Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United - FA Cup quarter-final replay

Stefan Wermu - Reuters 

Chelsea’s Demba Ba produced the only goal in the FA Cup quarter-final replay win against Manchester United, setting them up with a semi-final tie at Wembley against Manchester City.

The game lacked life during the first 20 minutes of the game, as both sides were unable to find any rhythm in their game and were producing sloppy passing.

This may have been down to the fact a lot of players may have been tired from playing internationals during the last week and league fixtures during the weekend.

After Ashley Cole was subbed off the field and replaced by Ryan Bertrand due to a hamstring problem, the game started to earn a bit of life.

Javier Hernandez tried to take a shot inside Chelsea’s penalty area, but he took one turn too many and lost the ball to Ramires, who cleared.

Chelsea had a chance of their own not long later when Eden Hazard went on a good run, wrong footing Chris Smalling along the way, and then rolling the ball to Demba Ba.

Ba then had a shot from the right side of the penalty area but this shot was saved by David De Gea which caused the ball to go out for a throw in.

Moments later, Chelsea was given a free kick thanks to a Nani handball. David Luiz took the free kick, which went over the cross bar convincingly.

After this, Nani tried to redeem himself with a long shot in Chelsea’s half, but the ball went wide of Petr Cech’s right hand post.

Hazard then formed a nice one-two partnership with Oscar inside Manchester United’s penalty area, but his shot went harmlessly over De Gea’s crossbar.

Hernandez was the next Manchester United player to have a shot from range on Cech’s goal. His shot was on target, and was only saved by the feet of Cech as the ball swerved in the air.

Just before half time, John Obi Mikel had a shot on the edge of the area for Chelsea but the ball hit Smalling and went for a corner.

Nothing came from this corner for Chelsea, so the half time score was 0-0.

Manchester United started off with the first chance of the second half as Luiz fouled Phil Jones on the edge of the area, giving them a free kick.

Nani took the free kick but his shot hit the wall and his following cross was plucked out of the air by Cech.

Two minutes later, Chelsea broke the deadlock.

Ba outstretched his leg to make contact with a Juan Mata ball and he put enough power on the ball to guide it past De Gea to the left side of the net, giving Chelsea a 1-0 lead.

Manchester United replied not too long after this with an opportunity to get on the score sheet.

A cross by Danny Welbeck gave Hernandez a close range header and a chance to score, but his header pulled out a fantastic save by Cech.

Mata responded for Chelsea after picking up a nice through ball by Hazard in the left side of Manchester United’s area, but his shot hit the side netting.

Michael Carrick then had a chance for Manchester United, but he should have passed the ball instead of taking the shot as he had better options around him. His shot from the edge of the area went wide.

Carrick made another error moments later as his lose pass was picked up by Hazard. Hazard then dribbled the ball to the penalty area but his shot went wide of the right hand post.

After this chance, Chelsea looked more likely to score as Oscar’s shot five minutes before the 90 minute mark went wide of the left hand post.

Robin Van Persie had the best chance in the last few minutes for Manchester United as he was able to volley a Patrice Evra cross, but his volley went over the bar.

This was an unusual site from Van Persie, who has been scoring goals for fun this season.

No more real opportunities occurred for either side, which meant the score finished Chelsea 1-0 Manchester United.

This win for Chelsea sets them up with a trip to Wembley to play Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final on the 14^th April.

Line-ups

Chelsea

01 Cech

02 Ivanovic

03 Cole (Bertrand - 21’ (Booked))

04 David Luiz

28 Azpilicueta (Booked)

07 Ramires

10 Mata (Booked)

11 Oscar (Booked) (Moses 90’)

12 Mikel

17 Hazard

29 Ba (Torres 90’)

Substitutes

22 Turnbull

26 Terry

34 Bertrand

08 Lampard

13 Moses

30 Benayoun

09 Torres

Manchester United

01 De Gea

03 Evra

04 Jones

05 Ferdinand

12 Smalling

07 Valencia

16 Carrick

17 Nani (Giggs 65’)

23 Cleverley (Booked) (Van Persie 61’)

14 Hernandez

19 Welbeck (Young 80’)

Substitutes

13 Lindegaard

36 Vermijl

11 Giggs

18 Young

25 Powell

26 Kagawa

20 Van Persie

Man of the Match: Demba Ba

Ref: Dowd

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Premier League title could be decided before or on Manchester Derby day

They think it’s all over. It could be now! Manchester United is currently 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League and ahead of their rivals, Manchester City. I believe that United will win the title if City fails to decrease this lead by half in the five games running up to and including the Manchester Derby on 6^th April.

This Derby game will be at Old Trafford so have no doubt the United fans will be rubbing the points difference in the City fans faces, just like City did when they defeated United 6-1 back in October 2011.

This time last season, City was sitting on the top of the table, five points clear of United but United had a game in hand.

City’s home record was impeccable too having won all 14 league home games at this point of the season, scoring 42 goals and only conceding six.

This season has been a different story though as they won nine, drawn three and lost one game at home, scoring 29 and conceding 11.

