The title decider or, Playing with house money

The Manchester-Chelski match has just kicked off. Any points for Manchester means they control their destiny over the last six weeks of the season. A loss, however, means a gut-wrenching, edge-of-your-seat race to the finish.

Manchester are playing with house money, though -- they can lose and still have a chance to make up the points in the last month and a half. Chelski, on the other hand, must win. It is difficult to see Manchester dropping more than three points in the run up to the season's close should Chelsk allow United to go four points up.

The best result for United would be a win followed by a draw or loss by Arsenal to Wolves later today. The next-best scenario is a draw v Chelsk, with Arsenal dropping points. Anything short of a win means Arsenal are out of the race for sure. A loss isn't fatal to United but it would leave an unpleasant scenario: asking Liverpool to beat Chelski when those two meet up on the second-last weekend of the season.

While neutrals might plump for an exciting finish, there is more than a season’s title at stake. Manchester are chasing a historic fourth-in-a-row title -- no Premier League club has ever done that. In fact, no English first-division club has ever accomplished this feat.

There were two clubs besides United that have come close. Arsenal won four-in-five from 1931-35, during their first run of success, under Herbert Chapman. Of course Liverpool would be the other club. Stunningly in their record-setting 16-year span between 1975-1990, they won 10 titles. No club other than Pool won back-to-back titles in that span, but Pool never won more than three consecutively, which they only did once (1982-1984).

That's a run like the NY Yankees in their dominant pomp between 1949-64. Unlike the Yankees, however, Liverpool have never won the league again since. That title drought is now longer than their era of success.

So history is at stake and with Rooney out, United are underdogs. One final point in favor of United -- a loss by Chelsk could mean another bout of tears for Terry.

One can only hope.

Worthy champions in 2008...and beyond?

Manchester United were justifiable winners of their third Champions Cup title, this past Wednesday. United did not lose a match in the entire tournament, and scored the most goals. Like all champions, they received a dose of luck, but also created enough of their own to deserve what they received.

The championship game v Chelsea properly went the full distance. Both sides were evenly matched, and of course both knew the other well. A testament to both managers’ tactics was that all substitutions were attack-minded ones. They didn't play for penalties in Moscow.

In the Premier League, United were equally worthy of winning their 17th title. The superlatives: most goals scored, most wins, greatest goal differential, least goals allowed, the best attacking player and best defensive player....You'd have to stretch to find a negative. 

There are those who argue whether this Cup side is better than the 1999 Treble winners. For not winning the FA Cup, the argument is moot - the '99 side was more successful. The 2008 champions have more talent, however, and greater promise for more future success.

A player like that boy Ronaldo, for instance comes along less than once in a generation. He is Best and Law and Beckham, wrapped into one happy-footed package. And while he may be gone sooner than not, he is an exclamation point to the team. That is to say, only an exclamation point.

That's right, it says here that if Cristiano Ronaldo were to leave, he'd be sorely missed but that the club would remain potent. If Ronaldo were to head for La Liga, he'd go for a record-breaking sum - 100 million pounds is not out of the question. That would leave plenty of money available to buy a player that can support Rooney and Tevez.

The contributions made by Wazza and Carlitos were overshadowed by Ronaldo's magical season. El Apache scored 14 goals, most of them clever strikes, and good enough for second-most at United this season. Admittedly that's a big drop from Ronny's numbers, but few can doubt that Tevez could boost his totals were he to be the focus.

Rooney's contributions this season were much less obvious. He is a very good defender, and races into the defensive half time and again to win the ball. He has adapted to the supporting role that Sir Alex has asked of him. Yet he is unfairly criticised for not scoring more goals. That's not his focus in this lineup.

Kudos to Wayne for evolving into the consummate team player. But he is still a threat to score and forces defences to put a man on him all the time. It freed up Ronaldo and Tevez all season, and was thus an unsung factor in many of the team's goals.

This triumvirate functioning closely bodes well for the next couple of years for United. This is, after all, a team that has learned how to get the results they need. 

Manchester were criticised for not winning away to Barca, for example. But as any long-time United supporter will tell you, it's the end results that matter.

That's not arrogance, that's learning from losses to Monaco, Dortmund, Real Madrid, Milan - the list is long, glorious...and painful. This year's squad finally learned how to maintain a sense of the bigger picture. As late as last season, the Milan away match was a perfect example of a match where United lost the plot. Those sorts of lapses have bedeviled the club in the past decade, a sore point for Ferguson.

This year, however, there was a sense of calm and efficiency in every game. A lot of that comes from having Vidic and Ferdinand marshaling the backfield. They are among the best defensive partnerships in the world. Wes Brown finally grew into the talent he demonstrated before injuries nearly ended a promising career. So the attacking side and the defensive line are solid.

Most importantly, this is a young but mature side. This is only the third year since Ronaldo and Rooney have linked up. Adding Tevez was a master stroke - all three know how to win. The meshing of talent was a question mark at the start of the season. Goalscorers are notoriously selfish yet all three seemed to revel in the others’ successes.

A fourth striker will doubtless be added in the close season. A top midfielder would also help do the business. This is a team that continues to go from strength to strength. After all, we haven't even discussed the raw abilities of Anderson and Nani.

So congratulations to Sir Alex and the 2007-08 Manchester United side. He will surely want to prevent a slide like the one suffered by the Treble side after 1999. The team has already served notice that they aim to collect more silverware before Sir finally retires. Considering what Manchester accomplished this season, it will be wondrous to watch if this comes to pass.