All Aboard! - The Managerial Rollercoaster

[Werrett]

Leicester local here, interesting news about the sacking! Just want to give you a friendly tip and point out that you accidentally stated that Lerner was excited for Coyle to do well at Villa, when actually he went to Leicester

I knew I messed up somewhere but couldn't find it, haha!

Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Werrett]

Injury Update

Luckily things aren't looking too bad at the club right now, Hatem Ben Arfa has been a big miss but Ayoze Perez has performed well as a stand-in right winger. Townsend is also a right winger so our depth down that side is completely tarnished at the moment!

Steven Taylor is the only other injury but he'll soon be back in action, with so many games being played this year the injuries are inevitable. It's all about how we cope during the tough times!​

 

[Werrett]

Champions League Group Review

Not too many shocks overall, the exits of Dortmund and Milan could be seen as surprising but there aren't any major upsets, Celtic did incredibly well to get through and I'm still amazed that we won our group.

First Knock-Out Stage Draw

Seeded Teams

Un-Seeded Teams

...

The Draw

Some big draws in this round as Arsenal will face Monaco, Liverpool will face Barcelona and Chelsea will face Inter Milan.

Along with Manchester United (Who face Porto) I feel we got the better end of the draw, we'll be playing Russian Champions Zenit St. Petersburg in the first knock-out round, but I'm confident of our chances and hopefully we can progress to the next round.

We play away from home in the first-leg which is to my preference, an early goal or two there and we'll be in with a shout due to our impressive form at St. James' Park over the past two years.

I'm delighted with the draw and can't wait for February to come round!​

 

[Werrett]

December 2016

5 games, 3 losses, 1 draw and 1 loss. This was December 2016 and following a tough month in November we had to bounce back in a positive manner.

The only loss of the month was away at Old Trafford so I'm not too disheartened by that, especially due to the fact that we picked up wins against all of the lower table sides bar Leicester.​

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Our first game of the month was against Crystal Palace, a side I've never beaten but instead have drawn to on all 4 occasions, luckily we managed the win this time. Yoan Gouffran grabbed the two goals as he continue his annual goalscoring spree, wonderful stuff.​

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Our second match was against Stoke City at St. James' Park and with our unbeaten home record still in place we felt confident going into this fixture. Gouffran was once again on the score-sheet as he put us 1-0 up mid-way into the first half before Pablo Sarabia sealed the points late on, a very good result.​

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We conceded a late goal against Leicester to prevent us from picking up another win, Bony opened the scoring but a poor piece of defending allowed Riyad Mahrez to latch onto the end of a Knockaert ball, poor marking from our central defenders.

We also picked up 4 injuries in this game, although thankfully none of them are serious.​

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Villains Hire Lennon

Neil Lennon was today announced as the new manager of relegation threatened Aston Villa. Lennon who was dismissed by Leicester last month is said to be eager to get to work with his new side.

N.Lennon: "I'm delighted. I haven't been out of Football for very long and it's very pleasing to be able to get another crack at Premier League management. We're struggling at the moment but I think we have the squad to turn this around, we've just gotta dig deep."​

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Rémy Cabella bagged the only goal of the game from a free-kick as we beat the Canaries 1-0 at home to maintain our brilliant home record. Winning these games is vitally important as the big games have always been a struggled for us, so in order for us to do well we need to pick up wins against the lesser sides.​

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Falcao bagged a first half brace for Manchester United as they overpowered us in a 2-0 defeat, I'm not too disappointed as this was always going to be a tough game and we were never really 'in the game'.

Overall this was an impressive month and I'm happy with my players.​

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​

Despite a good month we've slipped down to 7th, the top 3 are really beginning to pull away from the pack so the fight for 4th place is really beginning to heat up. I don't expect us to get it, but if we knuckle down and play consistent football, I don't see why we can't.​

 

[Werrett]

Messi Wins Ballon d'Or..Again!

Lionel Messi was today named the winner of the 2016 Ballon d'Or in a room filled with players, managers and media alike. The Argentinian has now won the award an astonishing SIX times and looks like he will hold this record for some time, if not forever.

