The ManicaPost
AS the Barclays English Premier League tails off towards the rewarding conclusion, its attention-grabbing lights are impossible to resist. Difficult to define, also, is its headline-making allure. This is the business end. And the fans are panting.
Liverpool and Manchester City are the firm favourites, a pacesetting pair in first and second position respectively; while Tottenham Hotspur are the dark horses that could play party spoilers. Spurs, perched in third, are still somewhat in with a shout and – yet to take on both log leaders for the second legs – can firmly thrust themselves into the title talk. And this is the one team that legendary marksman-turned-pundit Alan Shearer feels deserve respect in this championship contest and should not be treated with contempt. Tottenham, to their credit, had hitherto coped admirably well without returning influential gunslinger Harry Kane who had been sidelined by injury and continue running the leaders close; lurking to pounce on any slip-ups.
Battling to be the best of the rest, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea are simply also-rans up for the wooden spoon.
But with Mauricio Pochettino in relentless pursuit of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, it has been tight at the top. That Liverpool and City have both been oscillating at the apex of the log has added a pulsating facet to the marathon.
As such, Guardiola has suggested that the race will go down to the wire in a nail-biting finale that may be decided on goal difference.
Pep has been in a similar position before in Spain with Barcelona and it will not be lost to him that in the 2011-12 season City triumphed to the crown during the final-day drama as they pipped cross-town rivals Manchester United to the title. Pep has, therefore, been harping on the “win-score-avoid conceding” whim to his players. Still fighting for honours on three fronts, having bagged the League Cup, will the reigning champions not suffer jet-lag as they juggle a grueling and hectic fixture schedule?
But peppering that salivating 10-match league run-in are fixtures that could turn out to be season-defining. Not entirely deciders but looming large enough to have a huge bearing on where the title eventually tilts. Both City and Liverpool are still to square off against Spurs in a space spanning three weeks. So it is still all to play for for all three.
As a sweetener – for finger-crossing neutrals, of course – we are still to be blessed with the Manchester Derby. Games between these neighbours, where the less successful one has been derisively dubbed “noisy”, are always eagerly awaited with great relish for they carry enormous bragging rights. With the Old Trafford side onto something of a stunning resurgence under interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during which fruitful run has also seen them restricting nemesis Liverpool in a duel that remains – in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson – easily the biggest fixture in English football owing to the tradition and history between these iconic clubs in the Queen’s land, the clash becomes mouthwatering. Throw into the mix that the Red Devils – having savoured the syrupy taste of gate-crashing into Top Four, which had for long looked like a distant, elusive dream as they huffed and puffed – would certainly be smelling blood and that could set the scene for an Armageddon of sorts.
It would not, therefore, be far-fetched to hypothesise that whoever between City and Liverpool pilfer the most points out of the feisty fixtures against United and Spurs might just as well have done enough to drag themselves over the finish line.
For the Citizens, however, the feel good been-there-done-that factor may just carry the day for them while naïveté may be the Reds and Spurs’ undoing.
Are we in, avid reader, for what the immortal Sir Ferguson emotively referred to as the “squeaky-bum time” where “it’s getting tickly now”, especially at this point of the season?
If it is about football that you care let’s share the cheer because we are made for the game, mad about the game!
Feedback:
I am confused: Zifa want PSL coaches to have Caf A coaching licences when, first, the courses are no longer being conducted. Second, the national team coach does not possess the requisite badge. Talk of double standards! That reminds me of what Pep Guardiola once said: “a piece of paper does not sit on the bench, it is the person who does the coaching.” Food for thought Mr Kamambo and his team. – Tawanda Mhlanga, Dangamvura.
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