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Things are beginning to get serious - as Manchester United slipped up by resting players at Sunderland, Liverpool and Arsenal took full advantage to open up the championship. The expectant crowd were not disappointed by the Liverpool vs. Newcastle fixture, the two sides produced the same kind of match as last year. Admittedly it is rapidly turning into the most exciting fixture in the calendar, but these sides are not going to win the Premiership playing in this style. In the end. Although the two northern sides are still favourites for the title, the Southern Softies from Highbury might spring a surprise as the other two become obsessed with European triumph.
The romance of the FA Cup was sadly diluted by Chelsea’s win at Portsmouth, but if Chesterfield can put in the kind of performance that Hednesford managed against Middlesborough they might be in with a shout. They have already knocked out Blackburn, Nottingham Forest and Bolton who were all on good form at the time of the match. Meanwhile Leicester quietly booked their Wembley appointment at Wimbledon’s expense on Tuesday night, they are likely to face Robson’s Middlesborough. With Michael Beck finally motoring, Emerson ever present and Ravanelli happy, Middlesborough have a semblance of a team rather than an eleven. They have finally started to beat the mid-table sides convincingly, scoring freely and defending well. Incidentally William Hill are giving pretty good odds on Middlesborough winning both cups and still getting relegated.
Next week will hopefully see Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool all into the semi finals of their respective European competitions. If they achieve this England could be the only nation with representatives in each cup. One of the best things that could happen to British sport in general would be for all three trophies to come back to England. Although this is pretty unlikely given Newcastle’s plight, we will dominate Europe again - hopefully in about two months time.
The nocturnal members of college will have seen victory in the Australian Grand Prix for David Coulthard in the Maclaren. After three years of Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher fighting it out, it makes a change for different drivers to dominate the scene. Damon Hill’s failure in the Arrows will have tempted Jackie Stewart to whisper ‘told you so’, as he saw his team go incredibly well for a first race. Hopefully Coulthard’s success wasn’t a one off, British drivers seem to have an unlucky record recently. Under Frank Williams, Mansell, Coulthard and Hill were all deprived of top drives after successful seasons, to make way for Prost, Villeneuve and Frentzen.
The next race will see William’s desperate to reassert their authority on the two championships, this might lead to the kind of problems Ayrton Senna faced while trying to kick start his season after falling behind in 1994 before the San Marino GP.
