Capital One Cup – My
Review
This seasons Capital One Cup has thrown up its usual share
of shocks and excitement. From Leeds United dumping Everton out in the third
round at Elland Road, to the incredible 5-7 encounter between Reading and
Arsenal the round after at The Madjeski Stadium. It has been a real thrill to
watch the tournament unfold. Without question the real show stealers have been
Bradford City. The League Two side have had the fairytale tournament, starting
in the first round with a 1-0 away win at Notts County, the second round proved
to be even tougher with a trip to Watford, but The Bantams still prevailed and
returned to Yorkshire with a 2-1 victory. After that came a 3-2 home win over
divisional rivals Burton Albion, and with that win came the reward of a fourth
round tie away at Premier League side Wigan Athletic. That tie ended 0-0 and it
came down to penalties. In the end, the underdogs prevailed 4-2 in the shootout
and that is when people were beginning to take notice of them.
Next up for Bradford was a visit to Valley Parade from 2011
cup finalists Arsenal. The Gunners were being widely tipped to run riot over
the home side, but we witnessed something even more unbelievable instead.
Bradford had scored midway through the first half and retained that one goal
lead for most of the game and appeared on the verge of pulling off the shock of
tournament until Arsenal scored right at the death and sent the game into extra
time. It then seemed that despite it taking them almost an entire game, Arsenal
might well finish this off in extra time, but the 30 minutes of extra time went
by and the scores stayed level. It was time for the dreaded shootout! Bradford
got off to the perfect start by scoring their first 2 kicks while Arsenal
missed theirs. The Gunners eventually found their shooting boots at the third
time of asking while Bradford missed their third but netted the fourth. Arsenal
scored their fourth as well leaving Bradford with the chance of winning the tie
if they could score the final penalty, but it was saved! But Arsenal still had
to score their final kick to stay in the tie. Captain Thomas Vermaelen stepped
up but hit the post and Bradford City booked themselves a place in the semi
final winning the game 3-2 on penalties. An incredible night for the club and
their fans, one which I don’t think any of them will ever forget.
After the unbelievable quarter-final, Bradford’s next
challenge was two games against Aston Villa home and away. Villa had been
struggling in the Premier League but despite that, they still had the
favourites tag. The game at Valley Parade was just an thrilling an encounter
between these two teams as the previous game with Arsenal was, the only
difference being more goals were scored. Bradford came out 3-1 winners and left
The Villians with a lot of work to do in the home tie a couple of weeks later.
When the time came for that match to take place, Villa got a vital goal in the
first half, but midway through the second half, Bradford did the unthinkable
again and scored to give them a 4-2 lead on aggregate. Villa tried and tried,
and eventually managed to score again to win the match 2-1, but it wasn’t
enough. Bradford won the overall tie 4-3 and making a name for themselves in the
process by becoming only the second team from the fourth tier of English league
football to make it to a major cup final. Awaiting them were Swansea City who
knocked out Chelsea in their semi-final, who would be hoping to win their first
major honour in their clubs history. The stage was set for an exciting
encounter.
Yesterday afternoon, Bradford and Swansea met in the final,
and it was The Swans who came out victorious. 5-0 was the score when the
referee blew his whistle to call time on the game, and while the score
definitely showed Swansea’s dominance, nothing can be taken away from Bradford
City and the effort they made in this tournament. They’ve certainly given me and plenty of other
football fans some entertainment over the past couple of months and given us
plenty to talk about as well. The tie against Swansea was always going to be
the toughest for them. When they played Wigan and Aston Villa, they were
playing teams low on confidence due to their league positions. And their game
against Arsenal was being played at a venue which certainly didn’t suit The
Gunners at all and the pressure put on them by fans and media didn’t do them
any favours and if anything it helped cost them the tie in my mind. With the
final coming at Wembley and against a team full of confidence and doing well in
The Premier League, it is no real surprise that the game turned out the way it
did. Phil Parkinson and his team can be praised for starting from the first
round of this tournament and being able to show the right amount of fight and
determination to get as far as they have in the competition. I hope that the
players, staff, fans and everyone else related to the club can forget the disappointment
of losing the final and just feel proud of that fact that they made it there in
the first place.
