FA Cup and Premier League: talking points from the weekend

FA Cup

1) Morata needs to be picked regularly to shine

Antonio Conte is a man of definitive emotions and convictions. As such, it is surprising to see him so apparently befuddled by the options available to him, constantly messing with formation and personnel. Of course, different oppositions pose different questions but Chelsea have players good enough to impose their game on pretty much any domestic rival, and there is surely a connection between consistency of selection and consistency of performance. Take Álvaro Morata. Though not the perfect centre-forward he has all the technical attributes to become one – as illustrated by the beautiful manner in which he opened the scoring and the flick that hit a post. But though he is both targetman and man on the shoulder he is not a natural-born goalscorer. To develop into one he must be picked regularly and, ideally, have other regulars around him. Daniel Harris

• Barney Ronay: Morata tries to run into Conte’s good books

2) Leicester play with old mongrel spirit that served them so well

They were beaten, and in painful, sapping style, but Leicester’s performance against Chelsea was uplifting nonetheless. Particularly after half-time, they played with all the old mongrel that won them the league –no small achievement, given how many ins and outs there have been since then. This tells us there is now a spirit and an identity which permeates the club which, though embodied by Jamie Vardy, is not precisely contingent on any one player or any one manager. The question then, is how they build on that. Riyad Mahrez will presumably leave in the summer but in Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi and Harry Maguire they have a solid spine around which they can embroider, while on the flanks Ben Chilwell will only get better and Marc Albrighton is exceptional at what he does. Even so, it is true that top six looks impenetrable … but we have said that before. Daniel Harris

• Match report: Leicester City 1-2 Chelsea

3) Mourinho is difficult – Matic’s shock verdict

Nemanja Matic has warned his Manchester United team-mates criticised by José Mourinho that the manager’s demanding nature makes him “difficult” to play for and believes they cannot be fully satisfied with their season, even if they lift the FA Cup. Having played for Mourinho at Chelsea, Matic offered his colleagues an insight into the manager’s character. “He is special because he wants to win always,” the Serbia midfielder said. “When we lose he cannot accept that. Probably that’s why he won more than 20 trophies. It is very difficult to work with him because he always wants more and more. Even if you win the league, he wants to win again next season. He is like this and the players need to be ready for that.” Matic said a Wembley triumph in May would not be enough in itself. “If you win the FA Cup I cannot say it is a successful season, but it’s a good season.” Richard Jolly

• Match report: Manchester United 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion

4) Who cares about the FA Cup?

There was a time when FA Cup quarter-finals – and younger readers may struggle to relate to this – provided great excitement in the football calendar. These days, however, it feels like an intrusion to the be-all and end-all that is the Premier League; the sight of several thousand empty seats in the home sections at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday was a depressing reminder of where the competition now belongs in the eyes of many. Swansea, to provide a bit of context, were playing in the last eight of the FA Cup for the first time since 1964 and children’s tickets were a fiver. Sadly – and just as damningly – Swansea’s players, with the exception of Alfie Mawson, were as uninspired by the occasion as those that stayed at home and delivered a listless performance that got exactly what it deserved. Roll on Premier League survival, eh? Stuart James

• Match report: Swansea 0-3 Tottenham

5) Chelsea missed a trick with Eriksen

Watching Christian Eriksen running the show at Swansea on Saturday, it was tempting to recall the time that we sat down together at Ajax’s training ground, in 2012, and he told the story about how Chelsea had invited him for a couple of trials with the club, at the age of 14 and 15, but decided that he was not for them. At the time Chelsea’s thinking was influenced by the fact that they already had Josh McEachran, who was a year younger and played in a similar position. Chelsea, at the risk of stating the obvious, missed a trick. After thriving at Ajax, where first-team opportunities arrived much sooner than they would have done at Chelsea, Eriksen has blossomed into one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe. He scores splendid goals, creates them in equal measure and plays how he talked all those years ago: intelligently. Stuart James

