Weekly Round-up (20/02/12)

The weekend saw the FA Cup move on to its fifth round, which on paper seemed to hand easy ties to most of the Premier League Clubs involved. Stoke, Liverpool, Everton and Bolton all dispatched their lower league opponents with consummate ease. However, the north-south divide was in force as the Premier League clubs from Southern England struggled. Arsenal went down 2-0 away to Sunderland to cap an abysmal week following Wednesday's 4-0 drubbing at A.C. Milan. The Gunners' next game is against Tottenham, with many fans believing Arsenal are there for the taking. However, I for one disagree with this, as after two poor games, Arsenal have to play well at some point. Staying with Spurs, they also didn't have the best of weekends as the majority of the team looked disinterested during their 1-1 draw with League 1 Stevenage at Broadhall Way on Sunday. As a Spurs fan, it was annoying to see a vastly superior team struggle against lower league opposition. However, credit were it is due to Stevenage, who played really well and are still yet to concede a goal in this year's tournament despite entering in round one. Chelsea also drew against lower league opposition as Championship side Birmingham forced a replay to increase the pressure on AVB. His weekend started well as Guus Hiddink, long speculated to replace him at Chelsea, was announced as manager at mega-rich Russians Anzhi Makhachkala. However, the Portuguese manager must be feeling the strain with Chelsea fans expectant of silverware after their recent successes in both league and cup. Norwich also went down to a Championship side in the form of Leicester despite having home advantage. Whilst fans may be disappointed not to have gone further in the cup, Norwich can now solely focus on consolidate their 8th place in the Premier League, and maybe even climb higher up the table.

Elsewhere in sport this weekend, there was the soap opera that was Dereck Chisora in Munich. Friday afternoon's weigh-in saw the drama begin as Chisora slapped opponent Vitali Klitschko. This bought widespread condemnation and a fine upon Chisora. Then there was the pre-fight spit drenching of Klitschko's brother, Wladimir. However, none of this pointed to the drama that would unfold between Chisora and former world champion David Haye in a post-fight press conference. Haye, who was at the fight covering it for television, was incensed with comments from first the Klitschko camp, then from Chisora himself. The two traded verbal blows before Chisora marched up to Haye, and shortly after the two began brawling. The end result was that Haye's manager, Adam Booth, had a cut on his head, Chisora was arrested and the reputation of both boxers, as well as British boxing, lie broken on the floor in tatters. Whilst I do not condone the actions of Saturday night and think that Chisora and Haye should be swiftly forgotten, I would like to seem them get it on in the ring. However, rather than the fight lining their back pockets, maybe the proceeds should go to charity. Sport Relief, is there still time to organise it? Just to point out, somewhere in the midst of all this, there was a boxing match where Chisora, who was given no chance, took Vitali Klitschko the distance only to be beaten by a unanimous points decision. Its such a shame that a brave performance was tarnished by Chisora's frankly yobbish behaviour.