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Well this weekend pretty much wrapped everything up in the Premier League, there are still a few unanswered questions like who will be the two other teams to be relegated with West Brom, and who will qualify for the UEFA Cup, and the Champion's League for next year. Anyways lets start with Manchester United.
Sir Alex and The Red Devils secured their 18th Premier League Championship win after a scoreless draw against Arsenal on Saturday morning. ( We all saw it coming) Besides Arsenal, both Liverpool and Chelsea secured wins over the weekend as well as their spots in next year's Champion's League group stage. Liverpool's 2-0 win over West Brom also proved to be the nail in the coffin for the now relegated West Brom side. Newcastle also lost over the weekend to Fulham, and Middlesbrough dropped all the way down to 19th place after a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. Meanwhile Tottenham pulled themselves up to eighth place after a 2-1 win over Manchester City which showed some possibilities for next year for spurs. Also Everton routed West Ham 3-1 over the weekend. Today Sunderland and Portsmouth are playing at 3 in what is a very important game for both teams as 3 points would put either team clear of relegation fears.
First of all I would like to apologize for my lack of posts over the last few weeks, school is getting very close to finishing and the work just keeps piling up.
Back to football. There has been alot happening since i last posted, im going to try and keep it short and sweet. Starting with the Champions League. On May 5th Manchester United finalized their place at Rome with 3-1 win over Arsenal. The game featured a strong United defence as well as a huge Cristiano Ronaldo free kick from 40/35 yards out ( These things never cease to amaze me) . Manchester United probably didnt get everything that they wanted out of the game however, Darren Fletcher picked up a red card in a spot of bad refereeing which gave up a penalty as well. The real game came on Wednesday when Chelsea played Barcelona at the Bridge for the other spot in the Finale. For most of the game things were going against Barcelona, with Michael Essien returning from injury in style with a 9th minute volley into the back of the net. The game was far from over however. The game stayed at 2-0 favoring Chelsea all the way up till the 90th minute when Iniesta scored a remarkable goal that proved to be enough to knock the Blues out. The game went into 7 minutes of extra time with claims for penalties from Chelsea. Need less to say this game was very controversial. The referee was terrible, a total of 8 cards were given out including a red card to Barca's Eric Abidal, and a yellow to Dani Alves which means that neither player will be elligible to play in the Finale against Man U. I will write a Preview for the Finale sometime in the next two weeks so keep you eyes open for it.
Moving onto the Premier League, last weekend proved to be very big for some teams involved in both the relegation battle and the title race. Manchester United won again Manchester City on Saturday morning 2-0, and Today they beat Wigan 1-2. Together those two games put Manchester United up to 86 points 6 points ahead of Liverpool. Liverpool beat West Ham 3-0, Tottenham tied Everton, Fulham and Sunderland tied as well. But the two biggest games for me were the 4-1 Chelsea win over Arsenal, and the 3-1 Newcastle win over Middlesbrough. If you look at the table below you will see that Hull City, Sunderland, and West Brom are now the 3 teams at the bottom of the table. Sunderland and West Brom are olnly three points down so if they can pull off an upset next weekend we could see some serious termoil at the bottom of the table.
As far as next year goes we can be looking at Wolverhampton, Birmingham City, Sheffield United, and reading for possible inductees into the Premier league so be sure to keep an eye on that.
Here is the table as it stands now.
The Premier League continued on Saturday with some very important games to be played. Manchester United kicked things off with a very convincing 2-0 win over Middlesbrough, who now find themselves in a very bad place at 19th place on the table and a full 3 points behind 17th place Hull City. United's win pulled kept them at the top of the table and a full 6 points ahead of Liverpool who played on Sunday. Also on Saturday Chelsea beat 9th place Fulham 3-1 which pulled them up level with Liverpool. Manchester City also played Blackburn on Saturday; they also cam away with a 3-1 win. Jermain Defoe made his return from injury on Saturday in Spur's 1-0 win of West Brom. The one goal came from Jermain Jenas just before half time was enough to get all three points. West Brom are pretty much relegated now, They sit at the bottom of the table with a mere 28 points and will be playing two of their last 4 games against both Manchester United and Liverpool. Meanwhile Arsenal beat Portsmouth 3-0 , and Two teams from the middle of the table also battled it out on Saturday, Bolton and Wigan, the game ended in 0-0 draw. The final game on saturday saw West Ham triumph 1-0 over Stoke City.
Sunday's games proved just as bad for the other teams at the bottom of the table. Liverpool destroyed Newcastle 3-0 on Sunday and reset the top of the table leaving Manchester United on top with a 3 point lead and Liverpool in 2nd with a 3 point lead over 3rd place Chelsea. The last game on sunday pitted Everton against Sunderland who are currently sitting uncomfortable at 16th place. Everton won the game 2-0. There is one game on monday still to be played between Aston Villa and Hull City. If Hull could secure a win or even a draw, they would be able to put alot of pressure on the bottom three teams.
First of all let me clarify what i mean by " Where is the passion?" I am not talking about most players in the MLS or the National Teams, nor am i talking about Coaches. Players and Coaches have passion for the game or they wouldnt be playing, because most of these boys dont get paid too much anyways. I am talking about the pasion (or lack there of) of the citizens of this country. Answer this for me: How many times per day do you see someone walking around in an MLS jersey, for me it's about 0 times per day. Go over to Europe and look for soccer jerseys, and you could easily see more than 100 per day. Its not that we dont wear soccer jersey's in America it is simply that most Americans are not passionate about American soccer. Sure, people go to MLS games and National team games, but i think that they are there for the wrong reason. In order for American Soccer to succeed there has to be pure passion and love for the game. This "passion must encumpass not only the players and coaches, but also the fans and the community.
Well this weekend pretty much wrapped everything up in the Premier League, there are still a few unanswered questions like who will be the two other teams to be relegated with West Brom, and who will qualify for the UEFA Cup, and the Champion's League for next year. Anyways lets start with Manchester United.
