Rearview Mirror

If you slept through the weekend, here's what you missed:

FA Cup - Stoke City made the FA Cup final for the first time in their long, but not quite illustrious career, where they will meet Manchester City, seeking their first trophy in a long time...longer even than Stoke. Read more here.

EPL - Manchester United may have crashed out of the FA Cup at the hands of their neighbours, thus ending their chances for treble glory, but they moved a big step closer to winning the Premiership when Arsenal were held to a draw by Liverpool. Scoreless well into injury time in the second half, Arsenal seemed to have grabbed a vital victory when Robin Van Persie scored from the penalty spot. However, enough time remained, mostly driven by a long delay for Carragher to go off after a nasty head collision, for Liverpool to earn a penalty themselves. Dirk Kuyt coolly converted, to leave Arsenal six points behind United, with only six matches remaining. Not surprisingly, the extended injury time and late penalty were too much for Arsene Wenger who confronted both the officials and his opposing number, Kenny Dalglish, after the final whistle. Never one to keep his disappointments to himself, the Frenchman said "We conceded a penalty after 11 minutes when the referee said there was eight minutes of injury time. I don't see where those three minutes came from and it was no penalty. We have been badly done in the two games here. Against Sunderland we scored a regular goal and were not given a penalty that was 100%, then today we got caught back like that. It is a period where we have not the biggest luck, that's for sure." Whie Sir Alex Ferguson isn't afraid to express similar sentiments about Premier league refereeing, I suspect he wasn't on the phone later to offer his condolences.

IPL -the even nature of the fourth iteration of the IPl was underlined over the weekend as the remaining undefeated teams all lost, and the three teams seeking their first points all duly won. Paul Valthaty continued his heroics, following his crushing century against Chennai with a superb allround performance against Deccan. After taking four wickets, he picked up where left off with the bat and smacked 75 off 47 balls with a further five sixes. With Gilchrist pipping him in the race to 50, the Kings XI Punjab's opening combination will be causing plenty of headaches for upcoming opposition.

  
NBA - the playoffs are under way, with some major first up upsets as the LA Lakers lost at home to the Hornets, while the San Antonio Spurs carried their indifferent end of season form into the playoffs, crashing 101-98 to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Orlando magic also lost at hom, to the Atlanta Hawks, despite a massive 46 point, 19 rebound game from Dwight Howard. Jameer Nelson had 27 points in support of Howard, but no other player had more than six, while the Hawks had five players score 13 or more.

NHL -the ice hockey playoffs are also underway, with 16 teams doing battle. Top finisher in the Western Conference, the Vancouver Canucks took a 3-0 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, while the NY Rangers pulled a game back on the Eastern Conference's top pleaced Washington to trail 2-1 in the series. 

AFL -Round 4 saw more of the same, with new boys Gold Coast Suns hammered by Melbourne, going down by 90 ponts, despite winning their first quarter of the season. Collingwood also carried on their merry way, disposing of Richmond by 71 points, as did Geelong with a good win away to Sydney. For the third time in four rounds there was a draw, with Essendon and Carlton slugging it out this time. Elsewhere, Port Adelaide rebounded from a sluggish start to win over Adelaide, Hawthorn edged home over West Coast, and Fremantle were too good for North Melbourne.