
Football
In the Premier League at the weekend, Manchester City fell further off the pace after their 0-0 draw at relegation threatened Norwich on Saturday. Meanwhile Spurs made up for their thrashing against Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League on Thursday night with a comfortable 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
The win was a vital one for Spurs as it moved them back within two points of leaders Leicester, who face a potential banana skin at the King Power tonight in the shape of relegation threatened Newcastle.
The Toon finally ended their nightmare relationship with Steve McLaren midweek and replaced him with the hugely successful Rafa Benitez, who I expect will conjure up a much improved performance from a talented squad of players who have lacked motivation and strong leadership this season.
Arsenal’s season went from bad to worse yesterday as they lost their FA Cup quarter final 2-1 against Watford at the Emirates. Troy Deeney and top scorer Ighalo shone up front for Watford and they were a constant thorn in the side of Arsenal’s shaky defence.
Deeney assisted both goals, the first a clever flick on that found top scorer Ighalo on the edge of the six yard box and the Nigerian made light work of fending off Gabriel for the well-deserved opener. With the Gunners flailing defence struggling to cope with Deeney and Ighalo the longer the match went on it was no surprise when Watford doubled their lead 13 minutes later.
Troy Deeney was again allowed too much space in the area and his squared pass found the advancing Guedioura on the edge of the area. Guedioura had plenty of time and space to weigh up his shot and it was a real screamer that rocketed in to the top right hand corner.
Arsenal pulled one back thanks to sub Danny Welbeck with minutes remaining, but it was too little too late for the Gunners and the way their season is heading they are sure to end it empty handed, which could finally spell the end for manager Arsene Wenger.
In the second FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday Manchester United came close to crashing out of the competition against West Ham at Old Trafford. The Hammers star player this season Dimitri Payet opened the scoring midway through the second half with a brilliant curling 25 yard free kick that would have been a worthy match winner.
However, Van Gaal’s changes with 15 minutes remaining saved him from further blushes as £30 million teenage striker Anthony Martial, who replaced striker Marcus Rashford upfront after starting on the right wing, popped up with the equalizer with 7 minutes remaining to earn him and his team mates a replay at the Boleyn Ground and another chance to join Crystal Palace, Everton and Watford in the semi-finals at Wembley.