Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
On Sunday the Premier League season comes to a close and a champion will be crowned. The title race has come down to two teams, Liverpool and Manchester City and their games will be the must watch matches of the lineup.
The relegation battle was also a tight race for most of the second half of the season but that has been basically settled heading into the final match week. As of right now, Fulham FC and Cardiff City are going to be relegated. Norwich City is also slated to be relegated, but there is an extreme situation where the they could stay up, but it involves West Bromwich Albion losing by a large unrealistic and them winning by an equally large and unrealistic margin. The tie breaker in points is goal differential and right now they are 17 goals apart.
The Premier League title race is a little bit murkier, but Manchester City control its fate. Here are the scenarios for the Premier League title on Sunday.
- If Manchester City beat West Ham on Sunday, they will win the title
- If Manchester City draw against West Ham on Sunday, they will most likely win the title on a better goal differential
- If Liverpool beat Newcastle and Manchester City lose against West Ham on Sunday, Liverpool will win the Premier League title
If Manchester City were to draw, and Liverpool won their game against Newcastle United, they’d need to make up the 13 goal differential. Not an impossible task, but an incredibly unlikely proposition.
Liverpool had the title in their grasp before a loss to Chelsea and a draw to Crystal Palace basically put the title in City’s control. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was refusing to concede the title.
“It’s certainly not over,” Rodgers said, via Sky Sports. “First and foremost, we can only concentrate on our job, our job is to win the game.
“I think Alan (Pardew) will come and he’ll want to finish his season strong. We know that it’s a tough game.
“But the combination of us at home and our supporters has been fantastic for us. To look to get 16 wins out of 19 come the weekend would pencil in a great return for us at home.
“For them (Manchester City), West Ham have got some really talented players. To be able to go to Tottenham and win 3-0, you can certainly go to Manchester City and win, specially if you a guy like big Andy (Carroll) up front with the quality that he has.
“City have got a really good defensive record, 14-odd clean sheets I think, so it shows that they’re a really difficult team to play against.
“So our focus is on ourselves, if we do our job then I’ll be happy.”
Making the order even taller for Liverpool is the fact that they’ll face a full City squad, including striker Sergio Aguero.
“The whole squad is fit for Sunday,” City boss Manuel Pellegrini said, via The Guardian. “It is very important, always for a manager, if you have your whole squad and choose from all your players.”
What is working in Liverpool’s favor is a determined West Ham United team. Manager Sam Allardyce wants to help out Liverpool and bring Manchester City’s season to a screeching halt by beating them on Sunday.
“We all know Manchester City in full cry are very difficult to play against and we’ve got to go out there and give a fantastic effort to try to stop them grasping the title on that day,” Allardyce said, via the Daily Mail.
“It will be hugely difficult: they’re the best team at home in the league. Their goal record is fantastic and they’ve got great players.
“But every (West Ham) player can go and give his best because we know we’re safe in the Premier League, so let’s go and spoil Manchester City’s party.”
Chelsea and Arsenal are both comfortably in the top four. If Liverpool were to lose and Chelsea were to win, they could move ahead of them and into second place. Nothing really of note would come from that since all Top Four teams will get a shot at the Champions League berth. Arsenal, who hold the fourth and final Champions League spot, aren’t in any danger of losing it to fifth place Everton whom they lead by seven points.
Everton has a firm grasp on a Europa League spot and will finish the season in fifth place regardless of what happens. Tottenham Hotspur is in sixth place and holding onto the final Europa League spot. They’re endanger of losing that spot to Manchester United, if they lose and United win. If that were to happen, both clubs would have 66 points, but United has a far superior goal lead heading into the weekend, 20 goals to be exact. If Tottenham wins, or draws, they’re ticket is punched. If Manchester United lose, they’re also set.
Tottenham is also facing some distractions heading into the final week as reports surfaced that head coach Tim Sherwood won’t return to the club next season. Sherwood discussed the difficulties of trying to gain the respect of his players when they think he is only temporarily in the position and it will be vacated soon.
“If you have a supply teacher who comes into your school, sometimes they’re not treated with the respect that a headmaster is,” Sherwood said, via ESPN FC.
“I think I’ve done alright. It’s a difficult situation taking over when I did with someone else’s players. It’s a good squad, but we have had a lot of injuries and key players have been missing an awful lot.
“I think my win percentage stands on its own, it’s up there, it’s better than anyone’s [former Spurs managers] in the Premier League, so what more could I have done really? I’m happy with what I’ve done.”
Now Championship Sunday comes with its own set of traditions. It is just one of a few days in the league schedule when all 20 teams play on the same day. Every game is also at 10:00 a.m. ET, and every game will be aired on television. Usually during the season NBC, who own the rights to the Premier League broadcast in the United States, would show the most marquee game on NBC Sports Network and stream the others on their site and app. For Championship Sunday they’re using their full line of available networks to air every game on television.
Here is the full television schedule for Championship Sunday, remember all games are also available to be streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra and their App:
And here is your Premier League table heading into Sunday: