Sporting Madness

It all comes down to this. On the final day of the season, with the English Premier League title on the line , Chelsea will host Wigan Athletic at Stamford Bridge. They sit top of the table with 83 points, so three points from a victory will clinch it for them. If they draw or lose, however, Manchester United could sneak by them. The Red Devils host Stoke at Old Trafford, and are only one point back of Chelsea. A draw does them no good thanks to Chelsea's superior goal differential, but if they win and the Blues drop points, it will be United who are champions of England. Adding to the drama, all of Sunday's games take place at the same time, 11 a.m. Eastern/8 a.m. Pacific. I'll be live-blogging both the Manchester United and Chelsea games and throwing in updates from other ones from time to time. Come join me here then to see how the EPL title is decided! EPL Title

The English Premier League title race continues towards its exciting conclusion, and this second-to-last week features two matches that might just decide it all. First, Liverpool host league-leaders Chelsea at Anfield, and then Manchester United travel to the Stadium of Light to face Sunderland. Chelsea have 80 points from 36 matches, one more than United, and are also well ahead on goal difference. In the last week of the season, they'll host Wigan, which should be a relatively easy win; thus, their performance today will be crucial. United have a bit of an easier schedule, on the road against Sunderland today and then at home against Stoke next week, but they could win out and still lose if Chelsea take both of their games. I'm planning to live blog both of today's clashes, so stop by here for that. The first one, Liverpool and Chelsea, will kick off at 8:30 Eastern (5:30 Pacific) and will be live-blogged in this post; the second one, United and Sunderland, kicks off at 1...

The English Premier League title race has seen a couple of outstanding games lately, including Chelsea's victory over Manchester United and United's last-second escape against City in the Manchester derby. The title is still very much up for grabs, though, with United trailing Chelsea by two points heading into this weekend. Their game against Tottenham could go a long way towards deciding the race, particularly if they lose, so it looks like the clash of the weekend. I'll be live-blogging it both here and at Epic Footy , starting at 4:45 a.m. Pacific today (7:45 a.m. Eastern). You might want to watch this one, even if there might not be any kraken released . One of the interesting elements heading into this one is that Tottenham have done more than anyone else to aid United's title quest so far; they knocked off Chelsea last week and beat Arsenal before that . They won't be in a mood to help the Red Devils out this weekend, as they need every point they can m...

It's been a few weeks since I've live-blogged anything, and Saturday morning presents me with an excellent excuse . Manchester United will be taking on Chelsea at Old Trafford at 7 a.m. Eastern/4 a.m. Pacific. The match could be one of the most memorable of this English Premier League campaign. United lead the EPL with 72 points from 32 games, but Chelsea are hot on their heels with 71 from 32. Moreover, United just suffered a crushing Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich in midweek and lost Wayne Rooney in the process , while Chelsea are coming off a 7-1 thumping of Aston Villa that may have increased the pressure on Martin O'Neill . They're also set to get Didier Drogba back. There's a chance Owen Hargreaves may return to the United bench, but that's about the only good news for United, who will have to rely on Dimitar Berbatov in Rooney's absence. This clash could well decide the EPL title, so it will be live-blogged here and at Epic Fo...

Welcome to today's edition of Premier League Punditry, as usual featuring myself and Amrit and Phil from There Is No Original Name For This Sports Blog . Plenty to talk about this week, including Manchester United's 3-month streak of clean sheets in the league, Arsenal's draw with Tottenham , Jo 's amazing success in his first match for Everton, Chelsea's draw with Hull and Liverpool's 3-2 win over Portsmouth [all links from the excellent ESPN Soccernet ]. Join us in the live blog below! Premier League Punditry 02-08-09

For once, the English Premier League has gone right down to the wire, with the championship, European places and the relegation battle all to be decided on the final day of the season. At the top, Manchester United and Chelsea are even on 84 points, but United have a vastly superior goal differential (+56 to +39). Thus, if United can secure an away victory against Wigan at the JJB Stadium, they will claim the title and Chelsea's game at home against Bolton will be meaningless. The Red Devils should be in good shape in their bid to claim a tenth Premier League title, as they look to have regained their form of old after last week's brilliant 4-1 victory over West Ham United , where they prevailed despite being limited to ten men after Nani's first-half suspension. However, Chelsea have also been hot lately, and they eked out a narrow 2-1 victory over United two weeks ago at the Bridge. United received some good news on the injury side this week, as Serbian central defender N...

I'm still in a bit of shock after watching Manchester United knocked out of the FA Cup by Portsmouth yesterday. United dominated the match, and looked sure to score at many points, including when a Michael Carrick effort was cleared off the line, but they could just never put the ball in the net. A perhaps overconfident halftime substitution saw Tomas Kuszczak take over in the goal for Edwin Van der Sar, but manager Sir Alex Ferguson can't really be blamed: at that point, it seemed inevitable one of United's efforts would slide home, and given the crucial fixtures upcoming in United's quest for league and European glory, it made sense to try and get Van der Sar some rest. Kuszczak had played pretty well thus far this campaign in the limited action he saw as well, so it didn't seem like an unreasonable decision at the time. Unfortunately for United, Kuszczak made a critical error, taking Milan Baros down on a breakaway (one of Portsmouth's only legitimate scorin...