Portsmouth's loss is Liverpool's gain

Here's an easy one for college students to relate to. Think about those two different kinds of professors regarding deadlines; The first who set deadlines but really don't mind if you miss them, usually because they can't be bothered to stick to their own deadlines. Then there's that other professor who doesn't care if your laptop got a virus, or if you had some make-believe emergency. A deadline is a deadline.

Well to Portsmouth F.C., the Football Association is the latter. The FA refused Portsmouth's appeal to allow them to submit their application for a UEFA club licence, which they need to play in next year's Europa League.

Pause here...I'll let you confirm we're talking about the same Portsmouth. Already relegated, bottom-of-the-league-rooted, in administration Portsmouth? Yes, one and the same!

How did they achieve being painfully close to a lucrative place in next year's Europa League? Check who's playing in the FA Cup final on May 15th. That's right, Chelsea (potential league winners) and Portsmouth (guaranteed league losers).

As Portsmouth were in administration, they weren't in a position to apply for the licence. By virtue of Chelsea (their FA Cup final opponents) already being guaranteed Champions League play next year, their Europa League berth falls to Portsmouth. Well it should have fallen to Portsmouth.

However now that Portsmouth aren't getting that spot, this fantastic game of pass-the-parcel ends with the 7th place Premier League team. Currently that lies with Liverpool who are 5 points clear of Merseyside rivals Everton, and with 3 games to play should manage to retain this place.

Liverpool could finish 8th in the league and still make the Europa League next year, if they win this year's competition. They are currently at the semi-final stage.

Back to Portsmouth though, how fair is this on them? The obvious argument is that Portsmouth's fiscal irresponsibility is totally their fault and they are suffering the consequences now.

Personally I feel like the FA should take this opportunity to throw them a life-line. Give them the licence, allow them to play in Europe next year and allow them to benefit from it financially. Will it totally save the club? Probably not, but every little bit helps.

At the end of the day, the FA aren't going to reverse their decision.
Let Portsmouth's woes be a warning to other clubs, being irresponsible financially can cost you a lot more than Peter Crouch!

Barca are beatable!

Sorry if the title mislead you, this isn't the first in a series of "myths and legends".

For the first time in 66 days, Barcelona lost a game. Yes, the last time they lost was Valentines Day, 2-1 away at Athletico Madrid. That's 38 goals (I thought about checking how many of those were scored by Messi) and 15 games ago for the Catalan giants if you're interested. But I digress.

The side that seemed so unbeatable at times was found out by a pacy and obviously very well coached Inter side. 3-1 it finished, and while Barca were unlucky to be denied a penalty towards the tail end of the game, Inter could have racked up a few more goals themselves.

So let's see, what does it take to beat them?
At least from my very humble point of view, here's a few things:

1) Cause a volcanic eruption that disrupts flights throughout Europe, and force them to go on a 14 hour bus ride to get to the game.

Ok, that's a ridiculous one. Perhaps in the interests of fair play, Inter shouldn't be allowed to fly to the game at the Nou Camp either? But in all seriousness, let's try that again...

1) Rely on some sloppy defending. For Sneijder's goal (Inter's 1st) the Barca defense simply got sucked across. Count them, about six Barca players on one side of the box, Sneijder was just allowed to ghost in from the left for the easiest of goals. 3rd goal: I usually love the way Barca's defense likes to pass the ball out of danger. It totally suits their style of play: possession and passing. On this occasion, maybe a little too cavalier. Motta put in a great tackle, and four touches later the ball was in the back of the net. Which leads me to my next point...

2) Iffy officiating? Make your own mind up, the 3rd goal was offside for me. Far from blatant, but still offside.

3) Inter's 4-3-3 formation worked a charm, especially with Maicon playing his game, his pace certainly caused problems.

4) Top coach. Ok, not everyone can have a manager as colourful, arrogant and extremely football-savvy as Mourinho. Obviously the players executed the game plan and deserve the lion's share of the credit, but Mourinho is at the helm of this team and his role in this victory can't be denied. Before the game he said he wasn't going to man mark Messi, and too right, what player could possibly mark Messi on his own? Inter did a fantastic job of not giving him the time or space he needed (which isn't very much in the first place). Mourinho's tactics pressured Messi into relative obscurity, one of his lost possessions even leading to a goal. Xavi was forced into making an errant pass or too, shocker of the game! Chalk one up for The Special One.

5) Pace, especially on the counter attack. Inter made Barca pay on the few occasions that they didn't take care of the ball. The 2nd goal was a well taken opportunity, stealing the ball off Messi deep in their own half, they drove right down the middle and caught the Barca defense struggling back. I feel like Barca's back line is spoiled in the first place with the amount of possession their midfield usually garners, but today they were put to task by Inter.

Right, future opposition, take notes, it's as simple as 1, 2, 3...4, 5.

In reality it's obviously quite a task to beat Barca. Inter did it...once.

I have a sneaky feeling that Barca is still going to take the tie. A big absence in this game, was Lionel Messi. He was on the pitch, but he really wasn't the Messi everyone knows (and bows to). Now wind your clocks back a couple of weeks. Barcelona - Arsenal, first leg, Messi was (relatively) absent in that game. He then more than made up for it with a master class in the second leg.

I for one am certain that he'll make an impact of note in the return leg at the Nou Camp. It's definitely going to be a great game, with Barca at their attacking best.