The order was the same as 2015 as Cristiano Ronaldo once again claimed second place with Luis Suárez rounding off the top 3. Many have argued that Ronaldo deserved to win the award due to he fact that he has far more assists and goals combined than Lionel Messi, but that's a debate for another day.

After accepting the award, Messi (29) addressed the room with nothing but delight and pride in his voice.

L.Messi: "I am very honoured to accept this prestigous award for the 6th time, it's astonishing that even after all these years I am still recognised by my fellow professionals, to whom I would like to thank. It's been a wonderful journey so far and I'm still only 29, hopefully there are many years ahead of me yet as I continue to strive to be the best I can be, for myself, for my family and for my team."​

 

[Werrett]

Not sure if I'm going to continue posting this story or not, I'm having a very tough time at the moment in terms of my personal life and it's just very difficult for me to sit here and play FM and update a thread while attending College and having to deal with the most emotionally draining experience of my life.

Bar a few people I really don't get much feedback on the thread and from what may seem a selfish point of view I don't want to sit here and commit to something that's not worth the time. I appreciate those who do leave feedback, it's always nice to read a positive comment!

But I'm not sure, things are tough right now...It depends solely on the demand for the content.

 

[Klippybo]

If this is the end it is a shame but do whatever is right for you.

Even in such an early stage you have achieved a lot - you brought us news of the Mackems down in League 1 after all!!!!

 

[PaperClipFMer]

Only just came across this story and really enjoyed it. Really loved the details and obviously the success you were having.
Its a shame it wont be continuing but as Klippybo says, you have to do what's right for you.

 

[Tracz]

Not sure if I'm going to continue posting this story or not, I'm having a very tough time at the moment in terms of my personal life and it's just very difficult for me to sit here and play FM and update a thread while attending College and having to deal with the most emotionally draining experience of my life.

Bar a few people I really don't get much feedback on the thread and from what may seem a selfish point of view I don't want to sit here and commit to something that's not worth the time. I appreciate those who do leave feedback, it's always nice to read a positive comment!

But I'm not sure, things are tough right now...It depends solely on the demand for the content.

Would be sad for this story to end,
But obviously your personal life is more important, hope you are able to deal/ sort out the problem/issue.
Maybe just take a break from the story and come back when you have the time/energy to do it.

Ive loved the story, youve done a great job in a short time at the toon,

 

[SamPeters]

If you do have to stop because of other reasons then thats fully understandable mate, i do comment when i can!

 

[Werrett]

I will possibly continue to update but I've already played up to March at the moment, so I may have to finish the season and post a brief season review and then continue the detailed posts at the start of next season.

Hopefully that's acceptable to everyone!

 

[Werrett]

January Transfer Window

January 2017 brought about the start of the transfer window, but with low funds and a fairly decent squad I felt there wasn't much need to enter the market but some events did take place that forced a spot of change at the club.

Basically, my laptop has been goofing up on me and whenever a player approaches me looking for first-team Football or to leave the club I can't have a conversation with the player but am instead faced with a blank screen. This causes my players to get upset and generally results in damaged morale.

In this case there were two players disrupting the group; Sam Byram and Alvaro Morata.

I told Mike Ashley that I could turn the morale around at the club 'touch-wood' if my laptop begins to work properly, he agreed to give me more time and so I had to go about solving the problems.

Now Morata wanted first team Football but after being less than impressive in the league since his arrival I didn't feel the urge to play him at all, and so I happily agreed to sell him, which resulted in his transfer, but first I'll go over all of the transfers thus far in January.

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Transfers Out

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Alvaro Morata

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Sold to Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)

Fee: £12,500,000

With the player looking to leave I decided to sell him for the highest placed bid, Donetsk put in a 12.5 and I decided that seeing as this was above his value I would happily accept the offer. The only problem being that the Ukrainian window is still open in February, so Morata was actually sold AFTER the window closed here in England, meaning I'm a striker short.

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Jack Colback

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Sold To: Aston Villa

Fee: £2,000,000

With Dele Alli and Gil Romero developing as our younger midfielders there's really no place for Jack Colback who has rarely featured since the first season, bar a cup game or two. So with that in mind I decided to cash in on him while I still could and figured a £2m bid was more than acceptable for the midfielder.

