da realsbet： A month or so back I wrote how this season has been all the better for everything being just that teensy bit worse than it was last. In the short time since, it’s conspired to get even barmier, in all competitions, in what has turned out to be a very odd season indeed. With almost no exception, the end of term reports for pretty much every side will have the word ‘inconsistent‘ writ large in red biro down the margin.
da apostaganha： In my last piece, I speculated that the winning side will likely have the lowest points tally since 2002-03. This feat is still very much achievable with United and Chelsea only required to slip up once more to level the 83 points tallied by the Champions (United) that year.
In almost any other season, Manchester United would have likely been able to keep hold of the lead they held going into April. In any other season Chelsea would’ve ploughed on effortlessly after they’d bested their foes at Old Trafford, and in any other season Tottenham Hotspur would’ve imploded by now.
In the FA Cup, a competition that thrives on this kind of “every dog has his day” mantra, we have a neat little microcosm of the sheer lunacy of 09/10, with the artists soon to be formerly known as Portsmouth already relegated, mired in financial misery, unable to pay their players for much of the year and pretty much doomed from the mid season point, somehow through to the Wembley showpiece Final and in with a possible shot at Europe, should their appeal succeed.
In Europe itself, all the English sides – so often the only reliable mainstays of the Champions League semi final stage in recent times – fell at the quarter final hurdle and only yesterday, the mighty imperious greatest team in the world ever ever in the history of time and space – Barcelona – succumbed by a two goal margin in their first leg semi final clash with Jose Mourinho’s Inter, themselves a team who’ve somehow let a huge lead slip domestically. Our only hopes lie with Liverpool, suffering possibly their worst season since the PL began, and inexplicably Fulham, whose progress in the Europa sooper doper disco Christmas league was both heatwarming and completely unforeseen.
In our own League, we look like going down to the final day with something to play for in every significant department table-wise for the first time in, well, yonks. If United were to win the title – something they’d surely have to avoid losing again to do – they’d be equal the highest number of losses for a winning side in a 38 game Premier League season with 7. Should Chelsea cling on, they’d only be one behind on 6.
This season has been completely barmy by all accounts. How Liverpool were even in with a shot of forth until early April after a disastrous season still baffles me. Manchester City and Tottenham are left to slug it out but only after both of them have failed to capitalize on any lead they get every time they’ve gotten it.
Alan Hansen declared this week that in his view;
“No matter who wins the title this season, though, it will be the first time that an average team will have claimed the Premier League crown.”
Whilst I don’t really agree with the term “average”, it’ll certainly be the first time a winner has failed to command the universal respect amongst his peers that usually comes with the territory. Would Arsenal have deserved to win the crown after being so heartily thrashed at home by both United and Chelsea? Would United deserve it after surrendering so poorly against the Blues? Would John Terry deserve any kind of reward for anything?
The reason I’d quibble with Hansen’s comments though are not really because of this. The top sides have indeed been weakened by departures, but more significantly by injuries. Arsenal have only just started to remember what Robin van Persie looks like and United may not have looked so lost without Rooney had any one of Hargreaves, Owen, Anderson, Ferdinand or even a fully match fit Macheda been available to call on in his absence.
But as it stands it’s still impossible to call decisively, and with Liverpool to play Chelsea, and Spurs to play City and United, there really is no clue from the form guide as to what to expect. So in lieu of any inspiring, prophetic or poetic words from myself, I suppose I’ll do what I always do when stumped for a suitable flourish, and nick something Samuel L Jackson once said.
“Hold on to your butts!”