Premier League - Down to the Wire

The race for everything in this year's Premier League is down to the wire. A rampant end to the Premier League is already visible at this time. With only a single game remaining in this season, everything is on critical phase, from the likes of title winners to the relegation threatened teams.

Starting with the Premier League title for the season, we've got two Manchester teams going for it on the last day. Manchester City is the favorites till now separated from second placed United with a goal difference of 8. However, being equal on points, anything less than a win against QPR could prove costly for City in their effort to win the title after 44 years. Manchester will do everything to win the last game, but their one eye would be focused on City's game.

It has been a season of ups and downs for those below the two Manchester clubs. Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelsea all have been in and out of top four this season. But it's Arsenal and Tottenham currently securing 3rd and 4th place, with a game to play. Only a point could not be enough for any of the teams because it's a battle for the third place rather than top four.

A Premier League Hangover

The weeks after the Premier League season finishes are a tough test for football fans. They know that a nine -month long discussion of great goals, footballing tactics and controversial chickens must come to an end, leaving football fans with a terrible hangover.

So, it is a natural reaction for fans to look back and analyse every possible talking point of the season. Who was the best player, the best team, the biggest disappointment? The same questions are asked each year, in the knowledge that by the next week these conversations will cease to exist.

Yet, this has been a season to remember, and on Sunday the Premier League ended with one of the greatest finishes in footballing history. This hangover will last longer than most.

Man City's 44-year wait for glory over their neighbours came down to five excruciating minutes. With the score at 2-1 to QPR and only stoppage time to play, Roberto Mancini looked on the verge of madness. However, once Edin Dzeko headed the equaliser for Man City the stadium erupted again. Then Aguero's winner showed the touch of class that has made Man City worthy champions this season.

Around the English Premier League - Round 38

It was an incredible season finale, full of mixed emotions as City turned into the new Champion and fooled the Red Devils that believed for a second they had conquered the title.

On Sunday, May 13, the last ten fixtures were played simultaneously and as some were just looking for a couple of points more and maybe even try to finish in a higher position, others were having a life or death encounter; for the championship title and the third relegation spot were still undefined. QPR and Bolton were struggling to stay out of relegation, whereas the two clubs from Manchester were tied at the top of the standings with 86 points -both with chances to conquer the title; however the Sky Blues had an advantage of 8 goals on the Goals Difference. At Manchester were the Citizens hosting Queens Park Rangers, while the 2nd placed, United, went north to visit the Black Cats.

So, the only way that the Red Devils could take the lead was if City got defeated while they were winning at the Stadium of Light. Therefore when Sir Alex Ferguson and his men finished victorious -thanks to Wayne Rooney's 20th-minute-goal- and aware of the disadvantage their neighbors had in that moment, they were about to start celebrating. In fact, United carried for almost an hour the first position and with it the glory of the 20th title. However soon enough -enough to stop Fergie's embarrassment of celebrating ahead of time- you could see fans all over the crowd in the stadium on their cell phones with disappointment and surprised expressions on their faces what just had happened in Manchester.

Around the English Premier League - Round 37

Manchester City is holding the reins of the Barclays with an advantage of eight goals over the Red Devils, after a triumph conquered by Yaya Toure.

The Manchester clubs will continue on war until their very last match of the campaign, since this round brought no changes on the top of the standings, for both sites triumphed on this round. In fact they are not only still tied in points, but separated by the same amount of goals, for they shared the same score in their 37th fixtures. The Citizens got underway the Sunday's football itinerary with their visit to the Toons and after bringing the triumph to the table, opened a three-points-gap that only lasted an hour, until United's own match. Sir Alex Ferguson's men instead hosted Swansea for the closing match of the day, which they won with two goals on first half.

At the Sports Direct Arena the goals arrived within the last 20 minutes of the encounter -better late than never-, although from the very beginning the Sky Blues were dominant. In fact during the game's first third Silva, Aguero and Tevez put the pressure on Tim Krul, who had to clear shots from the Ibero-American trio. The Magpies had their chances after the first 30 minutes, but were stopped by Joe Hart. Reaching the mid-time break the Citizens were controlling and attacking again, as well as in the beginning of second half, but suddenly they started to lie back allowing the hosts possession.

Around the English Premier League - Round 34

A split round gave us 6 matches that didn't cause much change on the standings, but two blasting scores from the Manchester clubs and a new surprise from Wigan.

This round was split due to the matches Liverpool vs. Everton and Tottenham vs. Chelsea from the FA Cup played between April 14th and 15th, 2012. Therefore, those four clubs and their rivals for this round will be meeting in a couple of weeks; meanwhile the other twelve teams had their encounters through Saturday 14th and Monday 16th. The clubs on both ends of the table remain in the same positions, but some did earn necessary points. So, following their games the Manchester clubs at the top of the Premier League continue separated by 5 points, since each achieved a nice victory on their last fixture.

Roberto Mancini's men travelled east on Saturday to visit the Carrow Road Stadium for its second match with Norwich; unfortunately for the Canaries, they had the same luck than on the 1st leg. One more time the Argentineans were responsible of the massacre, which started with the forward Carlos Tevez at 18', when assisted by David Silva, made a shot from outside the penalty area and scored it -just the first of his hat-trick. The second was a perfect combination between Sergio Aguero and Tevez, who end up back-heeling the ball to his fellow countryman that without hesitations fired it into John Ruddy's goal. The Sky Blues double lead was kept for the rest of first half and the first 5 minutes of second half, when the Canaries saw an open door and took advantage of it.