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Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa

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Sold to: Olympique Lyonnais

Fee: £5,000,000

Yanga-Mbiwa isn't a bad defender by any means of the imagination, but with him being on the bench so often he's beginning to become unhappy at the club, and so I took the decision to send him back to France which apparently the fans regarded as poor business, but it's better to cash in now than have him damage morale later on.

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Other:

As you can see I decided to loan out some of our younger players, Alli is desperate for first-team Football and Aarons is beginning to become impatient at the club, but rather than lose these players on free's or have to sell them in the future I decided to loan them out to stop them from becoming unhappy, which seems to have worked!

You may have spotted Valentino Lazaro there, who is a new signing! But we'll move onto that soon enough.

Sadly I wasn't able to sell Sam Byram, I accepted a £4,000,000 bid from Aston Villa but nothing happened following this action, so either the contract talks broke down or they never offered him one, but this could be a problem for morale.

However it now seems that he's set to stay..He's still not happy and the morale is still low but if I keep giving him playing time he may eventually return to being a happy player.

Bit of a kick in the teeth as I did sign a full-back with the intention of letting Byram leave, so due to the collapse of his move I'm now stuck with a full-back extra...

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Total Income From Player Sales in January:

£19,500,000

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Transfers In

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Valentino Lazaro
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Signed from: Red Bull Salzburg

Fee: £500,000

Valentino has been brought in as a young talent, he's been a player I've signed on previous saves and having seen that his contract was expiring I decided to bring him in on the cheap. He may not ever make it here at Newcastle but we'll certainly help him develop and sell him on for a profit at the very least.

I can only apologise for not having a facepack or logopack on this laptop, but as you can see Lazaro's got some very well rounded stats and overall he isn't a bad little player. is value has already shot back up to £3.4m so he's definitely going to be a profitable player, but he may just become a starter one day. Only time will tell!

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Danny Rose

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Signed From: Liverpool

Fee: £4,000,000

Danny Rose, he's a player we've all heard off. He plays for Tottenham in real life but in the game he wa sa fringe player at Liverpool FC, and with the intention of selling Sam Byram for around the same price I thought I'd bring in Rose as an ideal replacement.

However, Byram decided not to leave after all so now I have 5 full-backs to rotate between 2 spots in the team, a frustrating task but I'll no doubt look to sell Byram at the end of the season.

Danny Rose is another player who is now approaching his prime years and while he has no stand-out stats he's certainly a well rounded full-back, I'm confident he'll do a job for us and with his value having risen to £7.75m we will hopefully be looking to make profit on him if he doesn't quite live up to the mark.

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Total Spent on Players in January:

£4,500,000​

 

[SamPeters]

some interesting in and outs there mate!

 

[Werrett]

January Recap (2017)

January was a very strong month for us, we managed to progress twice in the FA Cup and picked up 4 league wins, only dropping points against West Brom.

7 games, 22 goals scored and 8 conceded, it was a crazy month!​

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We began the month with an impressive 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, Yoan Gouffran scored in the 94th minute to give us the 3 points in what could be a massive result!​

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Remy Cabella scored two free-kicks as we beat Aston Villa 3-1 at home to progress into the 4th round of the FA Cup, seeing as this is our third season it would be nice to start trying to win some silverware, end the drought!

While I don't have a screenshot we were drawn against Crewe Alexandra at home in the next round of the Cup.

​

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We slumped to a 2-1 defeat away at the Hawthorns, despite Gouffran's early goal we conceded through a penalty before half time and then a late injury-time winner from Christ Brunt gave the Baggies in the points in a dramatic finish to the game.

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The lads bounced back emphatically as we destroyed Fulham 8-2 at the Craven Cottage, hat-tricks were scored by both Ayoze Perez and Hatem Ben Arfa as our attacking unit proved too much for Fulham to deal with, a brilliant performance and our biggest win of the story so far!

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Luckily we managed to avoid an upset in the FA Cup,having to play Crewe Alexandra at home had all the hallmarks of another FA Cup upset but luckily we dug deep and pulled out the 4-2 victory, a few nervy moments but I'm delighted that we've progressed!

