Season 25 Week 19 processing...

Good moaning and welcome to week 19 of the season.

Just doing the reset and opening the envelopes.

Man City v Chelsea

A Hatem Ben Arfa inspired Chelsea visit Manchester finding themselves in a decent run of form. Unlike a few of the other mid table sides and after a brief flirtation with the drop zone, The Special One has got Chelsea performing. And with Oscar and Ramires supporting the star man Ben Arfa there's always a chance of an upset. Their hosts are looking ominous though. The Sky Blue machine is a team that the opposition manager would be proud of, full of power, pace and menace. The midfield is immense and has a myriad of options including new boy Stevie G. and up front destroyer in chief Dzeko is fulfilling his early promise. Chelsea's hopes lie in it being FA Cup semi final weekend and City's game with Plymouth. Is this the week City slip up?

Birmingham v Man Utd 

It will pain Rich to see his beloved United getting a beating but given his masochistic tendencies the bench will be entertaining to watch this week. LVG's light weight FLY tactic should be dismantled by Rich's Birmingham and RVP and Welbeck will have a field day. United are flailing and a defeat here will drag them into the relegation dog fight. Too good to go down? I don't think so.

Liverpool v Blackburn

A match worthy of .......... a local park. Only 2 bright spots here. Negredo and Roque Santa Cruz. Liverpool have been strengthening and look a good bet to bounce back after this year's inevitable relegation but Blackburn haven't ...... enough said. 2-1 to the home team, Santa Cruz fighting alone not enough to save Blackburn.

Plymouth v Charlton

Stick or twist? This has the potential to be the best week Ben has ever had in the game or the worst. The Pilgrims face off against Tom's Addicks in this league encounter. Normally this would be a pressure game in the run in to the League title ..... this week it's doubled as he also plays City in the Cup. Will Ben favour one competition over the other in the hope of a City slip up? Decisions decisions ..... this is what being a manager is all about. Probably the key match of the whole Premier League season. 

Defeat last time out for Charlton at Watford has reduced the League to a two horse race with a 7 point deficit and 12 to play for. Tom has worked out the balance of his team well and I expect a huge title push next season. With lots of attacking options and a solid back line I believe he'll improve on 3rd place next season.

Fulham v Spurs

This is where Phil's season starts!! A win against Spurs will feel like a 6 point victory. It'd reduce the gap to a single point and given Everton's likely defeat at Watford should lift Fulham out of the relegation zone. However ........ The manager has been all over the front pages and OK magazine even did an exclusive on the news of Phil's new arrival. Will the gaffer be distracted by his happy news at home?? Also rumours abound that in his clubs time of need Phil headed off for a couple of weeks by the pool on holiday, managing by text message and smoke signals. With his backing staff working on a "no comment" policy can Phil's star men see him to safety. A must win at the Cottage. Thrilling viewing.

Watford v Everton

Probably 42-0 to Watford. Everton are showing some fight but Watford's stars should win easily at home this week. Jamie can focus on his Cup semi against Arsenal and this game should take care of itself. Back to winning ways last week and with his star men playing better there's only one team to watch at Vicarage Road. Too late for a League title this year Jamie will be rating to go next season and an FA Cup win would set him up nicely. In an exclusive leak from one of Jamie's transfer advisors in an effort to improve the team Jamie is trying to sign Jesus (apparently a keeper due to his saving ability), Superman (a speedy winger who literally flies apparently) and The Hulk ( the green version ..... a central defensive giant). According to reports mere human footballers aren't good enough to get into his team!!!!

Disclaimer - hope I didn't offend anyone's religious sensibilities.

FA Cup Semi-Finals

Watford v Arsenal

On paper this one looks straightforward however Arsenal shouldn't be underestimated. A lot of good work has taken place and they look destined for the Premier League again next season. On the other hand Watford have it all ........ except the League title.  This one will be interesting and maybe not as one sided as we might think.

City v Plymouth

The big one. First in the Prem plays second. Only separated by goal difference this is huge. The questions are all on the managers. Will they focus on the League, will they go for both, will they keep their nerve? This fixtures adds to what is probably the most compelling week of the season. This is what the game is all about. Geoff going for a treble, Ben for a double.  Who will have their dreams shattered after Wednesday?

Great stuff, thanks Rob.

Completely forgot about the FA cup semi finals, maybe a good time to play Plymouth?  Famous last words....

