Table Decided Early at Top and Bottom of the Premiership Table

Reading and Queens Park Rangers fought out a desperate battle for survival on Sunday that nobody survived.

Neither side was able to earn the three points which would have kept their slims hopes of survival alive, and instead both teams were resigned to relegation.

 

As QPR and Reading remain 9 points behind Aston Villa with 3 games to play, it appears that survival is still possible, however as Aston Villa play 18^th placed Wigan on the final day of the season, either an Aston Villa win or draw moves them out of reach of Reading and QPR, and likewise Wigan would move onto 35 points with a win, 10 clear of Reading and QPR – so whatever the result it is impossible for Reading and QPR not to remain in the bottom three spots.

Of more concern for teams higher in the table was the PFA Player of the Year Awards, now the destination of the title has already been decided.  Gareth Bale took the prize for the second time after a blistering run of form in the second half of the season which has given credibility to comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Robin Van Persie again demonstrated his credentials for the award at the weekend against his former club Arsenal.  He may have almost walked into the wrong dressing room at the Emirates Stadium as Manchester United arrived, however it was Bacary Sanga that seemed to momentarily forget Van Persie had moved on, passing him the ball before fouling him in the area to give Van Persie the opportunity to score from the spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLM_TFTydY

Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale were nominated for the PFA Player of the Year Awards as they have both seemingly carried their clubs with their fantastic form, however as Luis Suarez begins his 10 match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic, Liverpool demonstrated they are no one man team, racking up their highest scoring win of the season over Newcastle without their star striker.

Coutinho and Sturridge were in inspired form, showing that Liverpool will be able to cope without the controversial Uruguayan, and possibly making members of the Liverpool hierarchy think that should a suitable offer come in, they may well decide to cash in on Suarez and avoid the controversy that follows him around.

The race for the Champions League places between Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, along with the battle to beat the drop, now looking like a straight contest between Wigan and Aston Villa are the main points of interest in the League.

It was a good weekend for Cheslea, as Tottenham and Arsenal dropped points.  Arsenal gaining the point at the expense of Man Utd was also good for Chelsea as it means United cannot surpass Chelsea’s record points total of 95, set in Jose Mourinho’s debut season.

Wigan and Aston Villa meet on the last day of the season, and it appears both their fates hang on that one game.

Elsewhere in Europe, PSG can seal the title next weekend after a bad tempered 1-0 win over Evian.

David Beckham made the headlines for the wrong reasons, receiving a controversial sending off, where he appeared to raise his leg to perform a vicious stamp on his opponent, but instead planted it in the ground and shielded the ball.  From Beckham’s body movement and his opponent’s play acting, the referee was convinced that a foul had occurred.

Beckham is no stranger to a controversial sending off, incurring the hatred of the whole of England in 1998 when he was sent off during England’s World Cup exit to Argentina.  This incident is unlikely to draw the same levels of criticism.

Germany 8 – 1 Spain

This wasn’t the scoreline in the last significant meeting between these two giants of international football.

This is the combined score line when the best of Germany’s club football teams took on the best of Spain’s football clubs.  Both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both managed to score 4 goals each to set up first leg scorelines that have never been overhauled in Champions League history.

It looks like the Champions League final will be an all German affair for the first time.

Since the inception of the Champions League there has been one all Spanish final, one all Italian final and one all English final, but the Germans have never had the showpiece event all to themselves.

To have two teams in the final shows the strength of a country’s league.  The result is also significant as an indicator of the strength of each country’s national team too.

In 2008, a Fernando Torres goal was enough to defeat Germany in the Final of Euro 2008, and since then Spain have won the World Cup and a further European Championship. 

Going into Euro 2012, people believed that Germany would prove their biggest threat, and with the core of the German team destroying Barcelona, the core of the Spanish national team, there will be many who will see the Germans as the favourites for next year’s World Cup.

With German players like Schweinstager, Muller, Lahm, Kroos and Gomez playing key roles in an all conquering Bayern team, it looks like Bayern Munich’s success is likely to be linked with the national teams.  Robert Lewandowski may have dominated the game with his goals, but Borussia Dortmund also have a large German influence in their team.

It isn’t all over yet.  Real have scored an away goal.  Barcelona should have Lionel Messi back to full fitness for the return leg, and both the second legs are in Spain, but Germany could not have given any better demonstration of their leagues growing strength than they did this week.

Van Persie Makes the Difference

It was speculated last summer that the sale of Robin Van Persie to one of the Manchester clubs would make the difference in the title race this year.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has regularly bemoaned his club’s failure to sign Van Persie as the reason they have not managed to defend their title this season.

Last night Van Persie scored a hat trick as Manchester United won 3-0 in the game that sealed their 20^th English title win, including a wonderful second goal which he took on the full volley from a Wayne Rooney pass which dropped just over his shoulder. 

The goals were also significant as they moved Van Persie ahead of Luis Suarez in the scoring charts, and also put Van Persie firmly back in the limelight on the week the Player of the Year nominations were announced.

Van Persie was last season’s PFA Players’ Player of the Year, though this time he will face stronger opposition from the likes of Gareth Bale, who has made Tottenham look like a one man team at times, and Juan Mata, who has had a hand in more goals than any other players in Europe this year, bar Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Mata’s Chelsea team mate Eden Hazard is also in the running, as is Manchester United’s midfield heart Michael Carrick.  Luis Suarez would be one of the hot favourites for the award, but his impressive performances have been overshadowed by other recent controversies which make him an outside bet.

