Today Manchester City got the League

The Premier League title is a race between Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool. Until today it appeared that Liverpool and Arsenal were the most likely candidates as they remained on top, equals on points, one point ahead of City.

But that changed today.

Liverpool lost 0-1 at home to the generally unnoticed Crystal Palace. This would give a clear advantage to Arsenal who were playing at home to Aston Villa, who is fighting well to take a Champions League spot. Within the last 10 minutes Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins giving Aston Villa a 0-2 victory and a step closer to the Champions League.

In the meantime Manchester City defeated Luton 5-1, and they are now on top, and seeing how City is playing now, they must now be the favourites for the title, unless the unlikelihood that they slip.

Big disappointment for both Liverpool and Arsenal. Liverpool are looking to have a good final season for Jurgen Klopp, while Arsenal have looked like title contenders all season, only to crash at the end just like last season.

Manchester City champions

 Although in the end everything finished as one might have expected (City and Liverpool victories), the end of the Premier League ended with a high level of excitement, with the surprise always looming.

To be champions City needed a win at home against Aston Villa. But with 20 minutes elft Aston Villa were ahead 0-2, and there was a clear fear in the stadium (although Liverpool were at the time not winning). But goals by Rodri and Gundogan (who came in to make two) within a magic period of five minutes, put things straight and the title in Manchester.

Liverpool knew what was happening in Manchester, and that a victory would give them the title. But Wolverhampton were a hard nut to crack, and the Wolves went ahead already in the third minute. Liverpool pressed on an towards the end of the first half Sadio Mane equalized. Knowing the result in Manchester the Reds pressed on, but the goal did not come until the 84th minute by way of Mohammed Salah. But by this time City were already up, and even though Salah scored a third in the last minute, they hardly celebrated it as they knew it was but for nothing but the goal-stats.

Liverpool ends as runner-ups, but they have an FA Cup title, and next week they will be vying for the Champions League title in a clash of Titans against Real Madrid.

The Cup Final weekend

 I had looked forward to a weekend of Cup finals in Monrovia, but was disappointed with two matches that did not live up to expectations, although the outcome was perhaps to be predicted.

I watched the FA Cup final in a small local shop in downtown Monrovia. Atmosphere was not as lively as expected; although Arsenal commands many loyal followers in Liberia, Aston Villa hardly raises any passion.

And it seemed the lack of passion was also on the pitch at Wembley, where Arsenal were far superior to an Aston Villa side that simply seemed to lack the spirit of the FA Cup. 4-0 to Arsenal was good entertainment, but it was not the excitement one has grown accustomed to in the FA Cup final.

The Spanish Cup Final, “Copa del Rey”, I watched in a local bar called Sajj. Most people were there to watch circus Barcelona, with their main magician Lionel Messi, and were not disappointed: Messi scored two goals, the first one spectacular, to give FC Barcelona a 3-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao that was never in any doubt, and that, if anything, could have been much larger. The Basques were a mere sideshow to the Barcelona act, and they never really stood a chance in a match whose result could have been called beforehand.

After a difficult start to the season (do any Barcelona fans remember how they were whistling and attacking Messi at the start of the season?), FC Barcelona are well on the way to winning the Triple if they take the Champions league against Juventus next week. As much as one has to respect Messi's magic and the joy of Suarez and Neymar alongside him, I would prefer to see Buffon and Pirlo lift the trophy next week.

"Football is emotion. No more than that"

I found it very interesting to read this interview with Jose Mourinho in the Esquire Magazine. Surely Mourinho is a controversial man, easy to dislike, but there is no doubt he is a genius as a football coach, most notably that so many players adore him. It is fascinating to read about that in the interview. But more than anything, I admire his reflections on the "relevant irrelevance" of football: "Football is emotion. No more than that."
Yesterday Mr. Mourinho displayed great emotion when he was expelled from the pitch when his team Chelsea lost to Aston Villa.
What ever one may think of the controversial Mr. Mourinho, he is a rare species in the world of football: an intelligent man.