Big games again in France, top two clash once again as PSG overtook Monaco last week.  Semi final against a strong Etienne side for Nantes too.  Much will depend on David Silva and how quick he can settle in his new surroundings.  Have I made a massive mistake in letting Kaka go so close to the end of the season? Have I thrown the opportunity of the double away, a lot will be become much clearer this week....

Italy and League 1 will follow later.

Just started with the friendlies, reserves and youth games, so all is looking good for the normal kickoff time of 1000 on Wednesday.

Another excellent match preview from Rob this week, thanks for that, and there are a lot of very important big games this week. Some news worth reporting is a short set of orders from Plymouth which didn't include any cup changes, and his cup team was very "suspect" being mostly reserve players as far as I could see, so I put the assistant manager in charge and he reset the team to be the same as the first team, standard practice in these circumstances. Other than that all orders were received safely including late orders from Real Madrid. Steven Gerrard makes his debut for Man City in the cup semi-final and that just has to be my number one game this week even though it is not a league game. But the lack of cup orders from Plymouth may well hamper their league game as players are bound to be tired from playing twice in just a few days, we shall see.

I've just processed the kickoff for the mid-week domestic cup games. Unlike the league games these games are played one after the other and I'll try and keep an eye open for interesting results, but it is a big competition now with most leagues having at least 4 teams, and there now being 132 leagues.

Am quite nervous this week but good luck to all.

I remember a time when the best rated teams won the cup and the best managed team won the league, or so it seemed. Hard to win both.

Standard Liege and Anderlecht are through in Belgium.
Santos and Flamengo are through in Brazil.
CSKA Sofia were the top team in Bulgaria but they've just gone out on penalties.

I've noticed this season that a lot of players at non-managed clubs have fallen well behind their managed counterparts in terms of game experience, which is quite important, so I've decided to introduce a third european competition next season. I'm calling it the European Cup and it will be a straight knock-out competition, just like we use to run back in the days of the real European Cup, a bit of nostalgia for me, and some very much needed game experience for players at the better non-managed clubs.

This will mean that reality managed teams will get a bit stronger as their players gain european experience and any players you sign may also become effective quicker because of their increased european experience.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

may well hamper their league game as players are bound to be tired from playing twice in just a few days, we shall see.

Hoping this affects Plymouth players quite a bit. But then can't afford Nantes to slip in either game. Really tough to get the balance right when fighting for both competitions.

Strange that Ben didn't bother with his cup team? Sure it was an oversight on his part.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Standard Liege and Anderlecht are through in Belgium.
Santos and Flamengo are through in Brazil.
CSKA Sofia were the top team in the Czech Republic but they've just gone out on penalties.

 Some final in Brazil that one!!

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

may well hamper their league game as players are bound to be tired from playing twice in just a few days, we shall see.

Hoping this affects Plymouth players quite a bit. But then can't afford Nantes to slip in either game. Really tough to get the balance right when fighting for both competitions.

Strange that Ben didn't bother with his cup team? Sure it was an oversight on his part.

Ben did get his league orders in but he has been a bit pushed for time lately.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Paul Hemmings wrote:

may well hamper their league game as players are bound to be tired from playing twice in just a few days, we shall see.

Hoping this affects Plymouth players quite a bit. But then can't afford Nantes to slip in either game. Really tough to get the balance right when fighting for both competitions.

Strange that Ben didn't bother with his cup team? Sure it was an oversight on his part.

Ben did get his league orders in but he has been a bit pushed for time lately.

Makes sense I guess, if he is busy. Shame after such a good season for him to be unable to take part in the semi final properly.
Think you did the right thing though, will certainly give give Plymouth every chance of winning. Gonna be a really tough game that one

Watford 2 Arsenal 3

Plymouth 0 Man City 2

Congrats to Alan, what a result.

City just too strong, can anyone stop them this year??
Fair play to geoff, done a fantastic job.

Watford Arsenal was pretty exciting, goals flying in and the lead changing hands multiple times only for the Gunners to get a late winner. Ramsey scored one and played a huge part in this game.

Nantes 1 Etienne 0

Lyon 5 Paris 0

we are going to have some exciting finals to look forward to.

Berlin, through on penalties only, against rejuvenated Dortmund.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Plymouth 0 Man City 2

Must remember to not cheer quite so loud in public.

Ajax against Feyenoord in Holland and maybe a new manager for Will's old team next week, fingers crossed.