It's been a good few days for Manchester City who have won the Carabao Cup beating Tottenham 1-0 and have one foot in the final of what would be their first Champions League final!
City dominated against Tottenham who were still clearly reeling over the surprise sacking of Jose Mourinho, true that wasn't possibly every player at the club, however it seemed too much to ask for Tottenham to prepare in the right way. The 29 year old Ryan Mason took charge of Tottenham and they had a couple of chances themselves but City on another day could have scored 5 goals. In the end Aymeric Laporte was the difference as the game looked to be heading for extra time. This was City's 4th consecutive Carabao Cup win, if they win it next year they may have to just call it the Manchester City cup.
In City's Champions League semi-final first leg they beat PSG 2-1 in Paris. It was a blow for the French champions who had taken the lead and played well in the first half. However City showed all of their strengths and qualities in the second half and a superb defence kept Kylian Mbappe and Neymar very quiet. In the other semi-final Chelsea who are aiming to make their first final since 2012 drew 1-1 away to Real Madrid. This was the first knock out game between the two clubs in Europe for 50 years. That game is very open for the second leg, though Chelsea have the away goal advantage for now.
Champions League odds: Manchester City 1.66, Chelsea 4.33, Real Madrid 6.00, PSG 11.00
In the Premier League Leicester took great strides for a top 4 finish by coming back against Crystal Palace to win 2-1. The Foxes have a 7 point advantage over 5th placed West Ham with the same games played. The Hammers Champions League dreams look almost over and that was underlined as they lost 1-0 at home to Chelsea. The game was overshadowed somewhat by Fabian Balbuena's sending off, a red card that looked harsh once we saw the replays. Balbuena looked like he was trying to clear the ball but his foot followed through and it looked like a bad foul. The FA has now rescinded the card. This has happened twice this season to the Hammers when Tomas Soucek was sent off against Fulham for a quite obvious mistake as he extended his arm. The Soucek red card didn't affect the club given that it came right at the end of the game, this red card however in an important match with Chelsea for a top four place came 20 minutes from the end.
Everton are out to banish old unwanted records. First it was ending their dreadful run at Anfield where they hadn't won since 1999, and the Toffees ran out 2-0 winners. Next in line was Arsenal, where the record was even further in time, 25 years to be exact. Arsenal didn't play poorly and Everton achieved just one shot on target in the 2nd half but thanks to a Bernd Leno howler Carlo Ancelotti's team came away with an infamous 1-0 victory. Everton, with a game in hand have the smallest of chances to try for a top four spot and there should be an exciting finish to the season in store.
Manchester United look like they will end the season unbeaten away from home as they drew 0-0 away to Leeds. Marcelo Bielsa's team are on a roll and taking points from the bigger sides lately and the newly promoted Leeds are now in 9th place and above Arsenal.
Premier League team of the week: Meslier, Chilwell, Evans, Westwood, Castagne. James, Harrison, Tielemans, Kante, Wood, Iheanacho
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