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Winners and disappointments of the English "Premier" League are already clear - on Saturday, defending champions celebrated their title at home, London's Chelsea club, which adorned themselves with gold medals after a stunning victory against Man Utd, while Portsmouth survived relegation and sent Birmingham and West Brom clubs down to a lower league.
In the capital's Stamford Bridge stadium, the players and fans of Man Utd had the opportunity to witness a truly unpleasant event for them - Chelsea triumph securing the first place in the championship that is approaching the end. Not only that, the London team once again proved that they deserve it, and crushed the second-placed Sir Alex Ferguson's club 3-0, although a draw was enough to secure the first place.
Chelsea showed their intentions in today's match already in the fifth minute, when Didier Drogba, after Frank Lampard's corner kick, passed the ball to William Gallas who sent it into Edwin van der Sar's goal with his head. A few minutes later, all the "Blues" fans were frightened by a rough foul of Wayne Rooney against his national team colleague John Terry, after which the defender seemed to have suffered a serious injury for a while, but later could continue the game.
It was W. Rooney who had a good chance to equalize the score after twenty minutes, but after confusing several defenders, he missed the shot, and a few moments later the young striker's shot was blocked by the hosts' goalkeeper Petr Cech.
At the beginning of the second half, the hosts played more actively and Joe Cole finally achieved his goal - in the 54th minute he scored, just inches wide, and after 6 minutes he deceived Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, and Mikael Silvestre and left no chance for the "Red Devils" goalkeeper. In the 73rd minute, defender Ricardo Carvalho sent the ball into the net for the third time and finally ended the battle in this match.
However, another painful blow was suffered by the fans of Man Utd and the English national team with 15 minutes left to play when W. Rooney, who was seemingly in a harmless situation with Paulo Ferreira, was injured. It is believed that the striker injured his right foot - it was this bone that broke for the footballer in the European Championship in Portugal.
However, some intrigue still remains - taking advantage of Man Utd stumbling, the hope of a fight for the second place was saved by Liverpool, who defeated Aston Villa at home 3-1. Steven Gerrard scored two goals for the winners, while Spaniard Fernando Morientes scored once. After this victory, the winners of last season's UEFA Champions League points outperformed the Manchester team, but the latter have played fewer matches.
Before the last round, the battle for survival ended as Portsmouth defeated the Wigan team and secured another victory in the final round, gaining a four-point advantage over the Birmingham team, who played a goalless draw at home with Newcastle, and even a nine-point advantage before their final match against West Brom on Monday.
In three other matches, away teams claimed victories - Fulham won against Man City, the opportunity to get a ticket to the next season's UEFA Europa League was preserved by beating Charlton Blackburn, and the finalists of this season's tournament Middlesbrough lost to Everton.
Saturday's results:
Chelsea 3 - 0 Man Utd
4' [1 - 0] William Gallas
61' [2 - 0] Joe Cole
73' [3 - 0] Ricardo Carvalho
Liverpool 0 - 0 Aston Villa
Fulham 3 - 1 Blackburn
4' [1 - 0] Fernando Morientes
58' [1 - 1] Gareth Barry
61' [2 - 1] Steven Gerrard
67' [3 - 1] Steven Gerrard
Man City 1 - 2 Fulham
69' [1 - 0] Richard Dunne
84' [1 - 1] Collins John
90' [1 - 2] Steed Malbranque
Newcastle 0 - 1 Birmingham
89' [0 - 1] James McFadden
