With only 3 games remaining it is fair to say that Arsenal are out of the title race. But as far as Chelsea and Manchester United are concerned it is still alive and kicking. Here are the remaining fixtures for Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal:
| Chelsea | Manchester United |
| Stoke (H) | Tottenham (H) |
| Liverpool (A) | Sunderland (A) |
| Wigan (H) | Stoke (H) |
After the recent loss to Tottenham, things look very tight with only 1 point separating the two clubs. Chelsea though have a better goal difference of +3 which in reality is like two points. Here is the table after 35 rounds of fixtures:
| Position |
Team
|
Played
|
Points
|
Goal Difference
|
|
1
|
Chelsea
|
35
|
77
|
+54
|
|
2
|
Manchester United
|
35
|
76
|
+51
|
Both have equal amounts of games at home and away with 2 and 1 respectively. But Chelsea’s away fixture is a huge one against Liverpool while on the other hand Manchester United have Sunderland. Although Steve Bruce will have one or two things to say about it, everyone knows that it will be an easy game for United. Their big match is against Tottenham who beat us and Arsenal in successive games. For those who might be thinking that they will do the same to United I am sorry because what Tottenham traditionally do at Old Trafford is to take a two goal lead in the first half and then throw it away in the second half and finally end up losing by 5 or more goals.
That leaves us with Stoke who are go to Old Trafford on the last day of the season. It will be real desperate to think that Stoke City who are confirmed of another season in the Premier League to be going on the last day of the season trying to get a result. That is not going to happen. So United are odds on to win their remaining fixtures. That scenario means that Chelsea cannot afford to drop any more points and have to win their remaining matches without exception.
With regards to Chelsea’s fixtures, Stoke at home could be a nailed on three pointer as we have faced them 3 times this season in both FA Cup and Premier League and won all three. But they cannot be taken lightly and with a player who takes more throw-ins than trying to pass in Rory Delap, Carlo Ancelotti’s men should not take anything for granted.
Liverpool have lost Fernando Torres for the rest of the season. That is major news both for the fixture and for the title race because without the goal scoring prowess of the Spaniard, Liverpool have been very poor this season. It will be really interesting to see if Liverpool fans want to see Chelsea lose but see Manchester United lift the trophy and overhaul their record number of titles or see Chelsea win a trophy that they have never won. It really is a cache 22 situation. But they have been in this position in the 94-95 season when they nearly handed United the title. It would be foolish to think that they will roll over just to see United not winning it. It is another tough game then. But we have won against both Manchester United and Arsenal in impressive manner. So that must make us favourites to win at Liverpool.
Wigan on the final day is one of the potential banana skins. It may have not been exactly that had they not managed to come back spectacularly from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Arsenal thereby effectively ending their title hopes. You never know what team is going to turn up on the day for Wigan. They should be safe by the time they come to Stamford Bridge but it remains to be seen what will happen before that because anything can happen with the injury situation between now and then.
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