Beating Man City - How’s it done?

Nah.....I definitely could beat Andy Murray during his hip operation. I won Southfields once, and that's right next to Wimbledon. Can't get better than that I'd say. I also beat Nadal to the bar once, so I'm counting that as well.

 

The first thing you tell yourself is all the pressure is on City. The likelihood is they will be going for the first-ever domestic treble. There’s pressure already.

Secondly Pep will be tense. It’s the only competition in three different countries he’s entered and not yet won.

Thirdly, City have tensed up in this competition of late. Only just beat Brighton. Lucky to beat Swansea from 0-2. Last season Wigan knocked them out.

Also they’ve not been amazing at Wembley. Couldn’t beat Chelsea in the League Cup. Scraped through in this season’s semi. Lost the semi to Arsenal there two years ago. There’s little history of them rolling up at the stadium and flattening their opponents. It’s a cup final. They will be nervous despite the great CVs of their manager and many of their squad.

I think you go there as relaxed as you can be, realise all the pressure is on your opponents rather than you, show the terrific team spirit we know we have, and just pray it’s your day and the footballing gods are smiling on you and the luck goes your way.

9 times out of 10 they’d beat us. We just need to hope Saturday week is the other one.

 

Gracia's most difficult task so far.
He has shown himself to be flexible as to tactics, perhaps more so than any other of our recent coaches. In this case this must include during the game.
But, as GT himself had occasion to say, in the end players win games or lose games, not coaches. If Cathcart, our most reliable centre back this season, allows a City player to nip past him as Higuaín so easily did yesterday, there is very little a coach can do about it.
Watford have looked off the boil since the semi-final and Arsenal-with-10-men. I suspect several are carrying minor injuries and they look tired. It all reminds me off the play-off final against Palace - it was a match too far that season. Their real final that season was the Leicester semi-final. Gracia has a massive task approaching the psychology of the players for this game. As Bob Paisley more or less said: 'The English season is a marathon, not a sprint.'
Out-thinking the team of analysts and observers that City surely have would be an utter master-stroke.
Ideally, I think, Man City must win the Premier League title with seconds to go after a gruelling, tense afternoon. After that, perhaps City might lose a bit of impetus a week later. If Pep has a weakness it might be an inclination to smugness and he has been known to lose it when things don't go his way. Somewhere along the line I think we must rattle their cage, probably late in the day.

 

Utter piffle.

 

Serve them dodgy lasagna I say and pray to the Gods.

 

Are you Doctor Strange?

 

When it’s not going his way, Guardiola acts like a 10 yo on Haribos.

It doesn’t happen often & I suspect that’s why Citeh lose, about once a year, to minnows.

 

It'll be a great occasion, but let's be honest, even demanding, miserable c**ts can't have any expectation of winning, and we are very likely going to be comfortably beaten.

 

Worked for SA in the rugby.

How can we implant a Hornet chef into the Citeh kitchens?

 

Yeah but to my friends I'm just strange.

 

Lasagna lays for Udinese m8.

 

It's a good shout, but they are professional athletes so I'd expect them to be sober at least.

 

They'll muller us in the corners and then we'll be in a jam.

 

Fingers crossed it’s just a Muller Light.

 

There's a thread about yoghurt.

 

I've told myself it will be beneficial for us to throw the FA Cup final otherwise we'll lose Gracia in the summer & have to start all over again.

See. Better now.

 

Well if it's fat free some of our players will be in trouble...

 

I'm not fretting over this game, we'll win it, and I've thought so since the Semi Final. I'm in the middle of several weeks of pure excitment.

If, by some small chance we end up losing, I'll be somewhat upset for a few hours, before I get excited at the prospect of qualifying for the Chapions League next season.

What a great time to be a Watford fan!

 

Hehe. Is Super Tenants on bank holiday offer in your area?

 

Bit late for this season - we'll have to keep it mind for next...

 

U ok hun?

 

It’s a little bit sad really that only our 2nd ever cup final is against one of the most unbeatable sides we’ve ever seen. I’d have taken Chelsea, spurs, Man Utd or Arsenal and genuinely felt we would win it.

Maybe it’s our particularly bad record against them and the big six all together that you can’t help but think we’re probably going to be two goals down before half time and realising it’s pretty much all over.

But....this is football and freak results happen. The premier league title chase has built up so much that mentally it’s like their season ends one way or another next Sunday.

Plus we gave them a great game at theirs until the offside goal, and there is VAR for those blunders.

And I watched the last 10 minutes of our semi-final win today and we do actually have players who can do something special....not as many as city and not as frequently but still.

Just imagine being there if we actually did it.

 

What would you rather;

A) Win the FA cup final & get relegated next season due to the strain of European commitments?
or
B) Lose the FA cup final but end up mid table next season in the PL?

Ps) It's B.

 

A without a doubt! We’ve never won a major trophy! We’re more likely to return to the premier league over a 5-10 year period than we are to win the cup. Luckily I don’t think we’d suffer that much to turn us into one of the three worst teams in the league next season anyway.

 

Well then HB1, stop wasting all your time on here and get out on to the tennis court and practice, practice, practice! Roger’s not getting any younger!

 

Folks, just watch Lesta.

They’ve done Citeh psychologically.

Pep wetting his knickers, Sterling looks Sunday league & I’m not sure Aguero is on the pitch.

 

If we get the nervy, all over the place City that are playing tonight, we might have a chance to keep it down to 5-0.

 

Good point.

Things hinge on the relative ages of RF & HB.

Excited about the prospect of an IBB tennis boot camp.

 

Just need to double up on sterling and silva and they are totally ***qed

 

We are all Filbert tonight.

 

Unfortunately I'm already 15 years older than him. He's 37 so I missed the opportunity to beat him by 33 years.

 

I think if City fail to win tonight, our hopes at Wembley are practically zilch. Can’t see them finishing the season with only the League Cup.

 

So if the strikers can't finish... Their centre back pops up with a worldie