The Barclays premier league came to an end yesterday (Sunday) to the delight of many wives, girlfriends and mistresses (in the spirit of equality). Manchester city lifted the cup for the second time in two years clearly cementing their stake as a top four club and dispelling any jokes of them being the ‘noisy neighbours’ to Manchester United.
Similar to the last time when they (Manchester City) last won the league, it was a neck and neck tie to the last day. Manchester City needed only a draw to lift the league owing to their superior goal difference over second placed Liverpool FC.
Arsenal finished the season on a high note with a 2-0 victory over Norwich city with the very talented Aaron Ramsey showing us once again why he’s an integral part of the Arsenal squad by netting the opener. Right-Back, Jenkinson netted the second for the visiting Arsenal team to seal their Champion’s league qualification. However Arsenal should go and rework their strategies seeing that they led the league for 128 days but couldn’t lift the cup.
Manchester United’s woes continued with another dismal performance against Southampton only able to salvage a 1-1 draw despite having sacked coach, David Moyes who most people attributed United’s problems to. It’s the proverbial case of fall from grace for the former champions.
Chelsea came back from an early scare from Cardiff to wrap the game 1-2 in their favour with goals from German Schurrle and Fernando Torres. Liverpool also had their own early scare from an own goal from Skrtel before resurging back with two goals from Agger and Sturridge to end the match 2-1. Tottenham ended the season on high with a 3-0 thrashing of Aston Villa to secure their Europa league qualification.
As things currently stand Manchester city, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all qualify for champion’s league football next season. Most notable among them is Liverpool who last qualified during the 2008-2009 season and so this will be an emotional return for them to the big stage. However, dangling in their minds is the rumoured possible impending departure of their talismanic striker Luis Suarez to Real Madrid though not yet confirmed. This would be a big blow to the reds considering they have qualified for Champion’s league football and they need him more than ever.
In the Europa league joining the fray will be Everton, Tottenham and Hull city. Hull qualified due to their reaching the finals of the FA cup and thus deny Manchester United the opportunity to play in the Europa league. And to the losers of the league Norwich, Fulham and Cardiff city have been relegated to the championship for Leicester city, Burnley and possibly Derby County’s promotion back to Premier league soccer.
So as the football season ends and another begins with the impending start of the World cup in a month or so. Put away your premier league jerseys and look for your world cup jerseys, let’s go to Brazil (or not) and do what we do best, cheer on our favourite players and teams.