Blue Ribbons
So the inevitable finally happened then. I had to watch and suffer on Friday night as Michy Batshuayi scored the only goal of the game that won the league for Chelsea at West Brom. It was a proper killer to watch. In all fairness, Chelsea have been very good this season. That’s it thought, isn’t it? They were just very good. It’s not like they were head and shoulders above everyone else. Spurs are now making it tradition to bottle any title challenge they begin to mount. Liverpool were on fire up until January but were shown up as one dimensional after that (why am I doing this to myself?!). City are transitioning under Guardiola. Less said the better about Arsenal. The more to say about United the better with regards to their league campaign. Chelsea are rightly champions for consistency and shrewd management. Hopefully next year we will have a viable title race.
Race for 4th place
Back to the most boring race of the season. It looks like Liverpool and Arsenal have finally decided to show up. United have completely thrown their chances of finishing inside the top 4 away in favour of winning the Europa League. Arsenal are mounting their annual late season drive for a Champions League spot and Liverpool have decided that they want to actually finish teams off now. I had been adamant for the past couple of weeks that the West Ham game was a dead cert for Liverpool to get beat. I was even hoping we’d take maximum points beforehand so as to offset the loss. But it didn’t happen. They actually did the business and battered the Hammers. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. But it’d be just like Liverpool to get beat by a recently relegated team at home after doing all the hard work and throwing away 4th place. I still don’t back us to see this out.
General Craziness
There have been some proper muppets knocking around the footballing world this week. Firstly there is Jose Mourinho. Fair to say I’m not a fan. In fact, I can’t stand the barnpot. After Sundays 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane, Mourinho said his side didn’t want to play league games. This followed his comment that he was happy with his teams’ performance the week before, a 2-0 away defeat to Arsenal. Jose, have you lost it lad?! How is saying these things acceptable? No other manager would get away with this. Secondly, let’s all laugh at Inter Milan’s delusion. After finally admitting defeat in their attempts to sign Antonio Conte and Diego Simeone, Inter are now going after Mauricio Pochettino. Apparently they’re willing to pay the £4.2 million release clause in his contract and Piero Ausilio, Inter’s Sporting Director, is coming to London this week to open talks. Poor Inter, falling into the trap of thinking they are still an elite European club. Don’t get me wrong, Inter are a big club. But trying to take one of Europe’s brightest, young managers from his cosy Champions League club that are about to play a year at Wembley, in favour of the Europa League? Jog on boys.