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This Sunday one of the most prestigious Leagues in the world comes to an end, which is the English Premier League. It’s been a fierce competition all season long, especially between Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United fighting for the first three places. Even though Chelsea is already the champion with one fixture left, the fight for second place is fierce between Manchester and Liverpool for a chance to get into next year edition of the champions league.

 

A team that should’ve figure among the first places and didn’t was the Arsenal with an impressive campaign in the Champions League they couldn’t do the same in the Premier League 25 points behind first place Chelsea unless they win the Champion League Final they will not enter next years edition due to their current position in the Premier League.

 

The situation with Arsenal in the Premier League has left the fans and the team very disappointed because everybody had great expectations. Although they couldn’t play as well as everybody expected in the Premier League, they still have the comfort of being in the final of the Champions League.

 

Let’s talk about the new Champion Chelsea; they didn’t have a good campaign in the Champions League like their counterpart Arsenal. Still they managed to get the title in England without any major dispute towards the end of the season. They have a great team that maybe doesn’t have so many stars like other teams, but they managed to get the formula needed to have a balanced team both in offense and defense. This has allowed them to be at the top of the table most of the season.

 

After the defeat against Blackburn Rovers, three days after winning the Championship, Chelsea coach Mourinho admitted, he wouldn’t have been quite so philosophical over the outcome had the lost points been of greater consequence. “I am laughing now because I am champion, but if today I was not champion, I think it would be the end of my career in England because I would be suspended forever!” he said, painting a picture of how he would have reacted.

 

If you like sports betting don’t miss the chance to bet on this weekend’s final game for it will be the last match day of the season and will be a long time before we have English soccer again.

In the absence of star man Wayne Rooney, Manchester United struggled to make any impact on a solid Middlesbrough defence at Old Trafford.

Even with Ruud van Nistelrooy and Louis Saha paired in attack, United failed to force Boro 'keeper Bradley Jones into a meaningful save, only reinforcing Sir Alex Ferguson's mystifying decision to select Patrice Evra ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo on the left wing.

Boro had the two best opportunities of a drab opening period but after Rio Ferdinand had blocked Massimo Maccarone's close-range shot, Edwin van der Sar made a superb low save to deny Fabio Rochemback.

The spectre of Wayne Rooney's broken foot hung heavy before kick-off as United looked to virtually confirm their place in the Champions League next season with a win.

Middlesbrough made nine changes from the team beaten by Everton at the weekend, with the Teessiders having one eye on next week's date in Eindhoven and their manager Steve McClaren expected to be confirmed as Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor at some point this week.McClaren, who spent three years as assistant to Ferguson, was warmly applauded as he made his way to the visitors dug-out.

He then saw his side make an encouraging start, although it was United who carved out the first half chance, which Saha bobbled into the ground.

Boro skipper Chris Riggott read Van Nistelrooy's attempt to find Park Ji-sung with a square pass inside the box.

Park's attempt to find Gary Neville on the overlap also met with a lack of success, although this time it was a bobble which beat the United captain.

George Boateng barged Saha over in the box as the Frenchman tried to shield the ball after collecting Neville's pass but referee Chris Foy remained unmoved by the penalty claims.

Lee Cattermole took Park out with a nasty tackle but escaped with a quiet word from Foy.

Matthew Bates was booked for a late challenge on the South Korean shortly afterwards.

Park was certainly heavily involved in the early action and, after Van Nistelrooy and Saha had both failed to make firm contact with a dangerous Neville cross, the former PSV Eindhoven man hooked a 10-yard effort over.

Massimo Maccarone, Boro's hero against Steaua Bucharest last week, got the wrong side of Rio Ferdinand when Stewart Downing played an intelligent pass into the United box.

Luckily for United, Ferdinand was able to stick a foot out and divert the Italian's shot wide.Maccarone was not that far off with a long-range effort shortly afterwards that had Edwin van der Sar scrambling across his goal.

The absence of Rooney was having an obvious effect on United's attempts to penetrate Boro's defence and the link between Van Nistelrooy and Saha was not as fluent as Ferguson might have hoped.

Ryan Giggs attempted to utilise Saha's speed with a long ball over the top. The former Fulham man just managed to outpace Bates but by the time he was able to shoot, the angle was far too tight.

Fabio Rochemback was far closer at the other end when he was given the space to advance towards the United box. After stepping easily inside John O'Shea, Rochemback let fly with a shot which appeared to be heading into the corner before Van der Sar made an excellent low save.

