A great deal of records came to the fore at both ends of the Premier League this past weekend. Manchester (and Surrey) was where the party was as City (and United) both came back with a trophy to end different records. City’s FA Cup Final victory was their first silverware in 35 years and United finally knocked Liverpool off their perch with a record 19th league title.
City dominated Stoke throughout their Wembley clash. Sheikh Mansour’s petrodollars will be out in full force again this summer as the FA Cup winners also captured a Champions League space and may yet pip Arsenal for third place. Yaya Toure has impressed all season. It was appropriate then that he get the winning goal and in the process, almost break the net with his unquestionable ferocity.
United were a tad luckier. Blackburn had taken the lead through Brett Emerton’s exploitation of Tomas Kuszszak’s inept goalkeeping. The two attacking players who have impressed the most in the second half of United’s season sealed the title for Sir Alex. “Chicharito” won the penalty that Wayne Rooney duly converted before chanting “fuck” as many times as he could whilst celebrating.
The other end of the table saw West Ham exit the top flight with not so much as a whimper. East London’s finest went in at half time two Demba Ba goals to the good. It wasn’t a convincing performance in the first period and this was shown up in the second half as the Hammers gave defending a new damning indictment.
By the time it was all said and done, Wigan had turned it around and a 94th-minute horror show from Robert Green means they live to fight another day in the Premier League. West Ham, now manager-less, are in the Championship and bouncing back is by no means a certainty.
