According to Sam Cunningham:
There was yet another monumental shift in the Barclays
Premier League on Wednesday night; in the title race, in the battle for fourth
and in the fight for survival. It was just another example of why this is the
maddest season in top flight history.
RETURN OF THE NOT SO HAPPY ONE
Jose Mourinho returned to these shores after a six-year
absence.
Oh, how he was missed.
In his first season back at
'The title race is between two horses [Arsenal and Manchester City
According to the Portuguese his masseur Billy McCulloch
gave the side the team talk before the 1-0 win.
Following a goalless draw in January, he accused West Ham
of playing 19th Century football against them.
He shaved his head using Fernando Torres's clippers when
most of the rest of his team were away on international duty in November.
He attacked Arsene Wenger by branding the long-serving
Arsenal manager as a 'specialist in failure' then rubbed salt into the wounds
by trouncing them 6-0.
He's still not finished yet.
UNSTOPPABLE SUAREZ
How do you make up for letting your team down by missing
the first give games of the season through suspension?
By attempting to score more than anyone has ever done in
a single top-flight season ever.
With 29 to his name, Luis Suarez is closing in on Andy
Cole and Alan Shearer's record of 34 goals scored in one season.
And that is from a 42-game campaign, so if you factor in
his ban that is nine games more.
The record for the current 38-game format is 31, shared
by Shearer and Cristiano Ronaldo.
At one point the controversial Uruguayan even scored 10
goals in four games and is scoring at a rate of a goal-per-game – more than any
other player has managed before.
He doesn't even take penalties for Liverpool .
Suarez has been simply phenomenal.
ARSENAL AND ARSENE FADE AWAY...
For 20 weeks of this 38-week season, Arsenal were top of
the league.
They moved into pole position on September 14 and between
then and defeat to
No-one thought Wenger, armed with his shiny new
£42.5million sorcerer Mesut Ozil, could be stopped.
But since February they have steadily, painfully slid
down the table and out of the title race.
To drop out of the top four right at the end – with
Everton hot on their tail just one point behind – after such dominance would be
hard to swallow.
... BUT LIVERPOOL COME
FROM NOWHERE
Brendan Rodgers' side have been the surprise package of
the season.
They had finished outside the top five for the past four
seasons and no-one outside of
But they have blown teams out of the way with an
onslaught of attacking football.
This season they have netted an average of 2.74 goals per
game – 93 in 34 played – more than any other side has ever recorded.
They are keeping ahead of the Chelsea
Win the title and Rodgers will become a Kop legend.
THE THRASHINGS
Remember when matches between the top sides were often
tight, stuttering affairs with cagey football?
Not this season. No-one has been safe from a mauling.
A relatively evenly matched Hull
While Fulham were also on the end of a 5-0 schooling by Manchester City
THE SACKINGS
Nine top flight managers have been axed this season – at
a rate of almost 50 per cent.
If one more goes between now and the end of this campaign
it will be the highest casualty rate ever.
Fulham are on their third boss and Rene Meulensteen was
given just 17 games and two-and-a-half months at the helm.
Chris Hughton was replaced by a man with no previous
experience in professional management with five games to play and fighting for
their lives.
Michael Laudrup got Swansea
into Europe and was given the chop by
February.
THE BREAKNECK FINAL RUN-IN AT THE TOP
It's in
Whether you're a big horse, or a little horse, or, as
Brendan Rodgers described his own team, the little chihuahua running between
the horses' legs, any of those three can still fall at the final hurdle and
allow their rivals to win by a nose.
With less than four weeks to go until the final games of
the season, it is still a three-way race.
THE BREAKNECK FINAL RUN-IN AT THE BOTTOM
Two thirds of the way through the season anyone in the
bottom half of the table could easily have been sucked into the relegation
scrap.
At Christmas West Ham and Sam Allardyce looked doomed. A
month ago Fulham looked doomed. Now Sunderland looked doomed, but a win in
their game in hand against West Brom would
move them within three points of safety.
It is going down to the wire, with any one of eight teams
nervously awaiting the final results.
PULIS GETS PALACE PERFORMING
Could the manager of the season be one whose side finish
mid-table?
After what Pulis has achieved since taking over at Crystal Palace
When he was appointed they had lost nine, draw one and
won two of their first 12 games.
But Pulis has managed to get players like Jason Puncheon,
Yannick Bolasie and Marouane Chamakh fired up again, when the team had looked
broken.
When they ended high-flying Everton's run of seven
straight league wins on Wednesday night Palace moved within three points of
Pulis's former club Stoke.
MOYES'S MANCHESTER
Everyone knew replacing Sir Alex Ferguson was going to be
the toughest job in football.
But no-one could've predicted it would've started so
badly for David Moyes.
The former Everton boss has fought
Under the great Scot they hadn't finished outside the top
three in 23 years and won five of the previous seven top-flight titles.
Now they are scrapping for a Europa League place.
Football, eh?
Courtesy: dailymail
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