Comments made after the 1-0 defeat for Arsenal by former defender Martin Keown on midfielder Mesut Ozil caused a stir on social media, as he labelled the midfielder ‘embarrassing’. Keown brought to the attention that the German missed his 100thgame for Arsenal since signing five and a half years ago from Real Madrid. To some people that might not seem bad, but when you consider he’s been available for 313 games since he signed, that 100 number sounds rather a lot indeed.Onto the weekend’s fixtures then and time for the FA Cup get underway. Watford were the first of the Premier League teams to play in the competition on Friday night away at QPR, where they won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Étienne Capoue. Saturday’s action saw Brighton beat a Derby side consisting of Liverpool loanee Harry Wilson 2-1 at the AMEX, which also saw Ashley Cole score his first goal since his return to English football under former team-mate Frank Lampard.Manchester City were the only other Premier League team in action on Saturday, with them having the trip to League 2 side Newport County at Rodney Parade in the evening kick-off. On first viewing the pitch looked like it may have caused an issue for City, and with the half-time score still at 0-0, people may have begun to believe an FA Cup miracle might just happen. However, City with their strong side selected by Guardiola came out 4-1 winners, with the highlight of the game being 2 goals from City wonderkid Phil Foden.
Sunday saw two more Premier League teams face opposition outside the Premier League, with Wolves travelling to Championship side Bristol City, who hadn’t lost a game of football since November, and Crystal Palace on the road at Doncaster Rovers. Wolves kicked things off with a 1-0 win at Ashton Gate, in an entertaining tie which saw two teams who were very much in-form going at it. As for Crystal Palace, the made light work of League One Doncaster, with goals from Jeffery Schlupp and Max Meyer sealing the tie before half-time.The last game of the FA Cup 5thRound will take place this evening in the tie of the round between 8-time winners Chelsea and 12-time winners Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.Midweek will also see Liverpool and Manchester City play their first-leg ties in the Champions League, with Liverpool hosting FC Bayern Munich and City traveling to Germany to face Schalke 04. The game on Tuesday for Liverpool will prove a very difficult task, with the 5-times winners from Germany consisting of world-class players, although they will be without centre-back Jerome Boateng due to stomach flu. The Reds know these games are just as important as the domestic games, and so we need to go for this game and take a healthy lead to Germany in the coming weeks.Then onto the weekend’s fixtures where there is only one big game being played, Manchester United v Liverpool. The biggest game in English football goes down this Sunday, and with the stakes of this game being massive for the title race run-in, both teams will be giving it everything to get the result. Liverpool this season have already played United, beating them at Anfield 3-0. However, Liverpool haven’t beaten United at Old Trafford in the league since 2014, so it will not be an easy game for the Reds who have still only lost once this season in the league, with United not losing in the league since Solskjaer took over in December, although they will be without Martial and Lingard this weekend due to injury.
The other big game on Sunday is the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley between Manchester City and Chelsea. The Carabao Cup is the first opportunity for a team to win silverware in the season, and both teams will be looking to take the trophy back with them. For City, potential talks of a quadruple have been speculated, and so this game is key if they want to succeed that task. As for Chelsea, a trophy for Sarri in his first year would give himself and the club a massive boost as recent times have looked bleak in West London for the blues, with fans beginning to ask for the sacking of the Italian.The game also means that Liverpool will have the chance to overtake City in the league with a win at Old Trafford, both level on games played, giving the Reds further impetus to get all three points on Sunday.In news off the pitch, this week I found it interesting the news that Jose Mourinho’s pay-off by Manchester United in December was £15 million. This coming after spending a further £13 million paying-off managers since 2014, shows how much money United have and how their board does not care if the money needs to be wasted to get rid of the manager. This for me also shows how football has changed over the past decades, where managers used to serve at clubs for 10 years and be given a chance to fulfil their potential and plan even if results at the beginning were not going their way. These latest figures indicate how the game has become a business, and no results ultimately means no employment for a manager at a football club, which although I can understand, I do see it to be a sad turn in the way football is ran in today’s money driven society. By Sam Hodgkiss – @SamuelHodgkiss 
