Thirty-Fourth Week Premiership Football Conclusions

One more week to go, in what has already been a fantastic Premiership season, and there’s still plenty to play for; Manchester United and Chelsea take the fight for the title to the final day, Dimitar Berbatov has one match to save his United career and Roy Hodgson‘s Fulham continue their record breaking season.

Chelsea Thank Steven Gerrard. It was always going to be a cagey affair at Anfield with Chelsea hoping to secure their first domestic championship since 2006. Anything but three points would have handed the initiative to Manchester United. With half an hour on the clock and Chelsea struggling to muster up any of the creativity exhibited in their recent thrashing of Stoke, Blues fans were starting to fear this wasn’t going to be their day. But a stray back-pass from Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, allowed Didier Drogba to nip round Jose Reina for Chelsea’s opener. From that point onward the result was never in doubt. With Carlo Ancelotti‘s men running out 2-0 winners, conspiracy theorists will claim Gerrard‘s ‘mistake’ hands the title to Chelsea preventing Manchester United from overtaking Liverpool and reaching a record-breaking 19 English league titles.

Champions League winner-takes-all. Manchester City and Tottenham will play out a winner-takes-all Champions League playoff this week to decide who’s season was a success. With Man City defeating Aston Villa 3-1 and Spurs edging out Bolton 1-0, Harry Redknapp‘s side take a one point advantage into Tuesday’s monumental encounter. Ominous for Spurs supporters, City have beaten Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United at the Eastlands this season.

Fulham continue record breaking season. After their midweek heroics over Hamburg in the Europa League, few would have faulted the Cottagers for taking it easy against city-rivals West Ham. Having failed to beat the Hammers at home since 1966, the one thing Fulham love doing most this season is the unexpected. Thanks to Roy Hodgson‘s tactical nous, Fulham‘s 3-2 victory over West Ham sealed a remarkable week for the West London club who are on the verge of their highest league position since finishing 9th in 2003.

Will it ever go in again for Dimitar Berbatov? For the seventh straight game, Manchester United‘s £30 million striker Dimitar Berbatov failed to hit the back of the net. On a miserable afternoon at the Stadium of Light for the Bulgarian, Berbs missed a sitter with the goal gaping and then compounded the misery by poking a header over the bar from two feet out. Sir Alex, never one to let big money signings dwindle in the reserves, will look to dump Berbatov this summer before his star fades completely. In sharp contrast, Nani, scorer of 4 goals in his last 5 games, hit the winner against Sunderland taking Manchester United‘s challenge for a fourth straight league title to the final day of the season.

Dimitar Berbatov kicks his Man United career into row Z