Again, no screenshot but we'll be playing Crystal Palace in the 5th round of the FA Cup.

​

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Another magnificent home performance saw us beat Everton at home 2-1, despite being 1-0 down for almost the entirety of the match we dug out two late goals through Ayoze Perez and Marouane Fellaini against his former club, a great win!

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What should have been a routine victory was made difficult by the dismissal of Gaston Gil Romero, but despite this we managed to stay defensively solid and passed the ball around with great precision. Our opponents then decided to go on the attack in which time we bagged a late goal to give us a 3-0 win. A great performance considering we were a man short for the majority of the second half.​

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Again I don't have a screenshot of the table, but we were in and around the top 6 at this point with a gap forming above 7th and not far from the top 3.

It's been a good season thus far, I don't expect us to finish in the top 4 at all, we haven't made the best transfers and frankly all the other teams have improved, it's a tough league!​

 

[Werrett]

some interesting in and outs there mate!

Aye, didn't do a great job in the market! I chose to sign Rose instead of Danny Ings in hopes that Byram would leave so I could sign both, but instead I ended up with Rose and no Ings. Hopefully my two strikers can see out the season.

 

[Werrett]

Brief Summary of February (2017)

February went fairly well, we did suffer two league defeats and our first at home all season but apart from that we picked up some good wins as well as progressing in the FA Cup to the Quarter-Finals.

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In the league we picked up narrow wins over Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa but a massive 6-1 result away against Charlton Athletic, although we did suffer defeat to both Hull City and Southampton, we played well throughout most of our matches and despite having a fairly small squad we've done well to put ourselves in with a shot of reaching the top 4, if not least the top 6.

As you can see we've slumped a bit, but we're still a healthy gap above 7th place and with a game in hand we can close in on the top 4. A tough month to come in March but we'll do our best.

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Sadly we were knocked out of the Champions League by Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg, despite having a lot of chances in the away leg we suffered a 2-1 defeat although Tioté scored an absolute quality striker in the 92nd minute to give us hope. Sadly in the second leg we conceded a very very late goal from a corner to eliminate us via the away goals rule, a disappointing and heartbreaking finish but I was pleased with our performance, nobody expected us to get this far!

You can see here that that game ended 4-4 on aggregate but sadly we conceded two away goals, but we'll pick ourselves up, we fought proudly.

You can see here that Tioté gave us a life-line late on in the match, sadly our cause wasn't helped by Wilfried Bony, who was dismissed only 6 minutes after coming o as a substitute, very disappointing.

We were 3-1 up in the return leg and playing extremely well but former Shakhtar forward Luiz Adriano struck in the 90th minute to break Newcastle hearts, but we've done everyone proud.

Zenit were drawn against Manchester United in the next round of the Champions League meaning we avoided an all English tie which we'd have been underdogs for, but we exceeded the expectations set by the board.

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Tottenham Hotspur were crowned Capital One Cup champions after beating Chelsea at Wembley.

Goals from Lorenzo Insigne and Ross Barkley gave Spurs a 2-0 lead before Diego Costa pulled on back for the Blues, but Tottenham's defence held strong and the Spurs were able to pick up their first League Cup triumph since 2008.

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In the FA Cup we managed to pull off a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace to proceed to the Quarter-Finals for the firs ttime in this career so far, hopefully we can go one further and reach Wembley, for the fans.

The only goal of the game came mid-way through the 2nd half from Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony. The powerful forward took the ball down on his chest before swivelling and striking the ball into the back of the net, a fine finish that capped off a very good defensive performance.

We were drawn against Brentford in the Quarter-Finals and while the match was originally to be played at Brentford's ground we only managed to pick up a 1-1 draw and so a replay will be played at St. James' Park, hopefully we can pick up a routine victory.

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Youth

Following the FA Cup match we did receive our annual intake of young talent, but I'm sad to say that none of the players look like they'll make it here at Newcastle. A poor year in that regard but we don't have the best facilities, something I'm looking to improve on.

(The intake was at the start of March but I'll include here for the **** of it.)

As you can see, nothing that strikes me as exciting. But we'll try and develop them, maybe make a bit of profit, who knows?

