Liverpool’s failure against Crystal “Pulis” has made the math very simple…win or draw and City are champions.
Editor’s Note: Guy Bailey has done a fantastic job writing columns for The Yanks Are Coming throughout the Barclay’s Premier League season where he discusses the happenings overseas in the world’s most popular sports league. Guy offers a unique perspective on the league as a Brit who lived for a long while in the United States before moving back to Teeside in the past year. He can be reached at guyrbailey@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter all EPL season at @guyrbailey.
8/5/14 – The Last Leg
And then there were two.
Attention turned to the bottom of the EPL at the beginning of last weekend as Manchester United kicked off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon for the first time seemingly in decades but the novelty soon wore off as the league’s form team Sunderland, that’s not a typo, completed a miraculous two weeks and became the latest team to win at the Theatre of Dreams which for home fans is just one recurring bad one that they can’t wake up from. Seb Larsson got his first goal in over a year as Sunderland completed a haul of 10 points from their last 12 including away wins at Chelsea and Man Utd, a home thrashing of Cardiff and coming within minutes of winning at the Etihad. Usually if you can win at all three of those grounds you are in the running for the Championship, not falling into it so kudos to Sunderland for their likely survival.
At least I can’t be relegated in the NFL…
This overshadowed Norwich’s own remarkable 0-0 draw at Chelsea which also deserves praise and leaves the Special One to rue the five dropped points in the past week that may very well have brought the title to Stamford Bridge. This sequence of results finally condemned Cardiff City and Fulham to relegation Former Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed claiming that the relegation could be firmly pinned on one avoidable factor – not wayward strikers or an ageing central midfield that collectively went over the hill this season but the removal of the Michael Jackson statue outside of Craven Cottage before the season. As the erstwhile editor of this very site had it on the Twitter this week– out of all the teams Shahid Khan owns, the Jacksonville Jags are the best. Just think about that for a second. Although this is only because there isn’t relegation in the NFL.
Cardiff went down 0-3 at Newcastle whose fans staged a walkout in sympathy after 69 minutes, 1969 being the last year they won a trophy and there is more likelihood of The Beatles reforming than that happening in the near future – their antipathy heightened by Sunderland’s revival, as well as their near neighbours helping themselves to six points at their expense and getting to Wembley for the League Cup Final.
Massive improvement at Goodison this year…
Everton started the day in the unenviable position of possibly handing their city rivals Liverpool the advantage in the title chase by beating Manchester City and it started so well, going ahead within 11 minutes to a wonder strike from surely World Cup bound Ross Barkley. City rallied and ran out 3-2 winners in the end although most blue’s will have breathed a quiet sigh of relief as most would trade a fourth place finish if it meant Steven Gerrard continued to have an EPL sized hole in his medal collection. Nonetheless, it was a great year for Tim Howard, Roberto Martinez and Everton. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Liverpool once famously beat Crystal Palace 9-0 in one season (although later lost an FA Cup Semi Final 4-3 to them later on in the year) which would have put them ahead of Man City in the goal difference stakes and history looked kindly as Liverpool built a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead at Selhurst Park. Crystal Pulis are a team built in the image of their uncompromising and shrewd manager and pulled back not one but two goals in quick succession. The reds were on the ropes and rocking as much as the crowd before the inevitable happened and Palace equalized, re handing the initiative back to the blue Citizens of Manchester. They applied part one of the one-two punch on Wednesday night overcoming a cameo appearance from Aston Villa 4-0, while Sunderland sealed their Lazarus like rise with another win, this time 2-0 against safe West Brom.
To help LIverpool, or not to help Liverpool. The West Ham question…
We go into the final weekend of the EPL with only one issue to rubber stamp – that being the title but the maths are simple. If Man City beat West Ham at home, they win the title for the second time in three seasons (or 44 if you’re a Man United fan). Draw and the title is Liverpool’s if they can beat Newcastle at home by 13 goals or better, which given the form of both teams is not as outlandish as one might initially suspect. If Man City were to lose than any win for Liverpool brings them their first EPL title. Chelsea can still come second if they win at Cardiff and Liverpool slip up. Spurs can secure Europa league qualification, a minor consolation after their £100m outlay by drawing at home to Aston Villa while Man Utd can overhaul them if they lose and the Red Devils win at Southampton.
At the bottom Norwich can survive if they beat Arsenal and West Brom lose to at home to Stoke and there’s a 17 goal swing in the process. If Sunderland beat Swansea at home and West Ham fail to win at Man City then in all probability they will finish in 12th. 12th!
It’s a pity NBC are simulcasting every game live with so little riding on them but at least they’ve decided to get with the program, let’s hope they keep the live bug going for the World Cup after their shambolic Olympics coverage but one miracle at a time, right Liverpool/Norwich fans?
As noted, Guy Bailey writes on the Barclay’s Premier League for The Yanks Are Coming. Want more Guy Bailey? We highly recommend his new book, Blessay From America, a collection of writings made while living in America, where he married a southern belle and saw his son born, which you can purchase here. Guy will also be part of TYAC World Cup coverage.