Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

After seven and a half months of top level football, the season is now firmly at the stage where one defeat can end your club’s ambitions for the season.

Manchester City had been dreaming of another Treble as they prepared for a Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid and an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against Chelsea.

The countdown to the game against Real had started with an emphatic win against Luton which was followed by surprising home defeats by their title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool. The Blues, in my mind, had started as favourites against the Spaniards, after an impressive performance when drawing 3-3 in the Santiago Bernabeu.

Real have won the Champions League 14 times and always have a belief that it’s their trophy. They try to nurture a reputation as football purists but at the Etihad they had clearly watched what Arsenal and Liverpool had done there this season, by sitting deep and defending resolutely. City created lots of chances and if that’s how matches were decided, City would have gone through. It isn’t.

Real showed little ambition in extra time and achieved their aim of taking it to penalties. Failures from the spot by Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic ultimately saw the Blues knocked out.

Just three days later, because the BBC had selected their FA Cup semi-Final for TV coverage and the Police didn’t want United playing in the Capital on a Saturday evening, City had another big Wembley game against a Chelsea team they hadn’t beaten in the Premier League this season.

City looked tired and were without their top scorer Erling Haaland. The truth is that Chelsea probably had the better chances and should have won the game but Pep Guardiola has created such belief and togetherness in his squad that despite being exhausted, both mentally and physically, their crawled over the line with a late winner from Bernardo Silva. Against Real, Kevin De Bruyne had asked to come off, during extra time, because he didn’t have the energy to continue.

Three days later, deep into the game, it was his surging run and cross that fell to Silva, who’s deflected effort won the game. The previous Wednesday Bernardo Silva’s tired, chipped penalty into the goalkeeper’s arms had been the beginning of the end. The fact that De Bruyne and Silva had enough determination to come back so strong to see City into another FA Cup Final says a lot about the character of them, and their team mates.

City will, of course, face Man United in the Final on May 25th after their dramatic semi-final against Championship side Coventry City. VAR broke their hearts. I admit I was dancing around my living room when Coventry appeared to have won the game with seconds to go. The onfield officials gave the goal before the VAR ruled there was a player fractionally offside in the buildup. It wasn’t a clear an obvious mistake, which is what VAR was supposed to be for. That’s why anyone who sees me at games, when City score, wonders why I don’t react. VAR has sapped the emotion out of me.

I feel the FA Cup Final derby repeat will the dramatic, good or bad. The Reds will want revenge very badly. What an ending to the season. Before that Liverpool and Arsenal have crept back above the Blues in the title race, so City probably have to win all of their remaining six Premier League games, starting at Brighton on Thursday. It’s always been Great to be a Blue and it’s also never dull being a Blue!