The Barclays Premier League title race has gone, as I expected, to the wire, with Chelsea and Manchester United both hoping the other slips up on the final day. As it stands, the Blues lead by one point, so a win against Wigan will be enough to earn Carlo Ancelotti's men their first title in four years. Any slip-up will surely let in United, who face Stoke at Old Trafford.
Although Stoke will of course be aiming for a top-half finish, which would be a fantastic achievement and easy to overlook given other teams' accomplishments this year, I can't see them challenging on Sunday. They were beaten 7-0 at Chelsea two weeks ago, and their away-day frailties still remain.
Sadly for Sir Alex Ferguson, three points will not be enough, as I cannot see anything but a Chelsea victory, possibly even as emphatic as the aforementioned Stoke win. Although Wigan beat them 3-1 at the DW Stadium earlier in the season, Wigan's away days have been a very different story; who will forget their 9-1 thumping at Tottenham in November?
It's a shame that the relegation scrap has already been decided; as a neutral I probably prefer these on the last day to the title deciders. It would have been very interesting to see, but in all honesty, the three on their way down - Hull, Burnley and Portsmouth - have looked doomed from the start - I for one tipped those three before a ball had even been kicked. What concerns me though is that there are still seven teams on less than 40 points. As exciting as the league is, there are too many teams just happy to survive rather than risk spending some money to progress, and that is something which needs to be looked at, but that's for another post.
I'll be back on Sunday with a review of the season, so let me know what you think of the title race in the meantime via Facebook, Twitter, or this blog.
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