Their away form has taken a slight hit when compared to last season too. City’s current away record of winning six, drawing five and losing two games is a marginal decrease from last season’s record at this point of winning seven, drawing three and losing three.

However, a lot of fans of the Premier League will say the main reason for the separation between the two clubs is one man, United’s summer signing of Robin Van Persie, but I don’t believe this is the case.

United’s home and away record this season is more-or-less the same as what it was at this point last season.

So if you removed £22.5m Van Persie from the United squad, would the likes of Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck be able to step up to fill his place?

The answer is clearly yes as shown from how United performed last season when they didn’t have RVP at all.

Granted, City would definitely be performing better this season if they were able to persuade RVP to come to them last season.

But they don’t have him and most of their strikers have failed to match or improve on their goal scoring records from last season.

Sergio Aguero has only scored nine goals this season in the Premier League. He has a lot of goals to find if he is to match his 23 goals he scored last season.

Carlos Tevez has scored seven goals this season, improving on his last season Premier League goal scoring record of four. However, I still don’t think this is good enough for a striker of Manchester City.

Edin Dzeko is City’s top goal scorer this season with 11 goals, three shy of his tally last season of 14. But it’s a similar situation as Tevez as I still don’t believe this is good enough.

City’s defence has been better than United’s defence this season, having only conceded 24 goals compared to United who have conceded 31 goals.

But without a striking force getting the goals, this means a lot of draws have occurred this season for City, eight in total.

With five games to go before the Manchester Derby on the 6^th April, in my eyes, City need to half the points difference between them and United if they still want to be in title contention.

It won’t be easy for City, as they have tough games against Chelsea, Everton and a newly reformed Newcastle side.

United’s run of games before the Manchester Derby seems to come cross a lot easier, with ties against QPR, Norwich and Reading.

With all this taken into consideration though, United seem to have the upper hand so I think United will win the title if they stay on their current form and not allow their point lead ahead of City to decrease.

City’s manager Roberto Mancini recently admitted he feels his side now has a 10% chance of winning the Premier League and he must make changes to his squad if he is to make this 10% achievable.

But United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson is not the type of manager to admit that the job is done until the final whistle on the last day of the season.

And he’s right to think so as any City fans will tell you too, thanks to Aguero’s 95^th minute goal on the last day of last season, anything is possible and nothing should be written off early.

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The Worlds Leading Sports Star In 2010 Was Carlos Tevez And Here's Why

Carlos Tevez - Manchester City Striker

Carlos Tevez, 27, is no doubt one of the best, if not, the best footballer in the Premier League and the world’s leading sports star in 2010. 


Since signing for Manchester City in July 2009 from local rivals Manchester United, he has been recognised as a player with great importance to the City squad in every game which they play. His contribution towards Manchester City throughout the 2009/2010 Premier League season can only be graded as phenomenal scoring a total of 23 goals, the 4^th highest goal scorer in the Premier League, and helping Manchester City finish 5^th place. 


This was Manchester City’s highest finishing position in the Premier league since the competition began in 1992 and only just missing them out on a Champions League spot. Carlos Tevez always steps up to the mark and sets an example to the rest of the team whether Manchester City is playing against their local rivals Manchester United, or against any other club in the Premier League. 


A key game which he contributed in the 2009/2010 Premier League season was against Chelsea on the 27^th February 2010 when he scored two goals to help Manchester City win 4-2, adding more pressure onto Tottenham Hotspur for 4^th place. 


However, this wasn’t enough as Tottenham Hotspur won the vital match against Manchester City by 1-0 on 5^th May 2010 giving them 4^th place and a Champions League spot. 


His overall fantastic performance for his first season at Manchester City earned him the ‘Player’s Player of the Year’ award and the ‘Etihad Player of the Year’ award.  Carlos Tevez was selected for the Argentina 2010 FIFA World Cup squad taking place in South Africa. He scored two goals for Argentina in the competition, both against Mexico in the Round of 16. 


There was though a lot of controversy over the first goal because Carlos Tevez was a couple of yards offside when he headed the ball into the back of the net. It was only because the goal was shown on the big screen in the Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg that the Mexican players surrounded the linesman and started to complain as everybody could see that Carlos Tevez was offside, causing it to be one of the most memorable events of the competition. 


After the World Cup, Carlos Tevez was awarded the captain arm band for Manchester City in replace for Kolo Toure. He continued his scoring form from 2009/2010 into the 2010/2011 Premier League season kicking off his scoring against Liverpool with two great goals helping Manchester City to their first win of the season. 


He then continued his goal scoring form against Chelsea with a 1-0 victory taking his tally to six goals in five games. Now in 2011, we can already see that Carlos Tevez is continuing his fantastic goal scoring form and earning his status of a world-class footballer. For as long as he doesn’t pick up any injuries, I see no reason as to why Carlos Tevez can’t continue to play football at a elite level, and help Manchester City continue to reach for the highest honours possible in football. 


The future is bright for Carlos Tevez. The future is bright for Manchester City for obtaining such a great player.


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