Another Park-inspired attack ended in disappointing fashion when he cut into the box but then only bobbled a shot at the Boro goal.

United's best opportunity arrived four minutes before the break when Van Nistelrooy found space on the edge of the area but blazed over.

Van Nistelrooy failed to react quick enough when Bates failed to cut out Park's low cross, then Saha had the sting taken out of his shot by Riggott's close-range block.

The UEFA Cup is handed over to the Dutch city of Eindhoven, and in preparation for hosting this season's final, golden memories of 1978 will come flooding back.

It was on 9 May 1978 that local side PSV Eindhoven established themselves as a major force in European football as they beat SC Bastia 3-0 at the Philips stadium - the venue for this season's final - to win the UEFA Cup, following a goalless draw in the first leg in Corsica two weeks earlier.

 By that time, PSV had already broken the cast-iron grip that the big clubs from the west of the Netherlands - Feyenoord and AFC Ajax - held on the Dutch title by winning the Eredivisie in 1974/75 and 1975/76, but in taking the UEFA Cup, they announced their presence to the whole continent.

With the final being contested over two legs in those days, PSV had not enjoyed an easy time in the opening fixture against Bastia. Heavy rainfall turned the first leg into a boring show. But the second leg, however, was much more one-sided, and with the elements no longer blocking their route to goal, PSV shone with Willy van de Kerkhof, Gerrie Deijkers and Willy van der Kuylen finding the target as they secured a famous victory in front of 27,000 fans.

With Feyenoord and Ajax both having won major European competitions in the early 1970s, PSV were the third Dutch club to triumph in UEFA competition, and added to their trophy cabinet by winning the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1987/88 before reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2004/05.

The memories of that first success back in 1978 will be celebrated as 2004/05 UEFA Cup, against all the Sportsbooks odds. Winners of last year’s cup PFC CSKA Moskva hand the trophy to Eindhoven, with goal scorers Van de Kerkhof and Van der Kuylen in attendance. Sadly Deijkers died of heart failure at the age of 56 back in October 2003.

Deijkers' story was an odd one. He had played as a defender in previous seasons but coach Kees Rijvers - who will also be at the handover - decided to hand him a chance to become a striker as PSV were having attacking problems in 1977/78. He went on to score 18 league goals and six in the UEFA Cup that season.

While Deijkers will be missed at the ceremony at the Evoluon building in Eindhoven, plenty of other PSV stars of 1978 will be there to make up the numbers. Among them will be Willy's twin brother René van de Kerkhof, Jan Poortvliet, Adri van Kraay and Kees Krijgh all eager to get their hands on the trophy again.

 

Wayne Rooney would relish the chance to link up with Juan Roman Riquelme at Old Trafford
Sir Alex Ferguson has been linked with an £8m move for the Villareal playmaker as he looks to strengthen his midfield for an assault on the Premiership title next season.
The 27-year-old has expressed his admiration for the Old Trafford club and Rooney, who played against Riquelme in November's England versus Argentina friendly, said: "He was brilliant for Argentina.
"I remember at half-time everyone was saying that nobody could get anywhere near him. He was fantastic."

Ryan Giggs admits Manchester United will have to win all their remaining six games - including their clash against in-form Arsenal if they are to have any chance of catching Chelsea.

United have closed the gap to be within seven points spread of Premiership leaders Chelsea - and they still have to play Jose Mourinho's side at Stamford Bridge - but Giggs insists they cannot afford any slip-ups.

He told MUTV: "It's important that we win our remaining matches because it's no good if Chelsea slip up and we slip up as well.

"We realise that we need to keep this momentum going and can't afford to rest on our laurels; we'll be looking to put on a good performance in our next match against Arsenal.

"A few weeks ago the gap was 15 points, but now it's only seven.

"Chelsea are still favourites but all we can do is concentrate on our own job and carry on performing the way we have been doing and I'm sure the results will come."

United's win over Bolton at the weekend was their eighth successive Premiership victory, and Chelsea's 0-0 draw at Birmingham saw Mourinho's men surprisingly drop points.

Giggs added: "We want to try to get as close to them as we can and we're doing that. The sad thing for us is we're running out of games.

"We've got big games coming up but that's how it always is at this stage of the season.

"There's always something at stake no matter who you play because you're up against teams who are either fighting for survival or going for European places.

"We've got six games left and we want to finish the campaign in the same vein of form we've shown over the last three months or so."