The FA Cup quarter-finals started yesterday and if ever one team needed a morale boosting win then it was Portsmouth. The 2008 winners are now in the semi-finals which will be played at Wembley after beating Birmingham 2-0.
Portsmouth deserved the victory as well by all accounts but Birmingham are a very difficult side to beat so I am sure than any team who plays Portsmouth in the semi-final would prefer them over Birmingham if they were honest.
Fulham and Tottenham ground out a tense 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage and must now replay at the lane. This is Tottenham’s third consecutive replay and Fulham are also experiencing a fixture pile up with two more games at least in Europe against Juventus to come.
I would place Juventus on a similar level to Shakhtar Donetsk so Fulham should start as underdogs. I don’t expect another upset as I tend to go by probabilities to base my decisions.
Sometimes it appears that I am being overly hard on teams but its just simple probability. How long can teams go on for beating superior opposition? Reading play Aston Villa today while the game that I am looking forward to is Stoke against Chelsea.
Tony Pulis has done a fantastic job at Stoke and after easily avoiding relegation last season after being promoted, they are doing so again this season. Any manager who accomplishes that has to be seriously commended.
I was one of the people who thought that sides would adjust to Stoke this season and that they could struggle…….10pts clear of the relegation zone with 10 games to go is hardly struggling is it?
It will be interesting today to see how Chelsea handle the direct style of Stoke and players like Ricardo Fuller and Rory Delap. Defeat for Chelsea today come be damaging to their morale coming on the back of losing the lead in the title race yesterday with Manchester United winning at Wolves.
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