I did however go out and scout a player from Brazil, a promising 16 year old Striker with some very good attributes and a promising goal record.

I present to you, Dário.

Now Dário has what I consider to be very good stats for a 16 year old Striker, he can finish, he's got stamina, he can head, great first touch and he's got fantastic work rates.

His other attributes will develop over time and as he won't be joining us for another year he'll have even more time to develop as a player in his native Brazil, Dario scored 15 in 41 last year for Vasco as a 15 year old and so far has 5 goals in 6 league appearances this term.

I took a gamble on Dário by agreeing a £5m fee, but he's promising and if I want to succeed with the Toon I'm going to have to take risks, ideally he'll join next year as Bony exits the club, due to his age.

I'll keep you updated on Dário's progress through the next year.​

 

[Werrett]

Marching Towards the End

For the first time this season we actually had a small month, only 4 games were played in the 4 week period which to my players is a treat, we've played a lot of games this year and the fatigue is definitely beginning to hit my players.

I re-capped the Brentford FA Cup 1st leg in the last update so I won't cover it here, but I will cover the other three games!​

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So in the first league match of the month we took on Manchester City away at the Etihad, City have been vastly under-performing this season and currently find themselves in 10th, which for a rich club is an absolute disaster.

We fought well and matched City for most of the game up until Tioté was dismissed for a second bookable offence, down to 10 men we went on the defence to try and secure a point.

We conceded a lot of possession and a lot of chances but our back 5 stayed strong and we managed to hold onto the draw, a great result when you considered we had 10 men against Manchester City for 34 minutes.

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After our draw against Manchester City we took on Championship side Brentford in the replay of our 6th round tie in the FA Cup, with the promise of going to Wembley if we win the team were determined to pull off the victory for the fans.

We played very well in this game, a couple of rotations here and there to allow some of our key players to rest but with a lot of our young talent out on loan I decided to play a strong side. Ayoze Perez bagged a hat-trick as we pushed aside Brentford in a 4-0 victory, a very pleasing result as we look to win our first piece of silverware as Newcastle manager.

I'm very proud of the squad and how they have performed this season.

Newcastle last won the FA Cup in 1955, and with the team now being only two wins away from claiming the trophy for the first time in 52 years, the excitement is really beginning to kick in.

Here's how the rest of the teams performed in the Quarter-Finals, along with the next fixture of ours, Arsenal.

As you can see Liverpool are the most likely candidates to reach the Final in the other leg, but having made the FA Cup Final in 2011 Stoke City will certainly be looking to return to Wembley, we on the other hand will be looking to play at 'New' Wembley for the first time.

With the game being at Wembley there really are no clear favourites, media will predict an Arsenal win but we'll give it our all.

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We returned to league action to play against the team we'll be playing at Wembley, this time however it was in the league, and with us playing at the Emirates the home side were always going to be the favourites. We played well up until the point where for the second time this month we received a red card, Captain Daryl Janmaat dismissed for a second yellow after bringing down Oxlade-Chamberlain.

This time our defence was unable to keep the opposition out as Ukrainian winger Yarmolenko converted from a tight angle, firing the ball under the left side of Tim Krul to give the hosts the 3 points.

I'm disappointed with Janmaat's rash challenge, but overall we played well and were unlucky on the day.

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We still find ourselves in 6th position with 8 games to play, due to recent results the top 4 now looks increasingly unlikely due to the 9 point gap that has formed above us, however we need to pick up some wins and maintain a lead over Everton which has been cut to only 4 points following our difficult run of fixtures.

A top 6 finish was the aim at the start of the season and I'd be more than happy for us to finish there.

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[JamesScott2908]

Great story! Love seeing the toon doing so well for a change ha! Out of curiosity ow have Quinn and Hatfield developed?

 

[Werrett]

Great story! Love seeing the toon doing so well for a change ha! Out of curiosity ow have Quinn and Hatfield developed?

Thanks man! I see you're a Newcastle fan yourself.

Well, Hatfield hasn't really developed at all..Highly doubt he'll ever make the first-team which is a shame!

