Real Madrid has secured another Spanish Championship, Bayern has done the same with the Bundesliga while Inter remains within touching distance of a third consecutive scudetto.
Elsewhere Ligue Une could take an interesting turn this weekend as leaders Lyon are at home to France’s surprise package AS Nancy.
Nancy leaped over Marseilles last weekend and currently occupies the third and final Champions League spot. To grab the final spot Nancy needs to match Marseille's results over the next two games – this weekend at Lyon and after that at home to Rennes.
If it is goals that you are looking for then AS Nancy is not going to be your cup of tea. They have recorded seventeen clean sheets in 36 starts, conceded a miserly twenty-six goals while scoring a parsimonious forty-two goals.
Lyon have recorded a win, a loss and 3 draws in last 5 matches and are dormie two over second place Bordeaux. However, they can take some comfort from their weekend opponents away record this season – only two wins, ten draws and six losses so far.
Lyon finishes with a match against 15th place Auxerre while Laurent Blanc’s Bordeaux faces two bottom half sides in Sochaux and Lens.
The EPL goes into Sunday’s final games with the title, the remaining UEFA Cup spot and two tickets (complete with parachute payments) to the Championship still to be decided. Although Manchester United appears to have the tougher task they also know that they only have to match Chelsea’s result in order to secure back-to-back Premiership titles for the first time since 2001.
Since taking over at the JJB, Steve Bruce has brought some defensive organization and grit to Wigan. With clean sheets in seven of their last eleven games and thirty-two points from Bruce’s 23 games in charge Wigan are enjoying their best run of results since their early splash when they joined the Premiership back in the 2005/06 season.
On the down side Wigan are facing a United side that has a 100% record in five Premiership matches between the the two while scoring 16 goals to Wigan’s three. Strangely all three goals for Wigan have come from defenders. Toss in for good measure that Steve Bruce’s record against Manchester United is nine matches without a win then the league leaders will go into the game with enough good omens to satisfy the most superstitious of fans.
Chelsea are faced with a situation of doing their absolute best but finding out late Sunday afternoon that even that may not be good enough to capture a third Premiership title in four seasons. Theoretically Bolton are still not safe from the spectre of relegation but it requires not only wins for Fulham or Reading but also a huge winning margin combined with Bolton being taken to the Stamford Bridge cleaners.
It is testament to how badly Reading are playing that even a trip to woeful Derby calls into question Reading’s ability to score a goal let alone get three points. Steve Coppell’s side are on the longest current streak in the Premier League without a goal of 6 matches or 551 minutes and need to better Fulham’s result and at least match Birmingham’s if they are to line up in the Premiership in August.
Derby also has a goal (really two goals) going into this game. Derby needs to score two more in order to overtake the Premiership low of 21 in a season set by Sunderland scored five years ago.
Fulham visits FA Cup Finalists Portsmouth with 3 wins in their last four games and last weekend they finally put together back to back wins this season. Fulham are winless at Pompey (2 losses and 2 draws) but appear to have convinced most fans that they can get the win that they need to stay up.
Birmingham is in the most precarious position – the bottom version of Chelsea. They could put in a season-best performance at home to Blackburn but still not beat the drop if other results conspire against them.
Of the nine Premiership matches between these two only one has been decided by more than one goal. Birmingham’s home record (a single home loss since Christmas) has proved to be their flotation device although by the same token the defense has failed to record a clean sheet since the Boxing Day win over Boro.
If Fulham and Reading should both lose then Birmingham could survive with a draw but playing for such an outcome would be a huge gamble.
On the back of Michael Carrick's $35M transfer to Manchester United, The Guardian has produced a value-for-money rating on Britain's top all-time deals. I have abbreviated the article below and deleted their ratings out of 10. You might find it interesting to see how your ratings line up against the article. I have included an updated $ value of the transfer rather than pounds.
"1. Andriy Shevchenko - Milan to Chelsea, $56M (2006)
2. Rio Ferdinand - Leeds United to Manchester United, $55M (2002).
3. Juan Sebastian Veron - Lazio to Manchester United, $52M (2003)
4. Wayne Rooney - Everton to Manchester United, $50M (2004)
5. David Beckham - Manchester United to Real Madrid, $47M (2003)
6. Michael Essien - Lyon to Chelsea $46M (2005)
7. Didier Drogba - Marseille to Chelsea, $45M (2004)
8. Nicolas Anelka - Arsenal to Real Madrid, $44M (2000)
9. Marc Overmars - Arsenal to Barcelona, £41M (2000)
10. Shaun Wright-Phillips - Manchester City to Chelsea $39M (2005)
11. Ricardo Carvalho - Porto to Chelsea, $37M (2003)
12. Ruud van Nistelrooy - PSV to Manchester United, $36M (2001)
13. Michael Carrick - Tottenham to Manchester United, $35M (2006)
The Guardian
Summary
Buying club - Manchester United 5, Chelsea 5, Real Madrid 2, Barcelona 1.
Selling club - Arsenal 2, Porto, Milan, Leeds, Lazio, Lyon, Marseilles, PSV, Everton, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United (all 1 each).
Spurs fans must be disappointed at losing Carrick but it would have been insane to turn down that sort of money for a player who cost them around $5M a couple of seasons ago.
I don't think you will find too many United fans who believe Carrick will provide $35M of value but the prevailing view seems to be that they are thankful that Fergie has at least made a move in the transfer market.
As for future moves there are rumbles that despite Fernando Torres' "commitment' to Atletico Madrid there is a chance he could still move before the transfer deadline. He has two years left on his contract and no contract extension in sight. If Atletico don't sign him to an extension then his transfer value will plummet by next summer.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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