I can’t remember a last day of the Premier League season when there was so much crucial stuff still to be settled. For many, the main focus of attention is the battle for the title, and understandably so – the fight to be crowned champions is normally sown up weeks in advance and rarely goes all the way to the final 90 minutes.
Going into this afternoon’s games, Manchester City remain favourites, if only slightly. They may only have a single point advantage but if their game and Liverpool’s go according to form, that will be enough to see them over the line. However, I am sure Liverpool haven’t given up the chase. Provided they clinically deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers – which is what should happen – they know that any sort of slip-up by City would be enough to bring the title to Anfield.
And that’s where another twist in the tale comes into the equation – as we all know, City’s opponents this afternoon are Aston Villa, whose manager has some sort of vague Liverpool connection, if memory serves. How ironic (or maybe even poetic) would it be if Steven Gerrard was instrumental in securing the title for Liverpool several years after he stopped playing for them. Unlikely, yes. But football does like its little quirks.
But there is much more than just the title at stake today. Slightly further down the table there is the battle for the fourth and final Champions League slot. And the fact that that involves intense rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur makes it even more enticing.
In this battle, Spurs are clear favourites. They only need a draw against already relegated Norwich City, while Arsenal will need to beat Everton and hope Norwich pull off a highly unlikely victory.
Manchester United and West Ham United are fighting it out for sixth and seventh place, which is the difference between the Europa League and the Europa Conference League next season. While you would imagine West Ham would be happy with anything, I’m not sure Manchester United or their fans would be particularly enamoured with either of those competitions.
But there are fans of other teams who will have naff all interest in talk of titles and European slots – namely those poor souls who support Leeds United and Burnley. It's squeaky bum time for both those teams as they go into their final games. Although they are on equal points, Burnley will be the happier as their fate is in their own hands thanks to Leeds’ disastrous goal difference.
But playing a resurgent Newcastle United won’t be an easy ask for Burnley. Then again, Leeds won’t find playing Brentford away a walk in the park. I suspect both teams will have highs and lows over the course of the afternoon.
And so, my predictions: City to win the title, Spurs to claim fourth, Man United to get the Europa League slot and Leeds to go down.
My predictions: City to win the title, Spurs to claim fourth, Man United to get the Europa League slot and Leeds to go down
Let’s see how the prediction fairy deals with that little lot…
A less than cunning plan…
With both Sheffield teams securing places in the play-offs – United in the Championship and Wednesday in League One – my father and I hatched a cunning plan involving a weekend in London watching the two teams play their respective Wembley finals.
It made perfect sense: my Dad is an Owl, I’m a Blade, the League One final is on the Saturday and the Championship final on the Sunday. Quick flight over, a short stay in a cheap hotel near Wembley, two nights of celebrating two different promotions and back in Malta before anyone realised we were gone.
Sadly there was one factor we didn’t account when drawing up these plans: these are Sheffield clubs we are talking about. And the concept of successfully navigating the play-offs is entirely alien to teams from that city.
First Wednesday conspired to lose their semi-final to Sunderland, which was just about deserved overall. Then Sheffield United, despite an admirable fightback against Nottingham Forest, went crashing out after apparently modelling their penalty-taking skills on the English national team of old.
The best-laid plans and all that…
One very brave young man
English football has a new hero in the unlikely shape of young Jake Daniels. The 17-year-old Blackpool striker last week became England’s only openly gay professional male player. Of course, the key word in that sentence is ‘openly’. It is not just unlikely but almost mathematically impossible that Daniels is the only gay player in the English game. But this young lad has had the courage to come out and hopefully shatter the illusion that being gay and a professional footballer are somehow incompatible.
“I am hoping that by coming out I can be a role model, to help others come out if they want to. I am only 17 but I am clear that this is what I want to do, and if, by me coming out, other people look at me and feel maybe they can do it as well, that would be brilliant,” he said.
What a truly inspirational – and exceptionally brave – lad.
His decision to go public with his sexuality has been widely welcomed by every single sector of the English game – from players and fans to managers, former players, commentators and celebrity supporters.
Hopefully Daniels, by showing this level of courage and receiving this level of support, will do exactly what he hopes and encourage others to follow. And then, pretty quickly I would imagine, a player’s sexual orientation will become what it always should have been: utterly irrelevant and inconsequential to the world of football.
E-mail: james@quizando.com
Twitter: @maltablade