The Mid-week Review

By Danny Wright

Carling Cup quarter finals were completed over the mid-week period to warm us up for the jam-packed festive football fare coming up in the next few weeks. The Christmas crackers began at Eastlands where Tottenham overcame Manchester City in a fiery, controversial encounter. Jermaine Defoe – making a rare start in Robbie Keane’s absence – rounded off a neat passing move to give Spurs the lead; however the out-of-favour England man was substituted after just 20 minutes following Didier Zokora’s sending off. The Ivorian lunged at City playmaker Elano with two feet and studs showing, and despite taking the ball and avoiding contact, Steve Bennett hastily brandished a red card. What smacked of double standards was Steed Malbranque’s horror challenge on Corluka went unpunished, the tackle seemingly worse than his colleague’s challenge moments earlier. The numerical advantage favoured City who piled forward in search of an equaliser, however they were to be denied by two fantastic saves from Paul Robinson, the England man foiling Darius Vassell and Bianchi. This left the Blues exposed at the back in the later stages and when Belgian star Dimitar Berbatov and Jamie O'Hara combined to set Malbranque away, the Frenchman finished the game with a cool finish. The win ended Sven’s 100% home record, and Spurs now face bitter rivals Arsenal in the semi final.

Arsenal overcame their North West away day jitters to see off Blackburn 3-2 after extra time at Ewood Park. Arsene Wenger’s young guns showed a gritty side not usually associated with the Gunners to earn the win, and the youngsters looked like winning the tie comfortably when they took a quick-fire lead through Abou Diaby and Eduardo. However, Roque Santa Cruz rallied for Rovers, the Paraguayan grabbing two goals of his own to level the tie. Denilson saw red for a horror challenge on David Dunn, the tackle another example of the worrying increase of rash tackles being made of late. The visitor’s weren’t dettered though as Eduardo finished off a slick passing move in added time to send the Gunner’s through.

Chelsea cruised past Liverpool to book their place in the semi-finals, the holders never really breaking sweat to beat Rafa Benetiz’s side. Frank Lampard atoned for an earlier miss with a deflected goal; meanwhile Crouch saw red, for yet another ill-mannered challenge, this time Jon Obi Mikel feeling the force of some over-zealous defensive work. Lampooned striker Andriy Shevchenko book a semi-final date with Everton, his goal sealing the win in the 90^th minute as the League Cup winners took a step closer to retaining their crown.

Chelsea’s semi-final opponents Everton take on AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night in the UEFA Cup, with David Moyes leaving out senior stars Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Tim Cahill, Yakubu and Joseph Yobo. The Toffees are in a rich vein of form at the moment and have already qualified as Group A winners, so Moyes decided to leave his main men at home ahead of the trip to the Netherlands. The hosts need a win to progress.

Bolton qualified to the knock-out stages of the UEFA Cup thanks to Bayern Munich’s 6-0 demolition of Salonika, but the Trotters slip to third following Braga’s 2-0 win over Red Star Belgrade, which now means Bolton now face one of the group stage winners in the last 32.

Semi-Final Draw:

Chelsea v Everton
Arsenal v Tottenham

Ties to be played across two legs, week commencing 7^th and 21^st January.

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