There is no denying Swansea City have excelled this season. I’ll
hold my hands up and admit that when they finished 11th last season and Brendan
Rodgers left them to join Liverpool, I thought they were a certainty to be
relegated as I didn’t think whoever would come in to the club would be able to
do what Rodgers had done for them. But right from day one when they thumped
Queens Park Rangers 5-0 at Loftus Road, they’ve gone from strength to strength and
shown themselves to be a quality team in the Premier League this season. They
also deserve credit for being able to go on the cup run they have and still
managed to maintain a high standard in the league. A classic example of that going
wrong was a couple of years ago when Birmingham City won the League Cup but suffered
relegation in the same season. With 37 points achieved with 11 games to go,
Swansea would seem to have Premier League safety secured this season and will
now just be looking to finish as high in the table as they possibly can. Key
players from last season such as Joe Allen and Scott Sinclair left the club,
but new recruits for this season such as Jonathan De Guzman and Michu have managed
to offer manager Michael Laudrup more and with European football coming to The
Liberty Stadium next season, Laudrup can look to build Swansea into an
established Premier League side than can start challenging for European places
every season. Congratulations to Swansea City on their Capital One Cup victory
and here is hoping next seasons tournament is filled with just as much action
and surprises!
Premier League –
Weekend Review
Things just don’t seem to be looking up for Queens Park
Rangers at the moment. A 2-0 home defeat against Manchester United has left them
7 points from safety with 11 games to go. Their next 5 games are all against
teams in the lower half of the table and if Harry Redknapp is going to get them
out of trouble, he’s going to need to try and get maximum points from all of
these games. If he doesn’t, I think it might well be lights out for QPR and
their Premier League adventure. Fellow strugglers Aston Villa were beaten 2-1
by Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium. The Villians were 5 minutes away from
grabbing a valuable point before Santi Cazorla’s 2nd goal put the game to bed.
The four other teams around the drop-zone all played each other as well this
weekend. Wigan leapfrogged Reading in the table after they picked up a huge 3-0
away win against The Royals. The home side certainly weren’t helped by Pavel
Pogrebnyaks sending off, and Newcastle beat Southampton 4-2 at St James Park on
Sunday afternoon to go 6 points clear of Wigan who are in 17th place tied on 24
points with Aston Villa, but The Latics gain the extra place because of their
superior goal difference.
By the time all the action ended on Saturday, Manchester
United were 15 points clear of rivals Manchester City at the top of the table,
City played 3rd placed Chelsea at The Etihad Stadium on Sunday knowing they had
to take maximum points if they were still in with a chance of catching United.
Goals from Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez secured the 2-0 win and 3 points cutting
the gap at the top down to 12. Still a lot of work to do for City to close the
gap and they will need to make sure they don’t drop anymore valuable points and
hope that city rivals Uniteds upcoming opponents make them drop the points instead.
The other action from the weekend included wins for Fulham, Norwich City and
West Bromwich Albion. The Cottagers beat Stoke City 1-0 after an excellent
Dimitar Berbatov finish on the stroke of half time. Norwich perhaps caused the
biggest surprise of the day beating Everton 2-1 at Carrow Road and West
Bromwich Albion once again showed why they are a force to be reckoned with at
home with a 2-1 win against Sunderland. That result tied with Newcastle’s win
on Sunday sees The Black Cats drop to 15th in the table just 5 points clear of
the relegation zone. The last game to take place see’s West Ham United take on
London rivals Tottenham Hotspur tonight at Upton Park. If West Ham win, they
can climb a couple of places in the table helping solidify a mid-table spot,
while if Spurs can pick up all 3 points, it allows them to overtake Chelsea in 3rd
place and send them 4 points clear of rivals Arsenal ahead of the North London
Derby next Sunday at White Hart Lane.
Andrew.
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