Arsenal, Chelsea Make It a London Derby in the FA Cup

Published on 19-Jul-2020 by Axel Krüger

Soccer    Soccer Daily Update

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Arsenal, Chelsea Make It a London Derby in the FA Cup

It's kinda weird that this stuff could happen as late as the FA Cup semi-finals:

  • One big brand spends a hella lotta time doing something only to get nothing out of it, while
  • Another big brand spends a hella lotta time doing less than nothing to get nothing out of it.

It's kinda weirder that they were both Manchester's big brands, too.

Safe to say that neither approach worked.

 

Yes, 2020 will go down in the sporting annals as one of the weirdest in history, but what in the name of Sir Stanley Matthews were City and United thinking?

  • The Sky Blues fell into their maddening tendency of passing ad nauseum while Arsenal simply stayed deep and waited for a moment. Not necessarily a counter, but merely their turn; while
  • The Red Devils treated their clash against Chelsea with all the urgency of a unter-derby with Stoke City.

It got to the point of re-checking the fixture list to confirm these were indeed the FA Cup semifinals.

 

It's been the sorta season for Manchester City that only money could save, which it did when ownership's petrodollars bailed it outta that two-year Champions League ban.

Still, that episode hung over the club all season long like a bad fart.

  • Rumors ran rampant about manager Pep Guardiola and damn near everyone on the payroll leaving for wherever; and
  • Liverpool ran away with the Premiership title.

One woulda thought that with major hardware on the line in a match against a defense-optional Gunner crew, City'd be geared for glory.

 

 

Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doing the accounting while Kevin de Bruyne musta been suffering from bad biorhythms:

 

Meanwhile, it could well be United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær's seen Spanish international David de Gea confirm he really is past his prime.

Dude treated the ball like a greased pig at exactly the time his teammates coulda used a bitta inspiration.

Manchester United 1-3 Chelsea, with Blues manager Frank Lampard continuing to be rewarded for giving his younger studs like Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount sustained runs this season:

 

So, instead of an all-Mancunian FA Cup final or even one where it's England's biggest vs second-biggest cities having a representative in the nation's most illustrious match, it'll be a pair of London big brands duking it out before a worldwide television audience and a stadium full of no one.

Full marks to Arsenal and Chelsea, though. They showed up.