Juve on Top! New Champion of Serie A

Juventus is new champion of Serie A The team beat Cagliari away 2-0 and beat Inter Milan 4-2 in the derby and it was enough for the boys of Antonio Conte to triumph.

So "Bianconeri" have added a 28 Serie A title to her window. They were champions in 2003. This is the first gold for them Kalchopoli since the scandal that deprived the team of two titles and sent it to the Series "B".

But now - round before the end, nothing can stop the "Old Lady". Team unbeaten in the league, although the final of the competition is only one round.

Cagliari against Juve won 2-0, but goals were made by Vucinic in the sixth minute and the sheath that you scored an own goal in the 74th minute.

At the same time on "San Siro" stadio was played real action. Inter hit the big rivals AC Milan 4-2 and also helped the Turin giants to become champion.

Around the English Premier League - Round 36

The Manchester derby gave us 90 minutes of thrilling football that ended up returning City to the Premier's throne with a single goal from Kompany.

The last match of this round was the Manchester derby that everyone was waiting for and as expected it was a rollercoaster of emotions at a packed Etihad Stadium. Both clubs fought hard and although the teams had almost 50/50 ball possession the Sky Blues certainly did a better job attacking its rivals. Manchester City even could've earned at least a couple of goals more, since there were some shots to David De Gea's goal that passed by really close from the frame.

The Sky Blues gave a wonderful performance, especially Zabaleta and Yaya Toure, which were defending all around the field, assisting their partners, recovering and blocking every time the Red Devils were near the hosts' box. Mancini's men even tripled the total shots from MU; nonetheless the victory arrived with a headed goal. Starting the injury time for first half, David Silva took a corner that barely escaped from Chris Smalling and instead was intercepted by Vincent Kompany, who headed it over an anxious De Gea.

At the return of the break, even with Ferguson's side aware of what losing meant for them, still they couldn't do much against the attack from their strengthen neighbors in light blue. In fact it was during the second half that the Citizens got the best chances of scoring, with shots from Toure and the Frenchmen Samir Nasri and Gael Glichy. On the other hand, the coaches had their own dispute at 76', when Nigel De Jong tackled Danny Welbeck and Sir Ferguson accused the Italian coach of trying to influence the officials. Luckily it didn't get worst then a discussion that lasted a couple of minutes, but some of the people around they get in between to stop the clash.

Chelsea Vs Liverpool: A Tale Of Modern Rivalry

In the past "70's and 80's" anything called rivalry between these two teams can only be greeted with great contempt as these teams are world apart. Their rivalry surely lacked the history of the Merseyside derby and the bite of Liverpool vs Manchester United. I would explain these with the words of Tim Rolls of Chelsea fanzine CFCUK: "In the past Chelsea was basically rubbish" wow, that is cold isn't it? Well the truth hurts but it is still true. Liverpool won four European cups between the 70's and the 80's and were a much bigger team to reckon with at that time.

However, the rivalry can be traced to 2003 "the arrival of big money for Chelsea". So many things have changed since then and again the words of Tim Roll gives us a clear insight: "In the last ten years Chelsea have been far more successful, Liverpool are obsessed with singing about history but I think it is time they move on"... Another cold truth if you ask me.

The first chessman was moved and the game started as far back as May 2003 when these two team clashed in the European cup semi-final. At that time Chelsea were 30pts ahead of the Reds in the premiership, and have beaten Liverpool in both league games. And to further fuel the rivalry there were rumours of Steven Gerard joining the revolution of Jose Mourinho at that time as the arrival of Roman Abramovic meant that money was available to spend for the blues. However the Reds carried the day to reach their first final in 20years and it would be an immortal encounter when Garcia scored what was called the ghost goal to seal the win for Liverpool 1-0. It was on ever since then.

What If 'The Magpies' Play Champions League?

It's been not less than a miracle season for the Newcastle fans who were left fuming when Newcastle were relegated from the premier league in 2008/09.

A run of brilliant form is now getting them to the next level. The dream of playing European football is almost sure watching their current form. But whether it will be Champions League or Europa League remains a question! It's just a matter of 4 big games.

A winning streak of 6 games has kept them just above 5th placed Tottenham, and with Tottenham's poor run of form continuing with the defeat to Norwich City at home and QPR away, anything is possible. However, they can still catch up the third place if it goes like this. Arsenal was not called to be a contender for the fourth place when the season started. But they have come from outside to displace Tottenham at third and are three points clear from Newcastle and six from Tottenham with an extra game played.

This Newcastle team seems to be of entirely different mentality than that of 2 years back. They struggled through the sole effort of Kevin Nolan for the last few years, who is now not even in the team. The controversial sacking of manager Chris Hughton and the sell of players like Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, made everyone sure of Newcastle finishing in the lower half of the table. But with manager Alan Pardrew's hard work, some young signings and strong defense, they have put a stamp on mouth of those who were predicting the worst sitting on their chair.