We suffer fools as idiots rule

MARCH 6 — The shock defeats of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal provided the FA Cup with drama and headlines this season. However, they came at a cost to the glamour of the “most prestigious and oldest domestic Cup competition”.

Attention-grabbing defeats for the elite surely provide the spice for the Cup but not when three of the big four are knocked out so early on. What the Cup ultimately needs is what the Carling Cup had this season, with blockbusters in the quarter-finals and semis, too.

The final, as we all know, was a solid game, which could have gone Aston Villa’s way, had the referee sent off Nemanja VIdic who had committed a clear red card offence. Phil Dowd obviously bottled it and no amount of interpretation of the rules, as he sees it, can explain away such idiocy displayed by a referee.

The same idiotic refereeing that only saw one yellow card given out in the match between Stoke City and Arsenal last weekend.

If Peter Walton thought that Alexander Song deserved a yellow card for having his shirt pulled by Rory Delap, then more than a few Stoke players deserved yellow cards for their rough play across the game... until that fateful tackle on 19-year-old Welsh national, Aaron Ramsey.

Maybe, just maybe, those few yellow cards dished out earlier could have prevented the tragedy of the horrible car crash that was Ryan Shawcross’ hard, brutal, mistimed, preventable but most certainly non-malicious tackle.

The Englishman certainly deserved the red card, but, of course, if Ramsey’s leg had not ended up being broken in two places, then it is likely he would’ve escaped even a yellow card.

I was informed by a cousin of mine, who is a bio-medical engineering professor (and a Red Devil at that), that the breaking strength of bone is about 50MPa (the metric unit for pressure, or force per unit area). That’s the same level of stress you would get if you were to put 18,000kg of weight on an area the size of one’s palm. That really makes one think about how much force Shawcross put into that tackle. Was it really necessary, at that part of the pitch, with little danger to his goal area?

I believe in taking the positive out of any situation. Though Ramsey will have a long time to think about his future, his team-mates were able to focus almost immediately once the match resumed and proceeded to whip Stoke’s butt convincingly, winning 3-1. Their immediate future looks even more promising now that they have rallied together for the sake of their friend lying in a hospital recuperating from the crash.

The strangest characteristic of this Arsenal team is astonishing mental strength. Having twice returned from the dead to keep alive their title ambitions, they displayed a commendable level of mental fortitude at Stoke.

They could have buckled under the pressure of knowing victory would put them just three points behind Chelsea. They could have crumbled after going a goal behind after seven minutes. They could have withdrawn after Aaron Ramsey was broken. But, to their considerable credit, they didn’t.

Cesc Fabregas must be credited for the Gunners still being in the title race. It was a true captain’s performance at Stoke... the stuff that would make Arsenal’s stalwart ex-captains Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira proud.

Fabregas has achieved 13 goals and 15 assists this season, putting him at the top of the Goals Involved chart alongside the 19-goals-and-9-assists of Didier Drogba.

So, while the FA Cup might grab some attention this weekend, mine will certainly be on the English Premier League (EPL) title race. It’s an interesting weekend, which could see Chelsea drop to third should MU get at least a point at the Molineux and Arsenal win by four goals or more against Burnley.

Arsenal have won 11 and drawn one of their 14 matches at Ashburton Grove this season. By contrast, the Clarets have still to win away from home in the EPL, managing only one draw in 14 attempts. They have shipped 43 goals and scored just 10, and are currently on an 8-game losing streak on the road.

New manager Brian Laws is still waiting for his first away point. I think he will have to wait another weekend as I just don’t see Burnley doing much to trouble Arsenal.

So simple is the task in theory, that Arsene Wenger might even rest the likes of Fabregas and/or Thomas Vermaelen, in preparation for a rather tricky Champions League second-leg against Porto on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Manchester United (MU) have a trickier opponent this weekend. Not that Wolves would be as slick as thieves but other factors such as the controversy of filing a reserve line-up against MU in the reverse tie, Wayne Rooney being doubtful and the return leg of the CL clash against AC Milan might distract the Red Devils.

In a strange way, there must be a very small part of Mick McCarthy’s mind that wants Wolves to lose against Manchester United.

Such a defeat will be far from disgraceful, while a win would indicate that MU are not the all-powerful, undefeatable unit that McCarthy assumed they were when he “rested” ten players at Old Trafford earlier in the season. It might indicate that he should have actually tried in that game, after all.

Just one win in seven league games makes miserable reading for McCarthy’s men. A shock win over Tottenham Hotspur, their second over Harry Redknapp’s men this term, is the only highlight this year. What’s worse, some of their points dropped have been against relegation rivals Wigan Athletic, Hull City and Bolton Wanderers. As a result, they lie in 17th position, only avoiding the bottom three on goal difference.

MU are top of the current form table after taking 13 points from their last six matches. But they will need to bounce back from their defeat at Everton in their last away fixture.

Alex Ferguson’s men have won only two of their last six on the road and have failed to win in previous trips to the other newly-promoted sides, losing 1-0 at Burnley and drawing 1-1 at Birmingham City.

Incidentally, the last time MU travelled to the Molineux, they ended up losing 1-0.

Though they look like having trouble up front minus Rooney, I’m sure Ferguson will pull a rabbit out of the hat, quite possibly with help from his wonderful assistant Peter Walton, who will be refereeing. My money is on Wolves having at least three yellow cards shown against them, to make sure that MU can proceed unhindered to get all three points.

Speaking of Wayne Rooney, an interesting fact about his goals this season is that 33 per cent of them are headers, in contrast to a measly 3.6 per cent in previous years.

Another interesting goal-scoring fact is that Fernando Torres has bagged 13 league goals from 15 starts this season. I am sure the ratio of goals to minutes of play could be the highest in Europe, too. So, if only he could stay fit, we could have been watching the most competitive title race since the start of the EPL.

On Monday night, Liverpool travel to Wigan where the only two clubs with Spaniards as managers, but with very different priorities, meet up.

Wigan are just a point above the relegation zone after a poor run of form, while Liverpool’s strong recent run has ensured they are right in the mix for a Champions League place.

The Latics have not won in their past seven EPL fixtures and have been victorious just once since defeating Sunderland on Nov 28. That’s a run of 13 matches.

Though Liverpool have failed to score in five of their last seven away encounters, they have in Dirk Kuyt a player who has a distinct record of scoring five goals in five starts against the Latics. So, an easy combination bet would be Liverpool to win with Kuyt scoring.

Kuyt also got on the scoresheet last Wednesday, playing for Holland in their international friendly against the United States.

Finally, in my humble opinion, the timing of these international friendlies is just ridiculous, coming at such a crucial part of the season. They put unnecessary pressure on teams like Chelsea, MU and Arsenal, all of whom had many players away on duty for their respective countries.

It could be the ultimate test of strength for these players who play relatively tough matches at the weekend — Chelsea play Stoke in the FA Cup — just after travelling far to play for their country and before the return leg of their matches in the Champions League knock-out round.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.