May 2011 - The Perfect End to the Season

In the first few days of the month Man City are confirmed as Premier League Champions. Our reserve team have now completed their matches and managed to win the Group 1 reserve league. I believe our good performance in the reserve league has helped the team maintain its good morale for those players who have had to play reserve matches in order to gain or maintain match fitness.

Birmingham (H) Premier League

Birmingham travel to Loftus Road as underdogs for this match, and just outside the relegation zone. They have only managed to pick up 8 points on their travels, so I was confident that we would have a good chance of winning this match. I decided to start with a Standard strategy and adjust from there as the match unfolded.

Right from the off I could see our players were up for this match, looking to pounce on any loose balls. In the 5th minute the Birmingham keeper had to make two close range saves from Ephraim and Balanta, and in the 18th minute he saved from a Fatih Yucel header. In the 19th minute he was finally beaten by a glorious shot from Balanta just outside the area, which flew in the top corner. In the 23rd minute we doubled the lead after Fatih Yucel produced some excellent skill to dribble around several players and then produced a powerful shot from just inside the area to score. Our defence was doing a good job of stopping Birmingham from creating any good chances. In the 36th minute Fatih Yucel extended the lead even further from a free kick with a gloriously struck shot from outside the area. The first half ended with us holding a well deserved 3 goal lead, which delighted me.

I sent the players back out feeling very satisfied with the performance so far. The second half started as a more even contest, with Birmingham creating a few chances. However in the 55th minute Ephraim put a pass through to Fatih Yucel who was clear of the defence and drilled the ball home to complete his hat-trick. We were looking good going forward, which did allow Birmingham to mount a counter attack and Benitez was able to run through and pull a goal back. Was a little dissappointing to concede a goal, but I was still happy enough. We continued to push forward, getting lots of crosses and throughballs into the box. We managed to play out the rest of the match to complete an excellent 4-1 victory over Birmingham. This was a great performance from the team, with another fantastic hat-trick from Fatih Yucel.

Many of the other results the same day have gone well for us, and means only Arsenal now have a chance of overtaking us. The hat-trick by Fatih Yucel has now confirmed him as the new record holder for goals scored in a single Premiership season.

Burnley (A) Premier League

We head off to Turf Moor to complete our Premier league campaign and arrive as favourites for this fixture. Burnley are in desperate need of a win to give them any hope of getting out of the relegation area, and even then that might not be enough to bring them to safety. Due to this need to record a victory I have decided to start with Counter attacking strategy, as I believe Burnley have little choice but to come at us.

The match started with us putting pressure on Burnley, giving them little time on the ball in the first few minutes, with Buzsaky taking a couple of long range shots, but neither on target. The match then settled down with Burnley starting to come more into the match, but we looked to be standing quite firm defensively and looking fairly dangerous when we surged forward. One worry was that we conceded a number for free kicks just outside our area, but Burnley never managed to make us pay for that. The first goal came in the 24th minute from a corner, with Puygrenier nodding a Buzsaky kick straight at the near post defender, whose clearance kick was directly at Fatih Yucel, with the ball bouncing off him into the goal. Lucky it may have been but I was definitely not complaining. Burnley did try to push harder after this, which was giving us even more space to take advantage of, and we produced lots of crosses, but even when a head was put to ball, it was an easy save for the keeper. The first half ended with us maintaining our one goal lead.

I was pleased with what I'd seen in the first half, and felt that although our goal had been quite fortunate, we'd done enough to deserve that lead. I sent the players back out, hoping they could keep up the same level of defending they'd shown in the first half. In the 52nd minute however, a cross to an unmarked Burnley player allowed them score an equaliser. That was disappointing, and only a minute later we were lucky to not be behind with the ball bouncing off the post to deny Burnley. I was a touch worried at that point, especially as I could see in the latest scores Arsenal were winning with ease and in the live table had overtaken us. In the 60th minute Burnley near paid the price for some poor defending at a corner, but we just couldn't find the finishing touch with the ball bouncing about the area like a pinball. Burnley to their credit were pushing hard to try and find a winner, but our defence was standing firm yet again. A few minutes later, a fine save denied Balanta the opportunity to put us back in the lead. In the 70th minute we broke the deadlock, after Burnley cleared from a corner, with the ball quickly moved back to Buzsaky on the wing. He produced another cross which Nasuti managed to head goalwards, which deflected in off the inside of the post, to give us the lead, and his first goal for the club. Burnley's chances got even worse in the 76th minute when Steven Caldwell was given a straight red card when he flattened Fatih Yucel with a vicious foul. Fortunately this didn't cause any injury, and should have made our job of keeping  Burnley that bit easier, although they still missed an excellent opportunity to equalise again, with the ball going just the wrong side of the post. The match ended with us winning 2-1, which could be said to have been a bit lucky. Our second half performance was not as good as the first, but we managed to come through which was the main thing.

