Jermain Defoe was back in to the starting eleven replacing Robbie Keane, leaving Paul Robinson deputising as captain. Spurs began brightly, laying siege to the on the Middlesbrough goal. Boro were without new strikers Aliadiere and Mido and looked toothless in attack.

Brad Jones In Stoppable Form

Spurs were wasteful with gilt-edged opportunities in front of goal, Jenas and Defoe coming closest to breaking the dead lock. Schwarzer’s understudy Brad Jones demonstrated form that could have the Australian keeper looking over his shoulder.

Second Half Goals & Clean Sheet The Perfect Tonic For Confidence At Spurs

The Tottenham defence still looked suspect from set pieces but they managed to hold up and keep a confidence boosting clean sheet. Gareth Bale broke the deadlock in a controversial move Aaron Lennon appeared to be in an offside position but was deemed not to be by the referee, paving the way for Bale to run round Jones before putting the ball in the goal. Crowd favourite Tom Huddlestone added the second ensuring Spurs name was entered into the hat for the draw. Huddlestone headed the ball past Jones after Lennon carved out an opportunity to cross having beaten Rochemback on the right flank.

For the second year in a row Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United have been put out of the Carling Cup in their first round by lower league opposition. No doubt there will be headlines calling for his head and he will join Jose Mourinho on the English football scrapheap as he has failed to make progress on last seasons performance. In fact United have got 100% worse losing by two goals this year.

Last year a Freddy Eastwood’s free-kick created the upset of the season as Southend won one-nil at Roots hall. This years upset was at the theatre of dreams, and this years hero was Michael Misfud. He scored the first just after half an hour when he slid home Michael Doyle’s low cross. Misfud nearly doubled his tally this time the supply came from Simpson.

Misfud managed to double his and Coventry’s tally when he ended a counter attack with a fierce shot that Kuszczak was unable to stop. Sending almost 12000 Sky Blue fans in to an ecstacy they haven’t felt since Gary Mabbutt’s own goal gifted them victory in the F.A. Cup twenty years ago.

Coventry and Mifsud had opportunities to increase their lead, but the fans and Dowie appeared to be content with their two goal triumph over the Premier League champions.

The original fixture was abandoned after Clive Clarke suffered a heart attack at half time in the dressing room. At the time Forest were leading 1-0, but agreed that due to the severity of the incident it would be best to abandon the game and reschedule.

Leicester felt that this act of sportsmanship should be returned, the Foxes board and management team deemed it appropriate to give Forest their lead from the original fixture. Gary Megson nominated Forest keeper Paul Smith to run unopposed from the kick off to score the opening goal of the game.

Sporting Gesture Ruins Bets For Punters

This sporting gesture probably the best since Paolo Di Canio caught the ball after seeing Everton goalie lying injured, spurning the opportunity to score for West Ham United. However it will have a massive effect on the winnings and losses of thousands of punters. Any bets on first goal scorer will be losers as there was no market for Paul Smith as first scorer. Similarly bets for the correct score will also be affected; but it should not have any effect on the significance of the gesture.

With just Nottingham Forest or Leicester City still to book their place the draw for the Carling Cup Third Round has been made, piting a number of Premier League clubs against each other. The competition will be without a minimum of four top flight clubs for the next round, excluding any possible giant killings that may take place.

Blackburn Rovers will play newly promoted Birmingham City, while Liverpool have a trip to the Madjeski Stadium to play Reading. Spurs have to play host to Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough. Arsene Wenger will try to take his side to glory after defeat in last seasons final, starting with the visit of Sam Allardyce’s Toon Army. The last all Premier League tie is between Fulham and Bolton Wanderers.

Fresh from last years giant killing Manchester United will have to overcome Iain Dowie and his Coventry City team. While the reigning Carling Cup Champions Chelsea have to go to Hull and win if they are to retain the trophy this year.

Carling Cup Third Round Draw In Full

Blackburn v Birmingham
Reading v Liverpool
Manchester United v Coventry
Tottenham v Middlesbrough
Hull v Chelsea
Blackpool v Southend
West Ham v Plymouth
Arsenal v Newcastle
Luton v Charlton
Manchester City v Norwich
Sheffield United v Morecambe
Sheffield Wednesday v Everton
Fulham v Bolton
Burnley v Portsmouth
Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest or Leicester
West Brom v Cardiff

Ties to be played week commencing 24 September.

Jose Mourinho is uncertain about his Chelsea future, even though he is still fighting on three fronts having already secured one title this season. Chelsea need to overcome Manchester United to retain their Premiership title.

The Blues play Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final and face the possibility of facing Manchester United in the Champions League final as well as the FA Cup Final. Chelsea’s last three games of this season could all be against Manchester United. The same three games could also decide the fate of the three competitions.

Mourinho who has been touted for the Real Madrid job and the England job could have a change of heart and walk away from Chelsea if he manages to win all four competitions, in order to find a new challenge. Mourinho has told the press he intends to see out his contract at Chelsea, although the board and Abramovich may have other ideas. Mourinho reassured the Chelsea faithful about his intention to stay in England when he told the media that he has registered his children to schools near Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea captain John Terry was in the starting eleven three days after spending the day on crutches following an injury sustained in the Champions  League against Porto.

