Interestingly, if Man Utd beat Villa tomorrow night, they will have clinched their league only one day after Celtic clinched theirs. Celtic didn’t get it quite as easy as many thought they would. (They’ll still win it for the foreseeable future, mind you)
Part of the trouble is that three bodies involved: SPL, SFL and SFA can’t agree between themselves, or within themselves, about the way forward. I lost track of the details some while ago though.
How about nuts and scum? The bloke is off the scale - hopefully this will precipitate him getting scraped off the EPL one way or another and deposited elsewhere.
Champions - Manchester United.
And two of the three relegated teams have been settled with today’s results: Reading 0-0 Park Rangers means both will spend some time in the Championship.
But the battle for the UEFA Champion’s League spot continues! My guess is the third and fourth places won’t be settled until the last matches.
I would have been much happier obviously with an Arsenal victory today, but taking a point from the draw, and thereby denying ManU the possibility of tying the most points earned in a Premiere League season, isn’t a bad result.
Next week, Chelsea and Spurs play each other, and Chelsea face ManU who will be playing at home. Arsenal are at QPR, so it could potentially be a decisive week. We shall see.
Sir Alex has announced he’s retiring at the end of the season. Dammit. Simply the best.
I haven’t had a chance to read a lot of what’s been reported this morning, but it seems like big favorite is Moyes. I don’t think I’d be disappointed. My hope was that SAF would stay on for another year or two, get Mourinho for two or three, and by then hopefully Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would be able and willing. Maybe OGS will be able to do it in 10 years time, unless Moyes (or whoever) just has incredible success.
I’ve only known United as managed by SAF. I always knew that success would be coming, if not this season, then next. He’s amazingly driven. I also always knew the team would entertain and fight. I still expect success, but I won’t be able to make predictions anymore based on it simply being a Sir Alex team, and knowing what that means. The season where United bought Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, and Tevez made me feel titles were just as likely as the summer when Ronaldo left and only Valencia and Owen were signed. I would always expect United to win the title. I’m certainly able to live without SAF at the helm, and in the past few years I’ve come to appreciate the lost titles as part of the process. If it’s Moyes, I don’t know enough about how Everton’s teams tend to play, but I do know that United will continue to fight til the final whistle.
This is just weird for me. Everyone knew the day would come, but still. The only thing close to it for me was when Ronaldo went to Madrid. We knew it was coming, but it was still a punch to the gut when it finally happened. This time, though, there’s no SAF to make up for Ronnie leaving.
Maybe Giggs should retire and take over the Manager position. I mean nobody has worked with Sir Alex longer than that guy and he surely has picked up a ton from the guy. I mean he started on ManU youth team in 87 and Sit Alex started in 86. I know he has never coached before, but I am not sure that still wouldn’t work. Of course, maybe he has no such ambition.
Anyone else watch Chelsea-Spurs last night? Was the most entertaining Premier League game I’ve seen in some time (then again, I don’t watch many as I don’t have Sky), end-to-end stuff at times and both teams had chances to win the game late on. I must admit I did enjoy Ramires slipping over and almost knocking himself out on the turf. Huddlestone should be very disappointed with two poor corners and his free-kick at the end, which wasted attacking opportunities. I always find it hard to fathom how common this is even at the top level. Of course Beckham was exceptional, but he used to spend hours after training honing his corners and free-kicks, and as a result you rarely saw a poor one from him (though I admit it usually took him two or three attempts (or more - see England vs Greece in the 2002 WC qualifiers for the most memorable example) to find the killer free-kick in a game situation).
The result probably helps Arsenal more than anyone, who should now finish in the top 4 as they ought to beat Wigan and Newcastle - they may even overtake Chelsea if the latter slip up against Villa or Everton. Spurs will probably win their last two but still be stuck in 5th.
At the bottom, Wigan’s hopes are hanging by a thread and you wouldn’t bet against them going down with Arsenal still to play. On the other hand, if they manage a miracle win against Arsenal, and Villa lose to Chelsea, the loser of Wigan/Villa on the final day will go down (though a draw for Villa would keep them up).
The Chelsea-Spurs match was entertaining. Chelsea did a great job of taking Bale out of it.
