Last week the debate about whether the Premier League is superior to La Liga was possibly finally settled. Probably more in anticipation of the events to follow the next day, Premier League chairman Dave Richards had raised eyebrows with accusations that FIFA and UEFA stole football from its English inventor.
While the elimination of one English team after another from the Champions League and Europa League highlighted the demise of the English Premier League, a flicker of hope was borne from the most unlikely source. As they descended the league table, they were considered the collapsing giant of English football especially when they moved from the most glamorous managers in world football to a lowly West Bromwich reject. Chelsea fans may have held onto a few memorable Roberto Di Matteo performances and goals from the late nineties, but on Wednesday night, he was firmly engraved into Chelsea’s history for leading them to arguably their greatest ever performance. Notably, the historic performance was inspired by the “old guard” that former manager AVB was hired at a very high cost to scrap.
As Drogba, Terry and Lampard were helping rejuvenate the spent blue force of London, their diminishing red counterparts were being revived by two players that gooners were hoping got dumped from their dressing room. Since that remarkable turnaround against their soaring North London rivals, Rosicky and Walcott have proved an irreplaceable component of an Arsenal juggernaut that was overly reliant on Robin van Persie earlier in the season.
Northwest of London, the scrap that was being refined to steel is helping shape a very nail biting finish in the battle for the title between the Manchester rivals. Like the Arsenal pair, Jonny Evans and David De Gea considered baggage by many United fans are now the glue that has helped plug United’s leaky defense. The former even capped his recent assured displays with his first goal in United colors to send the Red Devils on their way to cutting back the massive goal difference advantage that their cross-town rivals enjoyed.
In stacking up the goals, Manchester City have been so impressive, two-thirds of managers in the EPL tipped them to win the league. That they have recently seemed to be faltering, City fans may have to count on a Tevez refinement to rejuvenate their title surge.
At the other end of the table, the Manchester clubs’ Lancashire county rivals seem to be enjoying a revival of their own. Blackburn fans that have been clamoring for manager, Steve Keane’s head since the beginning of the season are now finally cheering rather than revolting at Ewood Park. With Blackburn rising above the relegation places against most predictions, what was considered “Keane’s crazy optimism” earlier in the season is now considered very likely.
From top to bottom of the league, players and managers considered scrap earlier in the season are enjoying such a revival they are poised to determine this season’s champions, champion’s league qualifiers and survivors of the drop. Other’s worth mentioning are Newcastle’s owner booed for replacing Andy Carroll with bargains that have seen the club challenge for Europe and Alex McLeish greeted by Villa fans’ echoes of “You don’t know what you are doing” for replacing Charles Nzogbia in the game against Fulham with unknown, Andreas Weimann, the eventual match winner. Have your say on which clubs are likely to reap the greatest benefit from turning their scrap into steel.