Van Persie is not the only man to have moved between top clubs to have made a difference in the title race in recent seasons.  The transfer of Andrea Pirlo from Milan to Juventus has also been hugely significant in the destination of the Serie A title in the last few seasons.

Having only appeared 17 times in his last season for Milan, he was allowed to leave for rivals Juventus as a free agent.   It is no coincidence Juventus have taken control of Serie A since, unbeaten last year and with a healthy lead at the top this year.

Reports in Germany appear to indicate that the star player of the Borussia Dortmund team, Mario Gotze is all set to join runaway leaders Bayern Munich this summer.

Bayern have completely dominated the Bundesliga this year, and look set to complete an unprecedented treble.  The purchase of their closest challengers star player might make next seasons title race a formality.

Perhaps they have looked at the example of Van Persie, who has brought 24 league goals with him to last season’s league runners up, and helped them move far ahead of last season’s champions Manchester City. 

His goals which could have come for Manchester City instead have almost certainly made the difference for Manchester United this season, and makes him the most significant player of the season, and now a favourite for the Player of the Year Award.

With Pep Guardiola at the helm, and players like Mario Gotze joining the ranks, Bayern Munich may well be unstoppable next season, if they are not already.  Their match against Barcelona tonight will be a good judge of just how good they are just now.

The British Premiership?

This week Cardiff won one of the most lucrative matches in their history.

A 0-0 draw with Charlton Athletic was enough to secure their passage to the English Premiership.

However Cardiff isn’t in England.  Neither are Swansea, who recently won the English League Cup and will compete in European competition next year.

Welsh influence

There are a further four teams in the English league structure that come from Wales.  As the Welsh Premier League was only founded in 1992, many of the Welsh clubs who had already been part of the English League set up for most of their history rejected the chance to move to the Welsh League.

It is not a phenomenon that is unique to England.  San Marino Calcio, from San Marino play in the Italian League, Vancouver Whitecaps from Canada play in the USA’s MLS, Wellington Phoenix from New Zealand play in Australia’s A-League and even Monaco is technically a principality, and therefore Monaco FC are not based in France!

Open Borders?

What this does raise questions over is why should the English Premier League not allow entry to clubs from other countries?  With the Scottish Premier League suffering crisis after crisis, the most recent being a failed attempt at reconstruction of the league, Scotland’s most famous clubs, Rangers and Celtic have long pined for a move to England.

Tradition

The main difference between the case of Celtic and Rangers, and Swansea and Cardiff, is that the Welsh pair have been a part of the English League set up for a long time.

When it comes to football, tradition always plays a major part, especially in Britain.

Rangers and Celtic have always been Scottish clubs, and that is the way it will stay according to tradition, unless there is an overwhelmingly convincing reason for the English leagues to accept them.

Opposition

Even if the move could have minor benefits for all involved, the change won’t happen.  Football fans are opposed to changes, as demonstrated by Cardiff City themselves at the start of the season when owner Vincent Tan insisted on a kit change from red to blue.

Fans of the ‘Bluebirds’ were outraged, despite the commonly known fact that teams in red statistically win more, and the greater association with the red of Wales.

Maybe they will be more convinced to wear their bright red kits next season in the Premiership when going up against teams like Manchester United and Liverpool who have some experience of the advantage of a red kit.

Whether those teams will ever see the advantage of facing Rangers and Celtic on a regular basis is another matter.

The Best of the Weekend's Action

With so many titles around Europe already decided, it was noticeable that the big games this weekend had other prizes at stake.

The biggest match in England was either for a place in the final of the FA Cup, or the Tyne & Wear derby between Newcastle and Sunderland which now looks more like a relegation scrap than anyone had expected it to be at the start of the season.

Sunderland hadn’t won a match in their last 9 games, but looked rejuvenated in Paolo Di Canio’s second game in charge, gaining a valuable three points with a 3-0 win that moves them further away from the relegation zone, and brings their rivals Newcastle back towards danger.

All Sunderland’s goals came from outside the box, with perhaps the most impressive being Adam Johnson’s fine run and finish.  Newcastle did have a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, but the result was emphatic and it looks possible that the decision to appoint Di Canio will be vindicated on the field.

There were also two FA Cup semi finals this weekend vying for attention, with Wigan facing Milwall for the right to face the victor of the heavyweight clash between Chelsea and Manchester City in the other semi final.

As a Premiership side against a Championship side, it was little surprise that Wigan were able to overcome Wigan, and the other semi final went with form too, with an inspired performance from Manchester City’s stand in goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon helping keep Chelsea at bay, and earn Manchester City a 2-1 win.  Goals came courtesy of Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero, with Demba Ba scoring a second classy volley against a Manchester side in the FA Cup in a matter of weeks.

In La Liga, with Barcelona so far ahead in the league, they played a second string against Zaragoza, and like recent years the second string for Barcelona is often mightily impressive, and they recorded an easy 3-0 win.

The match was much more significant for Zaragoza than Barcelona as they fight for La Liga survival.^th place with Mallorca in 19^th.

Mallorca moved level on points with Zaragoza due to a 1-0 win over bottom side Celta Vigo thanks to a Giovanni Dos Santos goal, and only two points now separate Deportivo La Coruna in 16

Elsewhere in Europe, former Real Madrid and Everton man Royston Drenthe scored his first goals for Alania Vladikavkaz in Russia, scoring a hat trick in total!  Will the once capped Dutch international now finally realise his potential in Russia?