Tuesday 17 April
Marcos Alonso has been charged with violent conduct and will be banned for two matches. The FA have given him until 6PM to rebut the allegation.
The offence was clearly seen by the referee at the time and no action was taken but the subsequent media witch-hunt has ensured Marcos was charged. Match of the Day thought it a straight red offence and Sky goaded Mark Hughes into mentioning it after the match.
That Ashley Young got away scotfree when nearly taking off Sergio Aguero’s leg and wasn’t subsequently charged because the referee saw the incident and allowed the reckless endangerment because of the slightest brush on the ball as the studs slashed through to meet bone.
That the FA and the referees are gutless and incompetent is common knowledge that they are partisan cheats is now beyond dispute.
Remember that PGMOL are now running their cabal so effectively that no English referee is deemed of sufficient competence to attend the World Cup this summer.
Thursday 19 April
Burnley 1:2 Chelsea
This was so much better, The goals both came from Victor Moses’s determination but the pairing of Morata and Giroud as a front two reallu helped the team behind them.
Resting Hazard and Willian for the weekend agaist a team on a five-game winning streak would have spelt disaster a few weeks back but this display was resolute and controlled in defence and slick going forward. Their goal took a huge deflection going past Courtois on his 150 cap for the Blues.
Friday 20 April
Roy Bentley has left us. Our first trophy-winning captain leaves the stage at 93.
Roy wasn’t just our captain but an inspirational figure for later generations of players. He showed so much dignity and honour in, finally, lifting the League trophy he won in 1955 during the celebrations for our Premier League win on 2005.
Roy scored 150 goals for Chelsea in eight seasons but it is his personality and character that will leave the deepest, most abiding memory. He will be missed.
Uefa Youth League
Semi-final
Chelsea U19 2:2 Porto U19
(Chelsea win 5-4 on penalties)
What a game and what a penalty shootout. We marched in to our third Youth League final only after missing two penalties but watching Jamie Cumming save three.
Daishawn Redan nipped us ahead in the first half but a brilliantly placed header drew Porto level. They snatched a late lead but Josh Grant refused to give up a loose ball from a corner and scuffed an equaliser to take us to penalties.
Meanwhile, Gooners have finally gotten their prize as Arsene Wenger announced his departure at the end of the season. They are glossing it as a long farewell but fans and members of the board have been eager to get rid of him for years and it is clear he was pushed. We will miss him but after Arsenal stumble from manager to manager in the next few years, throwing money at their problems and failing, we will probably not miss him as much as the Gooners will.
Saturday 21 April
Spurs couldn’t even win an FA Cup semi-final playing at home. While a neutral venue is traditional for these occasions but with the homeless North Londoner’s squatting the national stadium, instead it was Manchester United who, with little effort, brushed aside the Lilywhite Army.
Wolves are champions of the Championship. The FA and the Premier League will now have to get their heads around an ownership structure that includes owners holding stakes in agent’s companies and possibly vice versa
Sunderland plummet out of the other end of the Championship and will play third tier football while still receiving parachute payments form the Premier League. Accrington and Luton have secured promotion to League One from the other direction and Macclesfield Town become the latest Football League side as they secured promotion from the National League.
Sunday 22 April
Chelsea 2:0 Southampton
A second win at Wembley this season and a stuttering but ultimately satisfying afternoon means we will meet Manchester United and their little known manager in the FA Cup final.
Olivier Giroud tiptoed through the Saints’ defence, leaving five defenders bodies on the turf, to write himself a part of the Chelsea FA Cup story and Alvaro Morata popped up to head the second and dispel a few of his own daemons.
Southampton, for their part, didn’t show up in the first period, at all, and had little else to moan about than the ball appearing to go behind the line after a free-kick had been awarded. Their striker jumped into the, unstable, Caballero while he was in the air. All the commentators thought it a soft free-kick and that it should have been a goal. BT Sport hired an expert referee who quickly pointed out that the ’keeper had been barged while he was in the air and that offence is automatically a free-kick, so the whole furore and endless gabbing by commentators about the incident was redundant. Another case of all the ex-pros in the world not understanding the laws of the game.
Chelsea 1:3 Wolfsburg
The women got off to the perfect start as Ji So-Yun prodded us ahead early but Wolfsburg are the team we measure ourselves against and they took us to the cleaners – better passing, better movement, better finishing. It didn’t help that we seemed to lose our philosophy and started banging long balls into the channels for Fran Kirby to chase.
It was not a pretty night, as Wolfsburg played really well and fashioned most of the good chances and all of the flowing football.
Fran Kirby looked happier in the evening as half the women’s team were nominated for the PFA player of the year but she won. Fran has made a real break through this year with plenty of goals and assists to her name in winning the Spring Series and now leading the WSL and through to another FA Cup final.
