Can Burnley beat Tottenham? Can Derby upset Manchester United’s second string?
The theme in this season’s Carling Cup semifinals is Premier League vs Championship, haves vs havenots (wrt Derby’s owners, they’re not going to play in the Premier League next season or have a lush new 60k seater in 3 years, are they?) and as the spinners love to spin it (admittedly so do we), David v Goliath.
It helps that one of the underdogs has already beaten 3 Premier League sides, all teams currently above their opponents tonight at White Hart Lane. Tottenham may be reigning champions and pound for million pound better than Burnley, but with the ‘revival’ nonsense done away with they are unlikely to be tougher opponents than Arsenal or Chelsea.
On the other hand, it’s hard to see Burnley do a Turkey (in results if not the manner they were achieved) for longer than the pseudo-Europeans themselves. While the second leg is at home, playing it out over two legs gives Tottenham 90 more minutes to recover from their mistakes, or 90 minutes to protect their advantage. Either way, that could be 90 minutes too much.
At Pride Park the season hinges on the barest of threads and while Derby go into Wednesday’s game as guaranteed to lose (the tie if not the leg), it’s much more lopsided than the stats would suggest. Derby struggled to beat non-league Forest Green on Saturday and while caretaker manager Hutchings may ring in a few changes, the step up in class, even considering that Manchester United will play a weakened side to give squad and younger players more time and experience while resting their stars, is too great for Derby.
Over 90 minutes – maybe they could sneak through a late goal. Over two legs? I have a better chance of sleeping with Gemma Atkinson this year. Hmmm…that almost makes me want United to lose.
Predictions:
Tottenham v Burnley – 1st leg: Tottenham
Derby County v Manchester United – 1st leg: Manchester United
Topics: Carling Cup, Derby County, English Championship, English Premier League, Manchester United, Tottenham
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Im not expecting Spurs to thrash Burnley but i do expect them to win this leg without too many major hicups which we are reknown for lol, fingers crossed.
January 6th, 2009 @ 08:48Burnley had a bright start to their Championship campaign, and impressed me with wins over Chelsea and Arsenal in this cup. Normally I would not hesitate to take them to produce an upset, but they had two quite disastrous games over Christmas against Doncaster and Barnsley, both of whom sit near the bottom of the table. They have a very acute personnel crisis, with only 17 fit players available for their lacklustre 0-0 draw with QPR in the FA Cup. The situation is improving, with Jordan returning from suspension and McCann & McDonald possibly shaking off injuries to feature. In my opinion they will probably set up more conservatively than they have against Chelsea or Arsenal, play for the draw, and then make a stronger performance at home in 2 weeks time when more players are back from injury.
Derby were very lucky to squeak through the next round of the FA Cup with a 4-3 win over non-league side Forest Green. They had an absolute disastrous first half, and would have been severely punished if they were playing a professional side. Paul Jewell resigned recently from the club, they’re sitting in the Championship relegation spots, and they will be missing Stewart in defence and Ellington in attack. They are a very poor side, both in the Premier League last season and in the Championship this season.
January 6th, 2009 @ 09:24Kuszczak should be starting, as Edwin needs a rest for the Chelsea game.
Rafael
Neville
Evans
O’Shea
Park
Possebon
Scholes
Anderson
Tevez
Welbeck
FOster
January 6th, 2009 @ 10:00Fletcher
Ronaldo
Gibson
Carrick
Vidic
Rooney
I THINK THAT CHELSEA,AND ARSENAL DESERVED TO LOSE AGAINST BURNLY BY BEING SO COCKY TO BELEAVE THAT MOST OF THIER RESERVES COULD BEAT THEM.IT STINKS OF ARROGANCE THAT VENGER ETC DID THIS.SPURS WILL PLAY A FULL TEAM AND IM AFRAID BURNLY WONT FIND SPURS SUCH A PUSH OVER.I DO WISH THEM LUCK IN THE LEAGUE THOUGH.
January 6th, 2009 @ 15:10manucho shuold be given a start.derbys defence is very shaky,just imagine them trying to deal with a 6″2 beast of a striker dying to make an impressionon fergie
January 6th, 2009 @ 15:13When burnly played arsenal kids they had six one on ones against there big goaly and they were guilty of some horrendous misses.That there first team strikers would have scored we dont deserve to go to wembly if we cant beat a team beaten by doncaster.
January 6th, 2009 @ 16:51wow,talk about a game of 2 halves.burnley were very impressive first half,and then get annihlated second half
January 7th, 2009 @ 03:30duffman: Spot on about Manucho. I’m surprised he’s had so little opportunity even in the LC.
January 7th, 2009 @ 05:33if Spurs can win 4-1 at home, United to win 0-3.
January 7th, 2009 @ 10:48fergie give manucho chance in today match as you did to wellback last sunday.
January 7th, 2009 @ 09:55I was glad to see Harry Redknapp bring on O’Hara who gets so little credit in the Prem – he is ace at corners and can score goals too! I think he should play more in the league though.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:26I was expecting a score like 2-1 because Giant Kilers Burnley looked like such a threat maybe Burnley got a bit cocky after beating Chelsea and Arsenal???????? However, Spurs kept their cool and demolished them.
Chris Eagles looks like an awesome player; he’s young and talented, so I think he’d do well in the Premiership.
Chris Eagles looks promising. he’s got the speed, skills – taking on two Spurs defenders that easily is NOT easy. If he came to the Premiership, he’d do well.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:28My brother’s a United fan – he says they can win 7-0! No chance – I reckon it’ll be 3-0 or 4-0.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:30Come you United! Last year Derby became the worst team EVER in the Premiership. We have quality, talent, and loads of other stuff. Blahdeblahdeblahblahblah.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:34Nice shout about Chris Eagles. I agree; maybe he could do well in the Premiership. He can clearly score and set up goals, too.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:32He didn’t do too well at United though, but yea, in the long run he could definitely do a job in the Prem.
January 7th, 2009 @ 17:51yes! yes! I get to sleep with Gemma this year! yes! fuck you Derby, I love you.
January 7th, 2009 @ 23:00yes. good luck with Gemma. Tell her I said ‘hi’
January 7th, 2009 @ 23:02you lucky bastard.i bet you were cheering on derby all match wernt you ahmed?
still envious
January 7th, 2009 @ 23:59Apart from the obvious benefits to Ahmed, what a disappointing performance.
United’s starting midfield struggled to keep the ball and lacked any kind of penetration with their passing. The amount of incomplete passes was amazing, especially from Anderson who has disappointed this season.
It was until Carrick was introduced late on that we were able to put any kind of pressure on Derby. Makes me wonder just how dependent we are on Carrick for any kind of success this year. Personally I’d say he is our most important player alongside Rooney.
You would suspect that we should be able win comfortably at home, but the performance should prompt cause for concern at the form of our general squad players for the run in. We will need the squad on form if we are to challenge for the title.
Thoughts?
January 8th, 2009 @ 00:26gibson,nani,kusczak…..leave them go.absolutely atrocious tonight.god knows what would have happened if vidic hadnt played.well done to derby though,great goal from commons.surprised he chose derby in the summmer,fairly sure there were some top flight teams after his signature
January 8th, 2009 @ 00:52Missed Carrick for large chunks of the game, Derby played really well and obviously have improved from the team that everyone looked forward to playing last season.
January 8th, 2009 @ 11:49