A draw against Arsenal was enough to secure the Premier League title for a record breaking third season on the trot for Manchester United, in the penultimate game of the season. United were somewhat subdued after recent Champions league games with Arsenal where they showed their killer instinct, instead it was Arsenal who played the better football and had Manchester on the back foot for much of the game.
Arsenal’s inability to score despite having a lions share of the game left them languishing in fourth place in the title race, eighteen points behind the champions and once again signalling a poor season for Arsene Wenger’s young charges.
United held tight and had enough chances of their own to win the game, but a draw was enough to see them collect their eighteenth championship win to equal the record set by Liverpool at the highest level of the domestic game. After collecting the Premier League trophy, Sir Alex Ferguson asked; “Does it get better than this?”. Most of us can only imagine.
West Bromwich Albion became the first Premier League casualty after losing 2-0 to Liverpool at home. The proud Albion fans were still in full voice, as they have been all season and they will be sadly missed from the top tier.
The final two relegation places will be decided in the last game of the season, it doesn’t get any more exciting than that. Middlesbrough will need a miracle to stay up without any doubt. Hull, who did so well in the first half of the season have barely earned a point in the second half, face Manchester United in the final game. With the Champions League final on the following Wednesday, Phil Brown will be hoping to face a weakened United team.
Newcastle are the other club involved in the battle, they will feel they have a good chance of staying up as they face an Aston Villa team that has dropped into sixth place in the league after a brief spell of separating the ‘big four’. They were held to a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at the weekend and the Magpies will need at least the same to survive.
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1 Manchester United // Jun 6, 2009 at 11:28 am
Manchester United is the richest club in the world. The Red Devils have won 16 English league championships, eight since the start of the Premiership in 1993. The club’s commercial potential was tempting enough for Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer to buy the team in 2005.