Chelsea produced a thoroughly professional performance yesterday beating Stoke City 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to march on to the semi-finals of the cup at Wembley. Even John Terry had a good game and he appears to be getting over his personal problems now.
I don’t know if any of the English teams are strong enough at this time to win the Champions League but Chelsea will not be thinking about that just yet. They now face Aston Villa in the semi-finals at Wembley after an amazing game at Reading in which they came from 2-0 down at half-time to score three goals in the first 11 minutes of the second half and they eventually won 4-2.
Portsmouth will play the winner of the Tottenham versus Fulham replay and who would back against Portsmouth having the spirit to reach another final? They are still battling their possible 9pt deduction in the league in the courts and if they win that then who knows.
They play Birmingham again in the league this week and if they win that and their court battle to keep the 9pts then they could only be 2pts from safety. I have known teams in the past get to the FA Cup final in the same season that they were relegated. It could often be a great cushion in the past but not so today with the financial incentives that are on offer for being in the top league.
I still think that the winner will come from either Chelsea/Villa/Spurs but who would write Fulham off in the replay at White Hart Lane……not me.
