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28 March 2024

In the red or feeling blue?

Will Manchester United retain their title come Sunday? (GETTY IMAGES)

Published
By Ahmad Lala

 

Super, super Sunday it is! To England we go where tomorrow all the attention is focused on five Premier League teams: Birmingham, Chelsea, Fulham, Manchester United and Reading. At the end of the day only two of them will be celebrating – and for completely opposite reasons too.

Starting at the top, Manchester United and Chelsea go into the final day's action tied on points in the closest title race since the Premier League's inception in 1992.

United won the 1998-99 title from Arsenal by a single point, but this one could be judged on goal difference – vastly favouring United – and if so it will be only the sixth time this has happened since league football began in 1888.

Chelsea's 2-0 victory over Newcastle United on Monday put them level with leaders Manchester United on 84 points, but after their 4-1 home win over West Ham United last Saturday the Red Devils have a goal difference advantage of 17 over Avram Grant's men.

Tomorrow Chelsea are at home to Bolton Wanderers while Manchester United make the trip to Wigan Athletic. In terms of difficulty, Chelsea have the easier of the two games against Bolton. Wigan might have been in good form recently – having avoided relegation. But they have nothing to play for and it's hard to see United coming up short.

But on the last day of the season all the focus moves away from the players and on to the managers. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has seen it all and done it all and with the talented squad at his disposal he should blow away Wigan.

The one problem though will be Wigan manager Steve Bruce. The former Manchester United defender, who coincidentally played under Ferguson, might want to put one over his former boss and could spur a team, who are probably looking forward to the season break, to give the defending champions a hard-fight until the end.

Chelsea manager Avram Grant is in a very precarious situation. His side stand on the verge of Premier League glory and are in the European Champions League final with United, yet it is unknown if he will still have a job come next season.

Rumour has it that he needs to win a trophy and that will encourage him to unleash all on Bolton, another side who narrowly avoided relegation, at the Blues' Stamford Bridge fortress.

Down to the opposite end of the table where hearts will be in mouths. A spot in the Premier League is worth £60 million (Dh441m) next season and the owners of Birmingham, Fulham and Reading will need no reminding.

Money will be the last thing on the mind of the fans of those teams though, as they will their side on in a hope their team will not be one of the unlucky two to join already relegated Derby in the Championship next season. Now to sit back and enjoy the scrap!