PG Edition

Sorry for the no post yesterday but TTL is playing tour guide to the parents.  So let’s quickly plow through some of what’s happening in the world of sports. 

Manchester United has won the Premiership rendering tonight’s game at Chelsea moot.  Gotta suck to be a fan who paid big money for a game that only a week ago was going to decide the Premiership race.  Now the only suspense is whether Chelsea players will return the honor Man U gave them last year and clap the newly crowned United players onto the pitch.

Interesting scenes at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.  Jose Mourniho walked over to the Chelsea supporters section and told them to keep their chins up.  The supporters cheered wildly and several players tossed their jerseys into the adoring crowd.  Dislike Chelsea, but had to admit was a cool scene.  Also, Chelsea’s brave 2nd-half display coming back to tie Arsenal at 1-1 with only 10 men on the road was gutty.   As TTL’s favorite pundit on Match of the Day, the esteemed Alan Hansen put it, “Chelsea has lost the league but won themselves some more fans today.” 

Elsewhere in the Premiership the relegation battle will go down to the wire on Saturday (full preview in Friday’s TTL).  But baring a ridiculous mathematical scenario it looks as if Fulham will stay up due to their 1-0 over Liverpool on Saturday.  LP was certainly very wasteful and missed a couple of sure goals but Fulham capitalized on their chance as American Clint Dempsey scored a nice goal after a sweet give+go.  Dempsey has been impressive in his short stay at Fulham and TTL expects him to find a way into the starting 11 next season.  C’mon Fulham. 

Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder resigned on Sunday and immediately two big names surfaced for the job.  Recently resigned Bolton manager “Big” Sam Alladyce who is very well-regarded and the impassive Swede (and former England manager) Swen-Goran Eriksson.  While Newcastle was hampered by injuries all season, this is an underachieving club.  They have huge resources available to them but haven’t contended for many trophies lately.  This club has enormous potential and desperately needs someone to unleash it.   

In other realms of Europe, Real Madrid overcame a 1-0 deficit to defeat 3rd-place Sevilla on Sunday night to keep the pressure on leaders Barcelona.  Barca leads Real by 2 points with 5 to play.  Its good to see these Spanish giants in a close title race.  Hopefully this will produce some inspired football.   

That’s all for today.  Remember its only 2 weeks until AC Milan v Liverpool II.  Enjoy the games.