The Warm-Up: Wigan beat Manchester City again, quadruple dreams flushed

There will be a fair few people out there who enjoyed the schadenfreude of Manchester City being knocked out of the FA Cup by Wigan, their hubris slain, history repeating itself after the same team pulled off a similar shock by winning the 2013 final.

But probably no more than Alex Ferguson, who we assume chuckled, sank back into a big, high-backed chair with a glass of nose-reddener and sighed in a satisfied manner, safe in the knowledge that the treble/quadruple dream is over for another year.

Will Grigg, the walking terrace chant, was the man who scored the goal for Wigan, currently the third-best side in League One, against the best side in the Premier League. That was enough to beat City, despite them having about a billion per cent possession in the second-half, helped rather by Fabian Delph’s sending off in the first-half for ploughing through Wigan midfielder Max Power.

This was in part the cause for some spicy aggro between the two managers at half-time, the sort of scenes we absolutely like to see, even if Pep Guardiola and Paul Cook played it all down after the final whistle.

“Congratulations to Wigan for their victory,” he said. “The way we played it didn’t influence us too much. We conceded one shot on target in 90 minutes and we lost.” Sometimes your luck can change just that quickly.

Antonio Conte has got plenty on his plate at the moment, so it’s hardly surprising he’s a little restless. And ahead of Chelsea’s big Champions League game against Barcelona tonight, he’s had some problems getting some shut-eye.

“In these days after the game in the FA Cup, I must be honest… it was a bit difficult to sleep well,” said Conte. “When you have to play this type of game, you have to prepare. You have to prepare everything. You have to prepare big things, but the smaller details too.”

You can’t really blame him. This is a Barcelona side who were in something of a mess when Ernesto Valverde arrived, but are now a billion points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga. And even if they weren’t, even if they had ten players who were useless cloggers and had lost every other match so far this season, they’ve still got Leo Messi.

That said, Messi has never scored against Chelsea, so maybe they’ve got him in their pocket after all.

Is 31 years enough for unimaginably unspeakable crimes? Who knows. All we do know is that Barry Bennell will almost certainly end his days behind bars after being sentenced to 31 years in jail for the abuse of countless footballers in his time as a coach for Crewe Alexandra and Manchester City.

Of course there is little more that can be said about these crimes, so here’s what the judge, Clement Goldstone QC, told Bennell when he was sentenced.

“In one of your [police] interviews you said that, while it might be fair to describe you as manipulative, cunning and even predatory, you were not evil,” Goldstone told him. “You could not have been more wrong. Your behaviour towards these boys in grooming and seducing them to, in some cases, the most serious, degrading and humiliating abuse was sheer evil.
“You knew that to each of these boys football was their life – the career for which they would give anything. And it was the career for which you would take anything and everything they had to offer. You appeared as a god who had it in his gift to help fulfil their ambitions and realise their dreams. In reality, you were the devil incarnate. You stole their childhoods and their innocence to satisfy your own perversion.”

A fine reward for Connor Sammon, clearly, but why does he look like he should be on the front of a regional newspaper complaining that he found a razor blade in his 12″ Hawaiian?

You may have spotted at full-time after Wigan’s win over City that a number of rather rambunctious fans invaded the pitch, and one or two got rather carried away and gave it the big one to Sergio Aguero. Rather than condemning Aguero for giving a little back, we must salute the great man for keeping relatively calm in the face of such irritation, and frankly not landing a roundhouse on his assailant’s nose.

When you’re Manchester City, the key to beating a team from League One is the equivalent of just keeping your car on the road: don’t do anything daft, just slow and steady, it’ll all be OK in the end. Absolutely, definitely, 100% do not jeopardise your team’s chances by diving recklessly into a challenge and getting yourself sent off. Fabian Delph, go and sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.

It’s a big happy birthday and we do hope you’re well sir to Jimmy Greaves. Here he is scoring in the 1962 FA Cup final, for Tottenham against Burnley.

Footballl365’s John Nicholson writes about his own experience with abuse, and how young men and young footballers need not be afraid to speak out.

The big one. The Juliano Belletti derby. It’s Chelsea v Barcelona, in a clash which might seem even until you remember that Chelsea got gubbed by Watford the other week. Actually, it might be quite even. But if you reckon it’s going to be a walkover that’s not worth your time, Bayern v Besiktas is on the other side, and there’s a full slate of Championship games to keep you going too.