English football will continue off the pitch in the coming weeks.
Louis Van Gaal, Frank de Boer, Pochettino, Giggs and Sherwood will be among many people making headlines.
Manuel Pellegrini, the calm leader from Chile, has become the first South American manager to win the Premier League.
After Mancini the diva was sacked, Pellegrini the diplomat arrived and used his vast resources so well that Kun Aguero, Dzeko, Big Vince, Nasri, Silva, Yaya and the boys ended up two points ahead of a resurgent Liverpool.
Nasri scored the first goal against West Ham in 39 and his corner in 49 provided a rebound from which Kompany made it 2-0.
Brendan Rodgers\’s Liverpool showed how important it is to have pace, penetration, and forwards who can score.
Momentum made them exciting. But every team needs wise heads and organisation at the back and the Kop\’s heroes fell short because they didn\’t keep enough clean sheets.
By my reckoning, Liverpool played 44 games in all competitions and only kept 11 clean sheets.
They started January with a pair of 2-0 wins against Hull and Oldham, then let in three goals at Stoke but won 5-3.
After that there were only five clean sheets at Bournemouth (FA Cup), at home to Everton (4-0), then a pair of 3-0 away wins at Southampton and Manchester United was followed by a 6-3 win at Cardiff and a 4-0 win at Spurs on March 30.
That was Liverpool\’s last clean sheet of the season.
They won 11 league games in a row but conceded in every game before losing 0-2 to Chelsea at Anfield.
The oligarch\’s Blues were only three points above Arsene FC, despite thrashing them 6-0 in Wenger\’s 1,000th game.
Defensively, Arsenal were much more stable and consistent than Liverpool, due to their possession style and the reliability of Sagna, Mertesacker and Koscielny, among others.
Arsenal finished a hefty seven points about Roberto Martinez\’s improved Everton, whose 3-0 dismantling of Arsenal didn\’t count for much in the end.
Ramsey\’s fantastic volley from a Giroud cross was the highlight of their 2-0 away victory against a Norwich side already relegated.
Last July nobody could have written the line I\’m a typing now: Tim Sherwood\’s Spurs finished sixth with 69 points, five more than Ryan Gigg\’s Manchester United, who were eight points ahead of Southampton, a well-run club producing good players for Roy Hodgson\’s England squad, which will be announced today.
If I\’m at home this afternoon, I might post more stuff here at 3pm.
12th May 2014