, each having hot streak and cold streak.  Yet somehow the aggregate score for their two fixtures is 8-2 Newcastle.  That seems impossible.  After a long streak of gray days, we definitely appreciated the clouds parting, at least for a little bit.

The Stones Are Rolling

Maidstone's Sam Corne takes the game winning shot
for the biggest upset of FA Cup action this year
Photo:AFP/BEN STANSALL

This year's FA Cup finally got the minnow eats the shark moment everybody (well almost everybody) loves with one of the bigger upsets in recent times as Maidstone United (the Stones), 4th in the National League South, edged out Ipswich Town, who sit second in the Championship Division.  That's a spread of 98 places in the English football hierarchy.  Maidstone took the lead just before half.  Given that it was Maidstone's first shot of the game and that Ipswich had dominated the play, this seemed like one of those times when "it's the hope that kills."  Sure enough, Ipswich leveled things at 56 minutes while Maidstone had yet to register another shot.  Incredibly, Maidstone took the lead again in the 66th minute with just their second shot of the match.  This would be their last shot but it would be enough for the 2-1 win.  You can see the goal here in this week's YouTubeableMoment.  You can see some of the post-match celebraton here.  They'll face the winner of the Coventry/Sheffield Wednesday replay in the 5th round.  Pretty cool, unless you're an Ipswich fan.

No Hollywood Ending

Wrexham entered their fourth round match against Blackburn with high hopes that were not necessarily unreasonable.  Blackburn are 18th in the Championship while Wrexham are second, so the spread is 32 places; it's not out of the realm of possibility that both will be playing in League One next year.  Think mackerel and tuna rather than minnow and shark.  Anyway, when Wrexham opened the scoring with a goal in the 19th minute, you had to be thinking, here we go.  Unfortunately, all that did was make the tuna mad.  It was 3-1 before half and the final was 4-1 for the Rovers.  It was clear that Blackburn were not interested in being part of anyone's fairy tale.

The Best Man Lost

Really not much to say about Liverpool's 5-2 thrashing of Norwich.  Well, other than the Best Man here - Norwich manager David Wagner - lost.  Turns out he was in fact Best Man at Jurgen Klopp's wedding.  We'll leave discussion about Klopp's announcement that he's leaving at the end of the season to other publications.

Late Winners and Other FA Cup Action

Spurs and Man City looked headed for a replay until Ake' scored in the 88th minute.  There was a VAR review for a possible foul against keeper Vicario but we think they got it right letting the goal stand.  Even more dramatic was Luton Town's 96th minute game winner at Everton that sent the Hatters to the 5th round.  There was nothing dramatic about the Chelsea - Aston Villa 0-0 draw.  Villa, perhaps presaging Tuesday's troubles against Newcastle, looked surprisingly listless.  But Chelsea were even listlesser, completely unable to take advantage of the Villa's off-day.

The Scorecard

For the fourth round of the FA Cup we have the following numbers:

Divsion                          Wins        Draws        Losses

Premier                             8                3                4

Championship                  2                7                5

League Two                      0                0                2

National League South     1                0                0

Yeah, tough weekend for the Championship sides, although three are guaranteed advancement in the replays and a fourth could also make it to the 5th Round.

Ich Bin Ein Saudi

These international competitions can lead to some interesting rooting choices.  For example, with Son Heung-Min playing for South Korea against Saudi Arabia in the AFC Asia Cup Round of 16, Michael B all of sudden became a Saudi fan because a Saudi Arabia victory would send Son back to his beloved Spurs in time for Saturday's match against Everton.  He alerted me that Saudi Arabia were up 1-0 late into stoppage time, undoubtedly pencilling Son in for Saturday's starting XI.  South Korea then proceeded to rain on that parade, leveling the match in 99th minute, then winning the penalty shootout after a scoreless 30 minutes of extra time.  Now the earliest he'll be back is 2/10, later if South Korea make the final.

Matchweek 22

Yikes, how many words in and we haven't gotten to the EPL stuff?  Gonna have to speed through it.  The marquee match was a bust as Liverpool had little trouble dispatching Chelsea 4-1.  Better stuff was Spurs - Brentford, a three act drama.  In Act I, the Bees took an early 1-0 lead and arguably looked the better side.  In Act II, the empire struck back with three goals in just eight minutes.  In Act III, Spurs conceded a second in the 67th minute and then had to hold on for dear live (Michael B text: It was emotionally exhausting).  But we'll go with the second half of Wolves-Man United as the best of the week.  Up 2-0 and 3-1, Man United frittered the lead away.  Only a late stoppage time goal from Koobie Mainoo rescued the three points for the Red Devils.  You can see the highlights here, set up to start when the Wolves decided to make things exciting.

We also need to mention that Luton Town lifted themselves out of the bottom three with 4-0 win over Brighton; where did that come from?

The January Transfer Window Nothing Burger

Harrison's nickhame is Haaland Jr

I don't mean that in a bad way.  Given that there was discussion that Newcastle could lose Guimaraes, Wilson, Almiron and Trippier, having basically nothing happen is a good thing.  We did bring in 18-year-old midfielder Alfie Harrison from Man City for an undisclosed "nominal fee."  Quite relieved they will roll the dice with what they have and wait until the summer transfer window to make bigger moves.

You can review every team's movements here.  A quick eyeballing suggests it was a very quiet window.

The Weekend

There's a full slate of matches for the weekend plus FA Cup replays mid-week.  We're in New Hampshire so not clear how much of that action we'll get to see.  

The Matchweek 23 fixture list is not going to blow you away, although we do have Arsenal hosting Liverpool at 11:30 Sunday on Peacock.  Already 5 points down to Liverpool, one might be ready to label this a "must-win" for the Gunners; definitely a "must-not lose."   I guess we should respect Man United vs West Ham (9 Sunday on Peacock) and Chelsea vs Wolves (9 Sunday on USA) as potentially competitive matches.  I forgot that West Ham are ahead of Man United in the table and that Chelsea are just one place and two points above Wolves.

The BFS sides have what on paper look like winnable matches.  Newcastle host Luton Town (10 Saturday on Peacock) while Aston Villa are at Sheffield United in the NBC Feature Match 12:30 Saturday on Peacock.  Wait, the 12:30 Saturday match is on Peacock?  WTF is going on here?  Oh, NBC has the US Olympic Trials Marathon live.  Never mind.  We're good.  

Probably worth getting up at 7:30 Saturday to see Everton host Spurs on USA; not really expecting an upset but might be close because it's at Goodison Park.  Competition for Newcastle - Luton Town in the 10 am Saturday slot is Brighton - Crystal Palace (USA) or Burnley - Fulham (Peacock).  That latter match could be a tight one.  Bournemouth - Nottingham Forest at 9 am Sunday looks like a poor 3rd option compared to the other choices. 

There's also Monday match between Brentford and Man City at 3 on USA.  Probably the only good thing about that one is that it's your only choice.

There are five FA Cup replays Tuesday and Wednesday.  Best choice is clearly Aston Villa - Chelsea Wednesday at 3 pm.  Neither side has exactly thrilled in recent weeks but I think Villa are more likely to respond here.  The full schedule is here; note that Tuesday looks like a Championship Division matchweek, as all six sides are from the second tier.

Looking ahead, Champions League and the other European competitions are back the following week.  You're viewing plate continues to be full.