Manchester City…..
Whilst most of the attention was on the newly crowned title winners being newly crowned, it should also be remembered that this was an important game for Huddersfield Town. They are still not safe from relegation and are only two points off the drop zone.
The possibilities are that they will go down along with Stoke City and, probably, West Bromwich Albion due to our “teams in stripes” theory. This, of course, means there is still a chance of Southampton being sucked through the trap-door as they are also a stripy team but, on this logic, Swansea will be safe! If only all football was this simple!
Seriously though, Huddersfield will have seen this one as a free shot. A game nobody expected them to win with City still highly motivated by scoring records, points records and wins records. So anything taken from the match would be a bonus.
As it happened, Huddersfield managed to take a point from the match with a combination of good luck, good defending and good tactics.
The 0-0 draw meant that City had failed to add to both their wins and goals tallies and only increaesed that of their points by one. They still, however, have two games in which to break those records.
Congratulations to Pep Guardiola and his team for bringing the title back to the city where it belongs. Next year José Mourinho needs to deliver it to the correct postcode.
Lucky Mourinho…..
Olivier Giroud scores the only goal of the game for Chelsea who have, apparently, only been thrilling since five past seven!
José Mourinho must be wondering what his team of slackers needs to do to relinquish second place in the Premier League.
Having just turned in one of the worst, if not the worst (or was that the Sevilla game?), performances of the season in losing to Brighton, not too long after losing at home to West Bromwich Albion, he then watched Tottenham Hotspur fail to take advantage by also losing to West Bromwich Albion, this time away.
With Liverpool taking on Chelsea at Anfield the best he could hope for from that one was a draw or a Chelsea win although a Liverpool win would still only move them to within two points of United and they would have played a game more.
As it turned out Chelsea won the game 1-0 with a goal from Arsenal cast-off Olivier Giroud.
A Chelsea win was the result Spurs didn’t want as it brought Chelsea to within two points of them with both having two games remaining. The pressure now is on Tottenham even though both of their final games are at “home” because Chelsea will just go out with the attitude of winning their games and seeing what happens whereas Maurico Pochettino’s side won’t want to concede fourth to their rivals, having occupied that position for so long themselves.
Imagine that! A shiny new 60,000 seater White Hart Lane hosting Europa League football on Thursday nights next season! The fans will be just as ecstatic at the prospect as Daniel Levy!
And finally…..
The serial winner himself has another battle which he will also win
Sir Alex Ferguson looked full of the joys of spring when giving Arséne Wenger his replica of the Europa League trophy at Old Trafford last week.
How things can change in just a few short days!
Fortunately, following successful surgery, a brain haemorrhage is unlikely to keep Fergie off his feet for too long and we fully expect to see him nodding off or playing with his phone again during matches at Old Trafford in the not too distant future.
He has always been a fighter, right from the days he was breaking the Celtic-Rangers duopoly in Scotland to knocking Liverpool off their perch in England. It is this fighting spirit which will see him come through this latest battle successfully.
The “get well soon” messages have been pouring in from all over the world and all we can do is add ours to the thousands already awaiting his attention.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 