NEWS
A selection of FirstTouch's best football writing, brought to you by emerging journalists, collaborators, and fans.
Manchester United through to the final after beating Tottenham 2-1
Will Tottenham ever learn from their mistakes?
Manchester United have done it again and are on the right path to prove that they are becoming a competitive team in England. The club have been struggling since Alex Ferguson left but Jose Mourinho has achieved instant success after taking over from Louis Van Gaal. The Portuguese manager won what he calls a treble in his first season i.e. FA Community Shield, Carabao Cup and the UEFA Europa League which gave them qualification to the UEFA Champions League. This season, he tried to catch up with the cash rich City side who invested a lot but could not push for a title challenge as everyone anticipated. The club also crashed out of the Carabao Cup this season before being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Sevilla in the quarterfinals. Mourinho’s man now only had their eyes on the FA Cup for a last chance to salvage some silverware to the club. They had enough to defeat their opponents today to make it to the final of the tournament but it was not easy.
Dele Alli opened the scoring for Tottenham on the 11th minute from a Christian Eriksen cross and it looked like it was going to be a defeat for the Red Devils but they had other thoughts. The winter signing scored the equalizer for United to make it 1-1 on 24 minutes after Paul Pogba outmuscled Dembele on the left before delivering a perfect cross for the Chilean forward to score. Jese Lingard wasted an opportunity to give United the lead three minutes later when he blazed over the goal from a cross by Lukaku only 3 minutes after Sanchez had scored. Dier also had an opportunity when he shot from distance and saw his effort hit the post. Lukaku then combined with Sanchez in a counter attack that saw the Spanish midfielder, Ander Herrera scoring the winning goal. This is such a disappointment for the Tottenham team who have been improving year on year. They really need to start winning trophies soon if they are to keep their top talent because they have come short on so many occasions. Kudos Mourinho and his team. On to the next one now.
Alli leads Tottenham to a 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge
Dele Alli carries Tottenham in the absence of Kane
Tottenham Hotspur’s star striker was facing a race against fitness to play in this London derby between his club and Chelsea. He was disappointed not to make it which meant that a lot of pressure was piled on Englishman Dele Alli and Eriksen to produce some fine performances and deal with Chelsea in the top 4 race. The duo did not disappoint but were made to wait after a great start from Chelsea. Alvaro Morata scored the first for Chelsea from a Victor Moses cross as he headed down past a helpless Lloris who had committed to try and keep out the cross. The Spanish striker celebrated with passion but Chelsea were not done. They kept attacking and probably forgot about their compact defending as Tottenham created a lot of space for Eriksen to riffle a shot from 30 yards out which was saved by Caballero. The same opportunity was presented again for Eriksen and he made no mistake this time as he fired a long range effort past the Italian Caballero who was replacing Courtois in goal. Alli then scored the second goal after running off the defenders and finished off a 50-yard pass from Dier. Alli coupled that up with another goal 4 minutes later which made it 3-1 for Tottenham. They eventually ran away with the win to end their poor run against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. This was Tottenham’s first win at Chelsea in 28 years. This result piles more misery on Chelsea and has all but confirmed their fate of Europa League football for next season. Chelsea were hoping to reduce the point deficit between them and Tottenham but are now left 8 points behind with 7 games to play. If they are not careful, they can easily be overtaken by Arsenal who have faced an upturn in form recently and are just 5 points behind them.