What a fantastic Champions League final we have in prospect.
Impressed
Back to this Saturday and in the cold light of day you'd think that Hull would be favourites to beat Cardiff at home but their form has slumped pretty dramatically in recent weeks and their confidence seems to be at rock bottom.
Their playing surface, which doubles as a rugby pitch, doesn't engender a lot of confidence either but, on the positive side for Hull, Cardiff's season is to all intents and purposes over and Malky Mackay may choose to give some of his younger players an opportunity.
Meanwhile, you couldn't help but be impressed by the manner in which Watford - who are at home to Leeds on Saturday - played at Leicester.
They are breath-taking going forward; they play an exciting brand of football and have definitely got goals in them but they are vulnerable at the back.
I definitely see Watford winning. It's just a question of whether Hull can eke out a victory against Cardiff and I think that they might just do it.
Characters
Both Hull and Watford are managed by engaging characters so, whether Steve Bruce or Gianfranco Zola take their respective teams up, the Premier League is in a no-lose situation.
It's important not to under-estimate how well Zola has done at Watford. I've been critical, at times, of the number of loan players Watford have picked up from Italy but I have to say that Zola has moulded them fantastically well and the team plays with style and a flourish.
It would be great to see Zola back as a Premier League manager having had a small taste of it but Brucie is one of the game's great characters as well.
He never knew when he was beaten as a player and the same is true of him as a manager; there is no such thing as a lost cause in his book and, on a personal level, I like him a lot.
Jeff's Gem of the Week
There are a couple of contenders this week with Liverpool winning 6-0 at Newcastle and Aston Villa putting six past Sunderland. While Christian Benteke got all of the headlines at Villa Park, how good was Matt Lowton? At the start of the season I told to the
Soccer Saturday boys to look out for him because he's a young, talented, attacking full-back and they all scoffed (as they usually do at anything I say) but it's fair to say that's no longer the case.
But this week's 'Gem of the Week' is not a performance by a team or a player, but it is by a group of supporters - my lot at Hartlepool. Now I know that fans turn up in fancy dress at football grounds up and down the country but Hartlepool co-ordinate it like no-one else; this year they travelled to Crawley en masse dressed as penguins and the photos of them on the tube and in the bars of London are absolutely terrific.
As I was flying out to Barcelona earlier this week, I was stopped by a member of staff at Gatwick who is a Crawley fan and was at the game. He told me that halfway through the game the penguins en masse burst into a chorus of 'I believe I can fly' and that it just brought the house down; the Hartlepool supporters received a standing ovation from the Crawley fans for their efforts.
This particular fan also told me the atmosphere between the two sets of fans made it the best game he and his son had ever been to. I'm hoping that the Hartlepool fans will be in fancy dress at the end of next season celebrating promotion back to League One.