Adam Quinn on the other hand looks to be coming along nicely, he's had loan spells at Oldham and Leeds and I feel he's nearing his chance for first-team Football. He's currently 2* ability with 5* potential and hopefully can go on to become a special player for us!

His face will look different as I'm playing on a different device, but as you can see he's got some nice attributes, just needs to develop physically. He has grown an inch though, but looks like he'll be a short lad forever, haha!​

 

[Werrett]

April...A Big Month.

April 2017 would be the month that decides if we get European Football or not, with our gap above Everton having shrunk from 9 points to 4 we needed to pick up some victories to rebuild on lost ground.​

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The first game of the month saw us take on title-chasing Chelsea at St. James' Park, we did well with possession in this game but were unable to get any end product for a large majority of the game. Chelsea formed attack after attack but our back 5 kept the Blues at bay as we looked to hit them on the counter.

Hatem Ben Arfa netted the first goal of the game by firing low under Courtois left before a late penalty from Cabella guaranteed us the win, I'm not sure how we got the 3 points here!​

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We then travelled to Anfield to round off what had been a tough run of Premier League fixtures. his game was a tale of two Perez's as Ayoze Perez gave us the lead early on but as expected Liverpool piled on the pressure and equalised through former Benfica Midfielder Enzo Perez, a great point considering how tough the fixture was, we'd started the month very well.​

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We returned home to face Crystal Palace the following week, the relegation threatened Eagles travelled here with the intention of giving us a tough game and they did do this, they created a lot of chances but were unable to break through our defence before Newcastle prodigy Adam Quinn netted the only goal of the game. Fresh from his loan at Leeds United I'm delighted to see the youngster bag his first of what will hopefully be many goals for the Magpies.​

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Next up was the big game, a match against the Gunners a Wembley, the FA Cup Semi-Final. With fans turning out in hopes of seeing us reach the Final I set out our strongest squad, we were going to give it our all.

1-1 after 90 minutes, Ben Arfa gave us the lead which we held for a fairly long time before Ukrainian winger Yarmolenko found the net from 30 yards for the Gunners.

The players were tired and they looked to be on their last legs, but we would have to play another 90 minutes, I made a couple of substitutions and sent the lads on their way, we were so close!

After 120 minutes the teams were still even, this meant we were heading to a penalty shoot-out, a dramatic way to force a winner but we're good at penalties so I fancied our chances.

We won! After 5 penalties each we took the victory having netted 4 of our 6 penalties, Yoan Gouffran with the only miss. Arsenal had two penalties saved by Dutch shot-stopper Tim Krul in what was a repeat of his World Cup antics back in 2014.

I couldn't believe it!

When Gouffran missed the first penalty of the shoot-out I thought our chances were over, but the pressure got to our opposition and they paid the penalty for their lack of composure.

It was a close game, plenty of chances, foul and yet only 1 booking from 37 fouls.

We're coming back to Wembley!

In the other semi-final Stoke beat Liverpool meaning we would face Stoke City in the FA Cup Final, we're in with a real chance here!

​

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After the semi-final we actually took on fellow finalists Stoke City at the Britannia, however things didn't go as planned here as we fell from a 1-0 lead to lose the match. Majeed Waris who signed from Trabzonspor netted his 13th and 14th goals of the season to give Stoke the points.

Hopefully we do better in the Final!

​

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Finally we rounded off the month by beating relegation candidates Leicester City 3-2 at home. I'm glad we got the points but after seeing our dominance over the Foxes I'm shocked that we almost blew a 3-0 lead. A little bit of complacency sneaking in from the team, something I'm hoping to iron out.

Great to see Bony bag 2 goals, he hasn't been as prolific this year but he still finds the net when we need him.​

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Here you can see the fixtures from the month, we only fell to defeat once which I'm very happy about, and with Charlton, Norwich and Manchester United to play I don't see why we can't crack on and maybe claim a top 5 finish.

You can see here that we now lead Everton by 6 points heading into our final 3 matches and I'm confident that we've done enough to qualify for the Europa League, but we'll go in and try to pick up 9 points next month as we look to possibly finish in the top 5.

Overall it's been a great year for us so far, we've played a lot more matches than we did last season and the players have handled it brilliantly, and I still can't believe we're in a Cup Final!​