The question is, did they dig themselves too big of a hole to climb out of in 90 minutes?

Advantage Chelsea...but only slightly

3:18pm. That's the time that this year's Barclay's Premier League unofficially became a one-and-a-half horse race. That's the best way I can put it.
Advantage Chelsea, while Man United have to hope for the Blues to drop points in at least one of their last three games.

What a difference a weekend makes. At the beginning of this weekend, Chelsea were four points clear of United, with Arsenal a further two points behind. Late late drama in the Manchester derby saw Paul Scholes score an injury time winner (United's third against Man City this season). Soon after that, Tottenham downed Chelsea 2-1, and a day later Charles N'Zogbia's late strike against Arsenal put the Gunners six points adrift of Chelsea, effectively ending their long standing pursuit of the title.

Barring massive failures from United and Chelsea in the final three games of their respective seasons, this year marks the fifth consecutive season that the Arsenal trophy cabinet remains unchanged. A huge disappointment for a team of their caliber.

On the domestic stage, eyes will be firmly fixed on Chelsea and United, and with both sides out of Europe, neither can have any excuses to not focus their complete attention on the final three games this season. Yes I'm aware Chelsea have the FA Cup final to play too, but let's be honest, I think they're focused on the league right now.

Here's how the remainder of their seasons look.

Manchester United
vs Tottenham (H) 15 points (from last 6 games)
vs Sunderland (A) 10 points
vs Stoke (H) 8 points

Spurs are the in-form team in the league, winning all but one of their last six encounters, the last two of which were against local rivals, Arsenal and Chelsea. United can count their blessings that they're not playing at White Hart Lane. Tottenham are a very average team on the road, at least as far as the season-long picture looks, while United have got 42 out of a possible 51 points at home this season. They did however lose their last game there (to Chelsea) and Spurs cannot be taken lightly on their current form.
Gareth Bale scored against both Arsenal and Chelsea. While United will be hoping to face the Pavlyuchenko who squandered many a chance against Chelsea, they still have to be wary of the Russian, as well as Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe. April 24th, mark down that date!

Sunderland will be United's penultimate opponents this season. When the sides last met in October, a silly late sending off for Kieran Richardson left 10 man Sunderland hanging on to a slender lead deep into injury time, when Ferdinand (no, not Rio, the other one), diverted the ball into his own net, giving United a point from the encounter. Sunderland have been a very up and down side lately, beating Tottenham and Birmingham, stealing a point from encounters with Villa and Birmingham, but losing to West Ham earlier in the month.
Good recent form or not, United should have no excuses for not beating Sunderland.

Finally United end the season at Old Trafford against Stoke. They beat them 2-0 at the Britannia way back in September, and should see them off once again.

and now to the league leaders...

Chelsea
vs Stoke (H) 8 points
vs Liverpool (A) 8 points
vs Wigan (H) 7 points

I'll be fair and give the same opinion I did for United, Chelsea should handle Stoke relatively easily. They beat them in an FA cup game 2-0, while their game at Stoke back in September saw Chelsea winning 2-1, with goals deep in injury time at the end of both halves for Chelsea.

Chelsea vs Liverpool...should be a Chelsea win, right? Especially with the latest news on Torres. Now consider Chelsea is playing Liverpool AT ANFIELD. Suddenly this encounter becomes a lot more interesting. Call me a hopeful United fan!
Of their last six games at home, they've only dropped points in one...which incidentally was the last game they played at home. So my hopes slide a little.
Simply because it's Chelsea's season to lose, this is the crucial game of the remaining season. United's game against Tottenham is a big one, but anything but a win for Chelsea against Liverpool could see United pip them at the post.

Chelsea end the season at home, against Wigan.
Reason for United fans to be hopeful:
Wigan seem to have reserved their spot in next year's Premier League with three goals in the last 10 minutes to beat Arsenal. They beat Arsenal!

46 Reasons to expect Chelsea to win:
That's 46 points out of a potential 51 (15 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) at Stamford Bridge. Wigan on the other hand have lost 12 out of 17 on the road.

I'll be honest, till I saw those statistics, I harboured some hope that Wigan might pull something off.

At the end of the day though, not to be cliché, but it's a funny funny game. While small clubs like Stoke and Wigan are both safe from relegation (pretty much), come May 9th they may be able to play spoiler against one of the bigger sides, and that added incentive might produce some surprises.

Also, and I only realised this after I picked out the picture for this article, the potential absence of two key figures in both title challengers may be crucial in deciding where this year's league trophy ends up.

Wayne Rooney has been an injury worry, certainly of late, and as much as I'd like to believe we can keep winning without the boy-wonder on the field, it's oh-so much easier when he's on it. While United do have other sources for their goals, most notably opposition defenders, none are as reliable as Rooney is.
John Terry may not be as crucial to Chelsea as Rooney is to United, however it isn't to be completely disregarded (thanks to my brother for reminding me about this point). His sending off against Tottenham, means he'll miss Chelsea's next encounter against Stoke. I'm sure Chelsea fans won't lose too much sleep given that the words "prolific goal scorer" don't really go with any of Stoke's players. Still, if Stoke start to find some gaps in that Chelsea defense, you know why!

So there it is, United - Tottenham, Chelsea - Liverpool, those will be the defining games of this Premier League season. For Chelsea it's simple, win win win. Their fate is in their own hands...for United fans, just hope those hands are as safe as Lukasz Fabianski...