A Football Report

By Max Grieve

With apparently false obstinacy, both red and blue repeated the tired lines. “We’ll pick a team that will do this club justice,” said Dalglish. His captain nodded in approval: “We’ve got the game against Fulham, and then we can get ready for Chelsea”. This sentiment was echoed in London. “I have not rested players in the past,” Di Matteo declared ahead of his side’s vital league clash with Newcastle. “All the games are important – we obviously tried to stay in all the competitions. We don’t want to just throw anything away.”

Their respective home losses to Fulham and Newcastle were symptomatic of their contradictory seasons. That Liverpool and Chelsea should be defeated, despite such resolute opposition to the suggestion that they might field weakened sides, reflected a common lapse in focus for this afternoon’s FA Cup finalists. Everybody insisted that their efforts were concentrated solely on the midweek league matches, though as Wembley loomed, it was obvious that minds were wandering. The alternate opinion – that both were actually too focussed – is a similar argument: neither appeared to recognise the importance of the immediate challenge, and had their attentions turned towards the shimmering prize ahead.

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By Amy Eustace

There came a point at the beginning of last year when you simply knew it was coming.  Perhaps it was the infamous Roy Hodgson face rub – a sure sign that man had reached his last bastion of pure desperation – the previous December, or the penalty that Steven Gerrard sent soaring uncharacteristically over the bar against Blackburn the same month. We all sensed Roy Hodgson was a dead man walking, and the Kop didn’t need to chant “Hodgson out!” to stress the point.

More cruelly, they sang the name of another; a player whose sublime touch and silky footwork had led the Kop in song throughout the 1980s and a manager whose reign at the club had been the very antithesis of Liverpool’s past decade or two. Bountiful where the nineties and noughties had been barren, magical where the club had since been miserable - fans who had long forgotten how dominance felt craved a return to his tenure. Kenny Dalglish’s was a name synonymous with success in Liverpool. Roy Hodgson’s had become a buzz word for failure.

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By Ulysse Pasquier, writing from Montreal

Anyone who follows football knows the amount of emotion that the sport can bring in a split second. From total despair to intense euphoria, every fan is ought to have experienced his fair share of hair-raising moments. What happened at the Emirates yesterday however transcended all these feelings. Seeing Thierry Henry warm up wearing the Arsenal colors was already a nostalgic treat every Gooner could savor. His match-winning goal however was out of this world and truly of fairytales. Much like a taste or smell that can resurrect forgotten memories, witnessing his so familiar trademark finish brought me back to a time I thought was lost, a time when I first became interested in football because I heard this Frenchman was ruling the pitches of England.

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By Tom Flatt,  writing from Chelmsford, England. (Follow Tom on twitter @ZolasBackHeeel)

Well, maybe a blessing in disguise is an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that the Chelsea ‘haters’ in the football world have, and will continue to, boast the significance of this result. It was another below-par performance by Chelsea, especially in the first half, although it shouldn’t have taken until 103^rd minute for a lead to be taken. Both teams created numerous chances; Everton attacked down the wings, through Baines and Coleman on the left and right respectively. As the second half wore, Chelsea became dominant, with Lampard having the bulk of the chances. Chelsea’s number 8 finally converted in the 13^th minute of extra time, and the likelihood of Everton’s qualification began to ebb away as Chelsea passed the ball calmly around the pitch. Possibly the favourite footballing cliché, just beating “it’s a game of two halves”, is the old one about fine lines making the game. But even as fine lines go, this one was ESPECIALLY fine.

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By Andy Jones, writing from London

A league and FA Cup in Carlo Ancelotti’s first season and Chelsea’s first league and Cup double is something truly special, for any team. Some say the game was a thrilling encounter, the woodwork keeping it down to a low scoring game, despite being hit five times. Perhaps the highlight of all of them was Kalou missing from a couple of yards out and hitting the bar! All this put together with with one saved penalty, Cech not letting Kevin Prince Boateng put Pompey ahead and one put wide by a certain Lamps, lead to a game that could have had a historic scoreline!

Portsmouth could of defied the odds today; a second cup FA cup in 3 years for a team about to drop down into the Championship and with a team full of players who could all be shipped and sold off this summer. It’s a testament to Grant that, with a little bit more luck, Pompey could of won.

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