I’m happy this weekend is out of the way
While it’s great to see some FA Cup action, these weekends are always the worst when you’ve already been knocked out. We were unlucky enough to draw Chelsea in the last round and were swiftly dumped out of the FA Cup bandwagon, making this week a tedious wait for Premier League football to resume next week.
Bournemouth away up next is a massive game that could determine the outcome of the season. A win there could see us move into the top half, but a loss would send us back towards the clutches of relegation. As I write this Sunderland are losing against Bolton in a bottom of the Championship relegation scrap, which makes everything seem a bit better.
Taxi for West Brom?
One of the most bizarre stories of the week came from Barcelona, where Alan Pardew had taken his West Brom team for some warm weather training. What was supposed to be a morale-boosting, season-changing trip ended up in a disaster, when four players stole a taxi after a late night trip to McDonald’s! To make matters worse, Pardew got his jacket stolen from their hotel room and lost his wallet. The trip couldn’t have gone much worse then, and the sun didn’t seem to have made a positive performance benefit, as they lost at home to Southampton in the cup a few days later.
Will Grigg’s on fire!
The biggest shock of the weekend, and probably in a few years, was Wigan’s defeat of Man City on Monday night. Will Grigg, yes the one from the famous chant, scored the winning goal that put paid to City’s quadruple hopes. All hell broke loose when City were reduced to 10 men after a dangerous tackle from Fabian Delph before half-time, with Guardiola going crazy on the touchline and both sets of players confronting each other in the tunnel at the end of the half.
TV footage of Guardiola trying to get to the Wigan manager Paul Cook has gone viral on social media. His aggressive stance must have brushed off on Sergio Aguero, who pushed a fan after the final whistle pitch invasion and tried to start a full-blown fight. The City fans, not used to losing, started throwing anything they could get their hands on at the security stewards after the game finished, it’s a good job they don’t lose more often, isn’t it?