If you’re a football fan, especially of the Barclays Premier League, you would have spent Sunday watching the last day of the season when all the games kicked off at the same time (3:00 PM UK Time). There was a lot at stake on this day – there was the close competition between Manchester United and Manchester City for the Barclays Premier League Title as they were both level on points. Tottenham tried to go past Arsenal and gain automatic champions league qualifying by finishing third and Newcastle tried to go past Tottenham and qualify for the champions’ league qualifying round.
There was the relegation battle between Bolton and QPR and the competition between Everton and Liverpool to be the top club in Merseyside. But as expected the main focus was on the tussle for the title between Manchester United and Manchester City. Both teams were level on points but Manchester City had a better goal difference hence they were on top.
The tussle for the title…
Manchester City were expected to win the title as they had to play at their home stadium, “City of Manchester Stadium,” against QPR who are placed at 17th in the table. QPR were expected to put on a fight, because if Bolton won their game and QPR lost their game QPR would get relegated. Even then Manchester City were expected to win quite comfortable. Manchester United had to play Sunderland at the Stadium of Light and even if Manchester United won their game, them winning the league, depended upon Manchester City’s result.
Both games started simultaneously. Manchester United were the first to score in their game – Wayne Rooney scored the goal and they went one nil up in the 20th minute. Manchester City scored the first goal in their game too. Goal Keeper Paddy Kenny’s weak save let in Zabaleta’s strike in the 39th minute. Being a Manchester United fan I was quite disappointed when I saw this. But I was quite happy with the fantastic saves he made later, a couple of them from point blank range. Both teams held on to their leads until half time.
In the second half I was glad to see Djibril Cisse equalize for QPR in the 48th minute, while Manchester United held onto their lead in their game. But then disappointment hit me when I saw Joey Barton get sent off for QPR in the 55th minute. This meant that City’s job was made easy. But then I got really happy again when I heard that City had gone 2-1 down to QPR through a goal from Jamie Mackie in the 66th minute. I couldn’t believe what I heard and changing the channel to this game and seeing the score lifted my spirits. If we held onto are lead and the score in the other game stayed as it was, we would win the league.
Surprising and unbelievable finish
Manchester United held onto the lead and finished the game with a 1-0 lead hoping that the result in the other gamed stayed as it was. But just as our game was ending they Manchester City’s Edin Dzeko scored an equaliser in the 92nd minute and made the score 2-2. Then their game continued on as they had 5 minutes of stoppage time and Manchester United’s game just had 3. Manchester United players and fans eagerly waited for the other game to finish and then the unthinkable happened – Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero scored the winner in the 94th minute which helped City win the title.
This really surprised and disappointed me, but I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be. I didn’t expect us to win the title so I was kind of prepared to lose it at the beginning of both the games. But I hoped and hoped something like a good QPR performance would occur and it did. I knew Manchester United would win so the other result would have helped.
The weird result in Manchester City’s game shocked me, but I was still happy with my team Manchester United. They put in a good performance, won the game and could have scored more goals. If I were to blame I would blame the result against Everton and Wigan first and the result against Manchester City at Old Trafford which had a bad affect on our goal difference. Those results really disappointed. But at that point I was ready to forget all about it and celebrate with my team in case they won and this was the reason I wasn’t sad even though we lost. We also amassed 89 points which is a lot, as in four of the last five seasons the league was won on lesser points than that. I was happy with their performance today and and I will always love them however they play.
Congratulations to Manchester City. They played well and the won the title. I am really looking forward to next season.
In a way these two games sum up the entire season. Manchester City were in control at the beginning and then Manchester United took control and finally at the end Manchester City took charge and won it.