• The Dozen: the weekend’s best photographs

6) Gabbiadini could be key for Southampton’s survival

Mark Hughes pointed out Southampton could have beaten Wigan by three goals. In fact it could have been four. Before he saw his second-half penalty saved Manolo Gabbiadini missed the most straightforward of chances from Nathan Byrne’s misplaced back pass, perhaps as a result of lacking the sharpness that comes with playing regularly. Goals have been a problem for Southampton all season, though reinstating the Italian to the starting lineup suggests Hughes believes Gabbiadini can help in that respect. “We do need to score more goals but first we need to create more chances,” the former Stoke manager said. “Considering that was his first full game this year Manolo showed me enough. He want to play, he wants to do well for the club and though he was cramping up a bit towards the end, when he is properly match-fit I know he can be a real threat.” Paul Wilson

• Match report: Wigan Athletic 0-2 Southampton

Premier League

7) Sacking Pardew seems pointless now

What happens now? West Bromwich Albion have presumably been planning for the Championship for a while but it looks increasingly unlikely that Alan Pardew will be the man sitting in the dugout in August. Eight defeats on the spin, in any league, at any time, is damning and with the club’s hierarchy thought to be keen on installing Michael Appleton, a former player and assistant to Roberto Di Matteo and then Roy Hodgson at the Hawthorns, as head coach in the summer, these final seven games are little more than an agonising formality. One win in 17 games was enough to put paid to Mauricio Pellegrino’s reign at Southampton and Tony Pulis’s successor admitted he expected to be relieved of his duties during clear the air talks with the board last Monday. But sacking Pardew, who was appointed in November, seems pointless now. Ben Fisher

• Match report: Bournemouth 2-1 West Bromwich Albion

8) Wan-Bissaka’s emergence a matter of good fortune for Palace

A long casualty list is one of the reasons for Crystal Palace’s woes this season, but missing first-team stalwarts has not been entirely negative: if Joel Ward had not got injured and Timothy Fosu‑Mensah had not been unavailable then Roy Hodgson probably would not have introduced Aaron Wan-Bissaka against Tottenham last month. The 20-year-old has shone at right‑back since then, never more so than during this precious win at Huddersfield on Saturday. “He was excellent in every respect,” Hodgson said. “I’m amazed really how well he’s handled it because for long periods he was down with the under-23s and just made sporadic appearances with the first‑team squad. It was only about two months ago when I said: ‘I’d like you training more regularly with us.’” Wan-Bissaka’s emergence, plus the return of several key players and a benign fixture list, mean Palace should not drop back into the relegation zone. Paul Doyle

• Match report: Huddersfield Town 0-2 Crystal Palace

9) Salah flies high thanks to hard-working Liverpool wings

Mohamed Salah’s display of goalscoring ruthlessness was a prime riposte to the criticism he faced after a quiet afternoon at Old Trafford the Saturday before. Salah was stunning, as complete a forward as there is in the Premier League today and possibly even the world. Yet what is likely to please Jürgen Klopp just as much is the assistance he got from the other two members of Liverpool’s prime attacking trio – Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino. The two players were just as effective as Salah on Saturday, finding and creating space for the Egyptian to work his magic, causing chaos to Watford’s ponderous defence and, all in all, complementing the four-goal man’s style perfectly. The curtain-calls belonged to Salah but those waiting in the wings – literally – should not be forgotten amid all the acclaim at Anfield. Chris Brereton

• Match report: Liverpool 5-0 Watford

10) It looks like curtains for Stoke

Is time up for Stoke? There are three points and a few goals between the Potters and a safe spot but this result was the kind that smacks of relegation. Stoke were the better side with 11 men and, sometimes, even with 10. There was dynamism in midfield, width from full-back and in Peter Crouch, an outlet in attack. But the tackle from Charlie Adam that led to his sending-off was lax, as was the defending for Cenk Tosun’s winning goal. Playing well and still losing is rarely a good sign and this defeat may be crucial. Stoke have 27 points with seven games remaining. Three of those are against teams in the top six and another is against Burnley. Forty points look beyond Paul Lambert and his team now, which may be why a rallying cry was lacking from his post-match assessment. Ten seasons in the sun may have come to an end in the snow. Paul MacInnes

• Match report: Stoke City 1-2 Everton