FA Cup
KEY DATES IN ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP & FA CUP
Project Restart’s most emphatic breakthrough came on Thursday as it emerged that June 17 is the date the Premier League will begin again.
Manchester City will play Arsenal and Aston Villa take on Sheffield United to bring all 20 Premier League teams level on 29 games played. A full round of fixtures will resume from June 20.
So now, with a template in place, Sportsmail assesses how Project Restart could unfold from here.
MAY 28
Thursday has been the first day that clubs can introduce contact training back to their players.
The very first pictures of players getting stuck in came from Newcastle but it does not mean that clubs will resume in an immediate resumption of training methods before the coronavirus outbreak.
Groups will slowly be expanded and it will be a few days yet before clubs are playing 11 v 11 matches within their squads in training. Nevertheless, the first phases of contact training are an important landmark.
JUNE 6
By now, clubs should all be involved in contact training, with the overall standard intensifying. A fortnight before the resumption of the season means that managers and coaches can fine-tune the conditioning plans they have for players.
The Telegraph have even reported that teams are looking at conducting pre-season friendlies to sharpen players up as much as possible ahead of the restart.
JUNE 17
The first Premier League matches should be played. The most notable fixture is Manchester City against Arsenal, which pits Pep Guardiola against his former assistant Mikel Arteta.
JUNE 20
The first full set of fixtures will be completed the weekend starting June 20. If City lose the midweek match to Arsenal, Liverpool can win the league against Everton.
Again, the matches are expected to be broadcast across a free-to-air platform. Sky Sports will broadcast 64 of the remaining 92 games, with 25 to be made freely available – including the Merseyside derby.
JULY 26
The last day of the season – all being well, it will bring the completion to the campaign that the majority of Premier League clubs have wanted to see. Relegation and European places will be confirmed on the pitch, rather than a points-per-game system.
AUGUST 1
The new date for the FA Cup final at Wembley. The quarter and semi-finals will be played during the Premier League season.
AUGUST 26-29
The two dates here are slated for the final of the Europa League and Champions League, which is of interest to fans of Manchester United, Wolves, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Like the FA Cup, exactly how the remaining rounds are to be completed is yet to be announced by UEFA but with leagues across the continent tentatively following Germany’s lead and getting back to playing, there is growing hope.
SEPTEMBER 12
This is still to be confirmed but according to The Times, the Football Association have said that the 2020-21 campaign will need to begin soon after the 2019-20 season ends. It is reported that they have earmarked a two-week break after the European tournament finals.
This is because the delayed European Championship is taking place next summer, with a start date of June 11 and will run until July 11 – potentially with less host cities than what was initially planned.
Gareth Southgate, like all of the managers competing in the tournament, will require as much time as he can get with his players, including warm-up matches.
Manchester City F.C. completed a domestic cup double on Saturday after a late strike from Antoine Semenyo secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Chelsea F.C. in the FA Cup Final.
The decisive moment arrived in the 72nd minute when the Ghana international produced a clever finish from close range, turning sharply before back-heeling the ball beyond Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez after an inviting cross from Erling Haaland.
Semenyo’s goal transformed what had been a tense and cautious contest into an entertaining finale as both sides pushed aggressively in search of goals during the closing stages.
City nearly doubled their advantage when Rayan Cherki forced an excellent save from Sánchez, while Matheus Nunes struck the post as Pep Guardiola’s side intensified the pressure.
Chelsea also searched desperately for an equaliser but were unable to break through City’s disciplined defence.
The triumph handed Manchester City their eighth FA Cup title and completed an impressive domestic cup double following their League Cup success earlier in March.
For Semenyo, the winning goal marked one of the biggest moments of his career, with the forward delivering when it mattered most on English football’s grandest domestic stage.
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Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick as Manchester City crushed Liverpool 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to cruise into the FA Cup semi-finals.
Champions Liverpool played well in the opening half-hour with Mohamed Salah wasting an early chance, but once Haaland had scored from the spot in the 37th minute after a foul on Nico O’Reilly, their resistance crumbled.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk conceded the penalty with a rash challenge, and there was little the Dutch defender could do as City played scintillating attacking football for the remainder of the game.
His blond hair swinging behind him in a ponytail, Haaland netted his second two minutes into first-half stoppage time with a well-placed header from an excellent Antoine Semenyo cross.
Semenyo got on the scoresheet himself five minutes after the break, latching on to a ball in behind from Rayan Cherki and chipping it beautifully past Giorgi Mamardashvili, and Haaland completed his treble with a shot off the underside of the crossbar in the 57th minute.
Liverpool’s woes continued when Mohamed Salah, who is set to leave the club at the end of the season, capped off a poor performance by having his penalty saved by James Trafford, snuffing out any faint hopes Liverpool might have had of a comeback
As the game turned into a victory parade, many Liverpool fans started heading for the exits, and City manager Pep Guardiola rang the changes, replacing Haaland with Omar Marmoush, the Norwegian striker receiving a standing ovation as he left the field.
In the other quarter-finals, Chelsea take on Port Vale and Southampton host Arsenal later on Saturday, with Leeds United travelling to West Ham United on Sunday.
The semi-finals will take place at Wembley, and Haaland is relishing a return to the stadium.
“First half, we struggled a bit, but then we after around 30 minutes we kept going and in the end it’s an amazing game. Another Wembley trip for us is amazing and important,” he told broadcaster TNT.
“I think (my form this season) has been a bit too much up and down, which is not good enough. I cannot keep on thinking about what I could have done differently or what didn’t happen, or what happened. I have to think about the next game.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal will be without injured England attacker Noni Madueke when they face Southampton in Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final, but Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber may return from injury, manager Mikel Arteta said.
Madueke was among the 11 Arsenal players who withdrew from international duty last month over injuries and fitness management, as the club eye their first Premier League title since 2004.
“When you have to communicate the state of every player, we are always honest and a medical decision had to be made. That was clear what the conclusion was,” Arteta told reporters on Friday.
“It makes us so proud that we had that many players in the national team. Players are desperate to play for their nation. I know how important it is to them. We are fully supportive of that and when we can do it, we do it.”
Madueke picked up a knee injury during England’s friendly with Uruguay, missing the game against Japan. But Arteta said his condition was not as bad as a knee injury that kept him out for six weeks.
Martin Zubimendi, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Timber, Leandro Trossard, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice were unavailable for their countries.
Arteta did not disclose how many of them will be available for Saturday’s game, as Arsenal look to shake off last month’s League Cup final loss to Manchester City with a return to Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals.
“We’re in a position right now where we need to make the strongest line-up we possibly can to win every competition,” he said. ” We are two or three games away from the FA Cup and we know how important that competition is for us.”
-Reuters
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