Chelsea Out of FA Cup!

For 90 minutes perhaps, Chelsea manager, the magical import from Portugal, Jose Mourinho, lost his magical touch yesterday against Newcastle in an FA cup knock out at St James Park in the snow.

Mourinho, who was as humble and graceful in defeat as he normally is in victory, made the tactical decision to hold out seven starters in anticipation of Wednesday's important Champions League match against Barcelona. Chelsea fell behind 1-0 in the opening minutes of the match and played well throughout the rest of the first half but by the start of the second half, Mourinho had taken a huge, and retrospectively unwise chance by using all three of his alloted substitutions straight away, bringing in Duff, Gudjohnsen and Lampard.

It was silly because it was overstated. Whereas two subs could have been put in and and equal message would have been underscored thereby saving one sub for later in the match, Mourinho's roll of the dice with all three proved to be disasterous as winger Wayne Bridge was taken off with a broken ankle within the first few minutes of the second half and Chelsea were forced to play a man down and a goal down for the rest of the match.

More troublesome was Duff's gimpy output in the second half after a collision between keeper Carlo Cudicini and a Newcastle duffer which not only gave Newcastle a virtual two man advantage but also loomed ominously for Wednesday tie against mighty Barcelona.

The loss means Chelsea's season long aspiration of winning all four titles, the league title, the FA Cup, the Champions League Cup and Carling Cup, has gone down in flames. The Carling Cup will be decided Sunday against Liverpool and the League title still seems assured but a great doubt is now cast upon their ability to push forward against Barcelona in the Champions League match.

Perhaps more disgraceful was that Newcastle managed to win this match despite themselves. Time and time again, rather than manage the ball and control the clock, they took wild shots downfield and unnecessarily surrendered the ball to Chelsea giving them many unnecessary opportunities.

It must stick in the craw of Mourinho to lose to a side like Newcastle who, even when given a two man advantage and the lead, barely seemed capable of maintaining their composure.

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Old Firm Derby

Another dismal outcome was seen in Glasgow yesterday as Celtic, who had not lost at home to rival Rangers in five years, saw the streak come to a screeching halt as the Rangers' 400th league goal against their perennial rivals saw them take a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish, only add too.

The goal followed an unforced gaffe by Celtic keeper Rab Douglas and was later exacerbated by another defensive mistake that sealed Rangers victory when Ulrik Laursen was left floundering in Nacho Novo's wake before the Spaniard delicately lofted the ball over Douglas.

Oh misery! Newcastle's and manager Souness' nemesis, Craig Bellamy – fairly subdued, overall – was in O'Neill's starting selection alongside John Hartson, with Chris Sutton dropping into midfield, and the attacking configuration might have paid off but for the Rangers goalkeeper, Ronald Waterreus, who made an auspicious derby debut with important saves from both Welshmen during Celtic's first half superiority.

The second half saw the Rangers take hold and keeper howler on the Celtic side.

It also means Celtic fall three points behind the Rangers in the Scottish Premierleague tables.

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Today's 6th round FA Cup draw will be held at 1:00 to determine whom Newcastle will fell next in their race to win their first FA Cup title in 50 years which is, ironically enough, the same 50 years it's been since Chelsea won the league title.

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And this Tuesday and Wednesday will see what on paper, should be great matchups between classic teams in the Champions League's next stage:

Tuesday, February 22
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Bayern vs. Arsenal
Liverpool vs. Leverkusen
PSV vs. Monaco
Real Madrid vs. Juventus

Wednesday, February 23
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Barcelona vs. Chelsea
Bremen vs. Lyon
Manchester United vs. AC Milan
Porto vs. Internazionale

Sports Amnesia predicts that potential, both English sides Arsenal and Liverpool could lose their opening matches whilst PSV will cut down Monaco and Real Madrid will be able to overcome Juventus at home.

On Wednesday, although Barcelona are the favourites and home, Chelsea should be able to battle to a 0-0 draw if they're lucky. Root for Lyon over Bremen, Man U will defeat AC Milan which should be a wonderful struggle with AC Milan's old yet talented defence and Porto should lose to Inter.

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To those of you looking for baseball news, the best that can be offered outside of the normal realm of the website links to the side of this page is to wait a few weeks whilst the euphoria of the opening days of Spring Training die out and the calm reserve of reality begin to set in before we start hennypennying about this team or another and everyone's chances. Trust that Sports Amnesia will begin a comprehensive examination of all that is necessary to examine for the upcoming season and what you don't find immediately, will be ultimately prized over at Archie Bunker's Army.