This brings us to the end of the league season, which sees us claim 4th place and confirms our participation in the Champions League next season. Fatih Yucel is also confirmed as the Premier league top goalscorer with an astonishing 37 goals throughout the season, and is named in the Players' Team of the Year. I was given 3rd place in the Manager of the Year award.

In the following week I received an offer to manage Zaragoza in the Spanish League, but turn it down, as my heart belongs at Queens Park Rangers, and no way did I want to miss out on our trip to Wembley.

Chelsea (N) FA Cup Final

We arrive at Wembley as the underdogs, but Chelsea arrive off the back of losing to Barcelona in the European Champion Cup. This is our chance to win some silverware, and to get one over our closest rivals again, so I need to do little to get the team motivated for this match. I picked a Standard strategy, because Chelsea are playing 3 attacking midfielders behind the lone striker with two in the centre of midfield, so we need to avoid playing too deep. Due to a fast winger, I felt we shouldn't play too far up the pitch either.

The match started with us totally dominating the first 15 minutes, pumping crosses into the box and generally making the Chelsea defence have to work very hard, although worryingly we failed to even have a shot during this period of play. The match settled down to a battle of the midfield for a while after that, before both sides finally started to make opportunities to take shots. Lung jr made a couple of excellent saves from powerful long shots to stop Chelsea opening the scoring. With the half nearing the end, a series of excellent passes found Balanta in space in the box, but he scuffed the ball wide to miss the best chance in the match so far. The first half ended goalless, with us having put in a good display, and despite not getting a shot on target, we'd been causing the Chelsea defence plenty of problems. We'd also looked good at the back, restricting Chelsea to long shots, and been solid at defending corners as well.

I was pleased with the performance, and sent the players back out hoping they could start make the pressure we'd been putting on the Chelsea defence pay off. The second half started with Chelsea really pushing hard which required Lung jr to make a series of superb saves to stop Chelsea opening the scoring. We were still causing their defence all manner of problems, but still failing to get on the end of crosses, which we were pumping into the box with regularity. The Chelsea foul count was also rising, which was helping us a fair bit. As the half went on we began to make better opportunities with Balanta denied a good chance to score by a great save in the 63rd minute. Chesea were now looking less effective going forward, and we started to look more dangerous. I decided it was time to bring on some fresh legs and see if we could win this in normal time, so I brought Rowlands and Grenier onto pitch. In the 86th minute Balanta was again denied by a fantastic save. The breakthrough finally came in the 89th minute, after a poor clearance by Chelsea, allowed some swift passing which allowed Fatih Yucel to power a shot from the edge of the area which the keeper could only parry. Luck was with us as Grenier was running into the area and the nearest player to the loose ball and cooly fired the ball into the net to give us the lead. I couldn't believe he'd just scored his first goal for the club, and what could be such an important one as well. I was pleased that we managed to stop Chelsea from even creating a chance to get an equaliser after that, and so we lift the FA Cup trophy for the first time in the clubs history. This was a victory we deseved, and but for a man of the match performance by the Chelsea keeper we could have made this a much easier win. Lung jr our keeper had the second highest rating of the match, showing just how important the two keepers had been.

I'm absolutely over the moon with this victory, bringing home the first silverware since I started managing the club. The players have been exceptional this season and fully deserve to have won this trophy.

Monthy Summary

This has been a fantastic month for the club, with us winning our last two league matches to consolidate our 4th place and gain us entry into the European Champions Cup next season. The icing on the cake was to then win the FA Cup Final, and I can't praise the players enough for the determination they have shown.

It is interesting to note that the same points total we gained this season, would have only been good enough for 6th place last year, which shows just how much more competitive the leauge was this year. The table also shows how much it cost Arsenal to go into the two league matches we played, with a weaker squad than necessary, and they've paid the price by only qualifying for the Europa Cup next season.

I will do a seperate post giving an analysis of the players during the year, but it is clear that my player of the year is Fatih Yucel with 49 goals during the season, and top scorer in both the league and FA Cup competitions. The club board have announced plans to expand the stadium by 1,000 seats, which should be ready by the start of the new season, taking our capacity to 19,200.