I’ll be surprised if any of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Spurs get 6 points in the last 2 weeks. It’ll come down to who doesn’t want it least, I suppose. Also, Rafa wants a trophy. Chelsea have depth, but just how strong a side will they put out against Villa on Saturday? At least there should be something worth watching on the last day of the season.
Apologies if this is the wrong thread for this discussion, but it’s relevant because the winner of the Championship play-offs gets promoted to the premership…
Did anyone see the end of the Watford/Leicester City match yesterday? Even though I live across the pond, I’m a Watford supporter by association (my cousins live in the area and are die-hard fans).
To set the stage, the two teams were in match 2 of 2 and the aggregate score was 2-2. The teams were headed to extra time when a penalty was awarded to Leicester City on a highly questionable foul in the box. Leicester City was a converted penalty away from almost assuredly heading to the play-off finals, considered the most lucrative match in the football world. What happened next was incredible.
Here’s a video if you haven’t seen it already:
Reporter’s view:
Fans in the stands:
Absolutely amazing, I hadn’t seen that yet.
That’s also why I love the Championship and the play-offs, so much excitement and unpredictability.
That was awesome, how disappointing it will be if they don’t win the final.
Mancini sent on his bike last night - reported as basically being sacked for a few days but now confirmed. Total clear out of the backroom staff apparently:
He’ll probably leave with his reputation intact, if not exactly enhanced. Total circus of a club but he still got the job done last season, albeit by the absolute skin of his teeth.
Tonight could be the night that the relegation battle is decided - with Wigan playing Arsenal. Both sides need a win - to continue to to avoid relegation and for Champions League qualification - so it could well be a thriller.
There are only really three sides left in the relegation battle. Wigan, Sunderland and Villa (even though Wigan could get up to 41 points, the fact that they play Villa on the last day and a Wigan victory in that game meaning that Villa stay on 40 points, means that everyone above 40 points is safe - and Fulham and Southampton are safe due to their goal difference too). I reckon Wigan are done for now - after my look through this a few weeks ago, I said that Villa needed their points early, as I didn’t fancy them in the last game, and they’ve done just enough, I think. Arsenal need to win tonight (I had thought that Spurs would have faded by now - so 3 weeks ago had chalked Wigan up for a win tonight) and should do the business.
Might venture out to the alehouse to watch this one. Wigan last week at Swansea were dire, total ineptitude in defense. Then they go and beat City in the cup final. It will take a performance from the ages to see off Arsenal after that rollercoaster but they have an outside shot.
Wigan’s only chink of light is that at least their fate is in their own hands and they are not reliant on other results going their way, which is rarely the case by this stage of the season. However, as others have said, it will be tough for them to get a result at the Emirates - if they lose they are down, and a draw would give them mathematical hope only, as Sunderland would need to lose heavily at Spurs on Sunday (always a possibility I suppose - Wigan may end up being pleased they are not due to play, say, Stoke!) and Wigan would also require a big win against Villa (who would at least be safe themselves if Wigan only draw tonight - so again, it’s a possibility. I can imagine that if Birmingham or Wolves were the club in 17th place right now, a lot of Villa fans would be rooting for the opposition in that scenario!). But with an 11 goal swing required in total, Wigan really need a win tonight, and I just can’t see them getting it.
Assuming that comes to pass, Wigan will become the first team to win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season - five relegated teams have previously reached the final, but all lost. Anyone know what that means for them playing in Europe next year?
Wigan have qualified for the Europa League by virtue of winning the FA Cup and will play in it, even if they are relegated. A similar scenario obtained a couple of years back when Birmingham City won the League Cup/Coca-Cola Cup/Capital One Cup/Milk Cup/Rumbelows Cup/whatever the fuck we’re calling it this season cup and were similarly relegated. They played in the Europa League whilst in the Championship - and Wigan will doubtless do the same.
Milwall, for heavens sake, made it one year this past decade when they managed to make it to the FA Cup Final.
I’d forgotten about Millwall. There’s a bunch of supporters with which we can show our continental friends our best face.
I loved that FA Cup final against Millwall. Ronaldo had shown some of what he could do, but he really showed off in that match. He should have been MOTM, but Ruud got it with 2 goals.
Bye bye Wigan. 4-1 down with a minute of normal time left, they have been relegated.