Arsenal took an early lead when Theo Wallcott broke through the Chelsea defence to score his first goal for the club. However the Arsenal youngsters could only hold their lead for a short time before Didier Drogba brought the blues level on twenty minutes.

For the second time in less than a week Chelsea had to substitute their captain through injury. This time the injury was much more severe, Terry was kicked full in the face as Abu Diaby tried to clear his ranks. Terry was out cold before he hit the deck, the players immediately summoned the physios of both clubs, who promptly despatched the Chelsea and England captain to get checked out in hospital.

After the huge delay it took Chelsea and Drogba another twenty minutes to put the league Champions ahead. As Chelsea tried to play out the remainder of the additional injury time added for the delay when Terry got hurt, tempers began to fray and a brawl involving all the players ensued. Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger entered the field of play to try and calm their players.

Red cards were awarded to Mikel, Toure and Adebayor for their parts in the fracas. However there were a number of other culprits who could face punishment from the FA after they have reviewed the referees report.

Chelsea captain John Terry sustained ankle ligament damage from an innocuous challenge in the Champions League match against Porto. Which means he is out of Sunday’s Carling Cup Final against Arsenal, where he would have had to contend with the pace of Arsene Wenger’s ‘kids’ and the power of the player they call the ‘Beast’ loan signing from Real Madrid Julio Baptista.

The injury could see England manager Steve McClaren without his captain for two crucial Euro 2008 qualifying games against Israel and Andorra. Although these games appear on paper to be a formality, recent performances and results tell us that they may be more difficult than they seem. McClaren needs results and will not be able to use players availability as an excuse, as he has the whole of England to select a squad from and in his position he should be able to motivate the players to perform and get the results the country craves; even though pulling on an England shirt should be motivation enough.

Perhaps the recall of former captain David Beckham could be the remedy that cures the recent lacklustre performances that McClaren’s England have given.

Jose Mourinho put out the strongest side he had available to face League Two side, in the hope of building on the 1-1 aggregate score from the first leg.

Shevchenko was gifted an opportunity to end his barren spell in front of goal by a stray Tommy Docherty pass. The Ukrainian striker still had a lot to do as he broke away from the Wycombe defence and slotted the ball past Batista to put the Premiership Champions ahead.

Shevchenko increased the Chelsea lead when his strike partner Didier Drogba played a clever ball over the defence on to his perfectly timed run. He used all of his experience and composure to volley the ball over the stranded keeper into the net.

In the second half the former AC Milan hitman had a hand in the blues third goal as he put Frank Lampard clear of the defence, the England ace rounded the keeper and passed the ball into the empty goal.

Chelsea’s fourth came on 93 minutes when Lampard latched on to Drogba’s pass to seal an emphatic victory, an put Chelsea in the February Final. They will take part in the first all London final when they take on the winners of semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham. The first leg of the North London derby takes place on Wednesday evening at eight o’clock.

The FA Cup will have a new home this season, after the final in the new Wembley in May the cup will no longer reside on the banks of the Mersey. Arsenal now have the upper hand as the sides meet again in the postponed Carling Cup quarterfinal.

The visitors silenced the noisy Anfield crowd when Hleb found Rosicky on the edge of the area and the Czech midfielder hit the ball first time bending it round a stranded Jerzy Dudek into the Liverpool goal.

Minutes later Rosicky made it two when it appeared that the whole Liverpool team forgot how to tackle allowing him to waltz past the defence and put the visitors two up.

Liverpool had a number of chances to get back into the game notably Luis Garcia missed a golden opportunity. The reds also had a penalty claim turned down when Xabi Alonso was brought down by Gilberto. Eventually Liverpool got one goal back when a Peter Crouch header from a corner was directed home by Dirk Kuyt.

The two goal lead was reinstated by Thierry Henry who had been quiet on his first game back from his enforced Christmas break. He collected the ball on the half way line and kicked it toward the flank past Jamie Carragher, Henry sprinted to catch up with Carragher and out manoeuvred him coming away with the ball he then cut inside the Liverpool box and coolly stroked the ball past Dudek.

Giant killers Southend United saw their fantastic Carling Cup run come to a dramatic end. They had punched well above their weight in the previous round against premiership leaders Manchester United, when a Freddy Eastwood free kick was the difference between the sides.

The Seasiders started just as they had left off in the last round. Similarly Tottenham played as if they were away from home. Which many of the fans had put down to officials moving their most vocal supporters around the ground to accommodate the travelling support from Essex.

There were few moments for either set of supporters to get excited about. Crowd favourite Tom Huddlestone showed one or two flashes of his passing ability and how well he can strike the ball. There were one or two goalmouth incidents that ended with the goalkeepers coming out on top; Flahavan made some excellent saves that could put him in the same January shop window as Eastwood, but the game finished a draw forcing extra-time.

The extra-time was just as drab as the game that preceded it, with a penalty shoo-out on the cards. Until Jermain Defoe slid the ball home from less than three yards from the goal.