Football lazy Saturday

While I was in Venezuela I did not play football once. It was therefore great when I joined a group of guys to play football yesterday evening. But figures that after four years without playing, I pulled a muscle. Today I have been taking care of my injury, on a rainy day that has not invited to go out either. So it has been a day entirely devoted to football: I woke up to hear the BBC World Football Phone-In on podcast, before watching the opening match of the Premier League, where Liverpool defeated Stoke 1-0.
The following match was between Arsenal and Aston Villa. The Gunners started well, but the referee did not favour Arsenal: the first penalty he gave Aston Villa was ok, but the second was a complete giveaway. Aston Villa's star, Christian Benteke scored on both (for the first penalty he was lucky). With a harsh red card to Laurent Koscielny, Arsenal seemed broken, and Antonio Luna's third for Aston Villa happened in the face of a broken Arsenal defense.
Arsenal will not be champion, but todays match was a special in their lack of luck and a lousy referee.
The third match I watched was Swansea-Manchester United. The most impressive in this match was Manchester United's strong attacking pair, Danny Welbeck and Robin Van Persie. With two goals each they broke down a Swansea side that was not playing badly, and for who Wilfried Bony at least scored a goal. But Manchester United seemed very dangerous, and a well-playing Antonio Valencia also contributed to the victory. David Moyes could impossibly have had a better start!
It is now evening in the laziest day of the year, and I will probably watch yet another match.

Swansea-Bradford in the League Cup final

Michael Laudrup is one of my favourite players and football gentlemen of all time, and therefore I wish he has success as coach of Swansea, so that one day he may take some great club, like Brondby, back to glory.
So it was with delight that one saw that Swansea eliminated Chelsea (the Champions League winners of last year!) from the League Cup, making it to their first final ever. The match, which ended 0-0 after Swansea had won 0-2 at Stamford Bridge, was overshadowed by a strange incident where the Chelsea defender totally overreacted when a ball-boy totally held on to the ball for too long, and attacked the boy.
Still, this does not take away Swansea's achievement and shot at their first title!
But Swansea is not the greatest surprise in the final. Bradford City, from the English League II, defeated Premier League giants Arsenal, as well as Aston Villa and Wigan to become a sensation in the final. So in spite of Swansea being huge favourites, Laudrup & Co. should not underestimate little Bradford, who will have nothing to lose and everything to fight for!

Chelsea champion

After a meager season, coach Andre Vilas Boas was fired and replaced with Di Matteo as Chelsea coach. Things have greatly improved under the Italian, who has brought the London side to the Champions League final, and now to his first title, winning the FA Cup final 2-1 against Liverpool. The FA Cup is one Di Matteo has helped Chelsea with a lot throughout the years: Roberto di Matteo played for Chelsea in 1997, when they won their only second FA Cup, calling forth a new period of greatness of the Chelsea side. He scored the first goal in their 2-0 victory over Middlesborough, and two years later, Di Matteo was again at the center stage scoring the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Aston Villa in the FA final.
However, this is Chelsea's fourth FA Cup victory since 2007, and another player has helped them greatly in these four victories, the mighty Didier Drogba. Today, he scored the second goal for his side, continuing his impressive spell of scoring in every FA Cup final Chelsea has played since 2007, and is indeed the first player ever to score in four different FA Cup finals!
On top of it all, one must mention Ramires, who scored Chelsea's opening goal today: he is in fact the first Brazilian who has scored in an FA Cup final, thus adding a little bit of history to this great final, where all Chelsea fans deserve to be celebrating!

Finally....

Valencia finally won a game, 0-1 against Racing the Santander, and although it held hard (Santander missed a penalty in the last minute) it gives hope for at least some satisfactory position for a team in deep crisis. But FC Barcelona remains the ones to beat in Spain: their attacking machine trashed Málaga by 6-0!
In the Premier League the title race drew even closer with Manchester United losing to Fulham, and Liverpool continuing riding on a wave by defeating the top-team Aston Villa with 5-0. As Chelsea lost, the title increasingly seems to be ending in either Liverpool or Manchester.
In Denmark Brøndby kept the pressure on FC Copenhagen by winning against Randers.