adminBack in 1953, in the days when goal average split those level on points instead of goal difference, Arsenal pipped Preston to the Division One title by just 0.099 of a goal.The days of such head-scatching and frantic calculations are sadly a thing of the past, but top flight title races continue to enthrall us with impossibly tight margins.
The three-way tussle between Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City could go down to the last kick of the season but the penultimate weekend coming up should give us a few more clues as to who will be lifting the trophy.
Here’s the best of weekend’s action in the Premier League.
Everton vs Manchester City
There really is just one place to start this weekend and that’s the most gripping Premier League title race yet.
When I wrote last weekend’s column, there seemed little doubt that Liverpool would rip a weakened Chelsea apart and essentially be champions by tomorrow’s teatime. I should have known that football isn’t as obligingly predictable as that.
While Chelsea kept their own hopes of claiming the title alive at Anfield, they did also kind of boot the Premier League trophy into the lap of Manchester City. After a surprisingly routine win at Crystal Palace, City know a second championship in three seasons can be theirs if they simply win all three of their remaining games.
They may be third in the table but the key lies in their superior goal difference (+58 to Liverpool’s +53 and Chelsea’s +43) and Wednesday night’s game in hand at home to Aston Villa.
Those swashbuckling performances and plentiful goals earlier in the season have ensured City are in the box seat, as Manuel Pellegrini surely intended.
“We always trusted we can do it,” he said after the win at Selhurst Park. “After we lost to Liverpool I said we had to play three or four games more and in football all things can happen. We just had to win our games.”
Next, though, they need to beat Everton at Goodison Park, a task that doesn’t look as difficult as it did a month ago.
They have fallen behind Arsenal in the race for Champions League football after damaging defeats to Crystal Palace and Southampton and anything less than a win for Roberto Martinez’s team will keep the chase alive.
However, history suggests a struggle for City on Merseyside. Everton have beaten them in nine of the last 13 encounters, including the last four at Goodison.
Chelsea vs Norwich City
Their Champions League dream ended in tears when well beaten by Atletico in midweek and you wonder how Chelsea will respond as they fight to keep their Premier League hopes alive.
The warm afterglow of last Sunday’s win at Anfield has long faded but Mourinho’s men do have the solace of the easiest assignment of the three title contenders this weekend.
Norwich have lost their last eight away matches in the league, which partly explains why they currently occupy 18th place.
It’s been quite a rollercoaster week for Mourinho – lauded for his absolutely perfect tactics in the victory at Anfield, he then found himself well and truly out-thought and outmanoeuvred by Diego Simeone.
The Portuguese does like the Sabbath though – all eight of Chelsea’s Sunday matches this season have resulted in three points.
By contrast, these are uncertain times at Carrow Road with angry fans finding a novel way of protesting against their team’s abysmal performances.
They hijacked the club’s Player of the Season award by voting in their thousands for 40-year-old third choice goalkeeper Carlo Nash, who has yet to figure for the club.
It would be some final indignity if Nash is called up to accept the award following the home match with Arsenal next week, especially if it comes a few minutes after their relegation is confirmed.
Crystal Palace vs Liverpool
Liverpool, top and clear by five points entering last weekend, could be third by the end of this one. It’s a crazy fact but one that is testament to football’s enduring power to surprise and entertain.
Not that the dream is over. Not by a long shot. A win at Crystal Palace on Monday night will set up a potentially wonderful final day against Newcastle and the most sought-after Anfield ticket since those Champions League semi-finals of the mid-noughties.
Brendan Rodgers, it’s fair to say, wasn’t the biggest admirer of Jose Mourinho’s “bus parking” tactics last week but, having worked under the Special One, surely he might have seen it coming and adjusted his plans accordingly.
If nothing else, it told us that PFA Player of the Year Luis Suarez can be shackled for 90 minutes, something we were starting to believe was completely impossible.
No doubt Joel Ward and Mile Jedinak will have been taking notes, but Palace have no cause to be frightened of anybody as they look to move into the top 10. And you would have got good odds on that at the start of the season.
Indeed, if the league season had started on New Year’s Day, Palace would be a lofty seventh. A miserly defence appears to be key – despite having 37 fewer points than Liverpool, they have conceded three goals fewer.
45 rounds down, one to go… and still much outstanding business to be completed on the final afternoon of the Football League.
In the Championship, Leicester City will receive the trophy and celebrate their lucrative return to the top flight amid jubilant scenes at the King Power Stadium when they host Doncaster.
But the mood could be very different in the away end, with Rovers one of four teams who could still be relegated. The Yorkshire side are currently a point and a place above Birmingham and the drop zone but know they will likely have to get something out of their meeting with the champions.
Birmingham, whose miserable slump continued in midweek when they squandered their game in hand at home to Wigan, face more Lancashire opposition at Bolton. They’ll probably need a win to prevent slipping into the third tier for the first time since the 1991-1992 season.
Millwall, who have just a two-point cushion, are at home to Bournemouth on the final day and Blackpool, who did themselves a world of favours by beating Wigan last weekend, host already-safe Charlton at Bloomfield Road.
As last year’s breathless finale proved, there is fantastic drama to be had when all the games are staged at the same time.
And for those who missed matters already decided, Burnley will accompany Leicester into the Premier League; Derby, Queens Park Rangers, and Wigan will contest the play-offs; and Yeovil and Barnsley already know they will play in League One next season.
The fourth play-off berth is still up for grabs, with Reading being hunted down by Brighton and, further back, Blackburn. The Royals, a point ahead, host Burnley while Brighton travel to Nottingham Forest. Both have an identical goal difference. – Adam Shergold, Sportsmail.
Online Reporter