WHAT’S AT STAKE TODAY
Man City v Aston Villa Liverpool v Wolves
THE TITLE
It is a simple equation. If Manchester City can beat Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium, they will retain the trophy. Anything less for Pep Guardiola’s side, who are only one point clear at the top, and Liverpool could claim their third piece of silverware of the season by defeating Wolves at
Anfield. A draw would not be enough for manager Jurgen Klopp (left), irrespective of the result at the Etihad, as City boast the better goal difference by a margin of six goals.
despair, as each team play out their struggles to the bitter end. Eight of the 10 fixtures are freighted with significance. Only the last day of the 1995-96 season had more riding on it. City’s battle with Liverpool will take pride of place, as it should. This has been an unforgiving battle between two magnificent sides and however often Guardiola may suggest there is a national bias towards Liverpool, and however often it is mentioned that Saudi Arabia’s purchase of Newcastle has thrown fresh scrutiny over Abu Dhabi’s control of City, few could deny that Guardiola’s side are a dream to watch.
Liverpool have the Footballer of the Year, Mo Salah, in their ranks. City have the Premier League Player of the Year, Kevin De Bruyne, and the newly crowned Young Player of the Season, Phil Foden, decorating their team. Multiple players, on both sides, could have won either honour. It is a measure of their respective merits, the beauty that both teams bring to the field, that the battle between them should go down to the last day. Guardiola said he always knew that it would.
Just over 10 years on from what many consider the greatest final day of all, City fans are hoping they can win without quite the same
levels of stress as 2011-12, when they came from behind to beat QPR and seal their first title since 1968.
It is to be hoped, too, that as the game reels from the recent spate of pitch invasions and assaults on players and managers, there are no more problems today. Armies of fans will be on the move again, emotions will be running high and precedents, sadly, have been set.
It is also worth remembering, as we slaver in anticipation of the day that lies ahead, as Tottenham try to hold off Arsenal for fourth place, as Leeds travel to Brentford desperately hoping they will be able to get a result that allows them to climb above Burnley and escape the drop, that this is a league worth protecting and fighting for.
There is much that is wrong with the Premier League, their redistributive model and the way they treat their fans, but there is much to celebrate about it, too, and that rarely feels more obvious than on climactic days like this. Which is why it is pertinent to point out that this is the same league that our leading clubs have twice tried to ruin in the past two years.
Both Project Big Picture and the European Super League, which were backed by Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs, would have changed the face of the
Premier League for ever and transformed English football into an altar for the greed of their owners by creating a closed shop at the top of the game.
We are fortunate in this country that the vociferous opposition of supporters unnerved our clubs to the point where they abandoned the projects. And their attempts to destroy the competitive balance of the league focused attention on the need to protect it and try to ensure they can never try to ruin it again.
This season has been momentous for many reasons but it may yet come to pass that its greatest legacy will be the progress made towards a seismic change in the governance of our game with the incoming appointment of an independent regulator.
The game needs to be protected from itself and even
though the Premier League are now offering concessions in their desperation to avoid regulation, it is too late. Their owners betrayed the trust of the fans too many times to believe them now.
If it were up to them, there would be no days like today. The jeopardy in most of these battles that we are revelling in would not exist. There would be no fight to qualify for the Champions League because the Champions League would not exist. The integrity of the whole Premier League would have been destroyed.
That is just one of the reasons why the battles that unfold on the pitch today are worth savouring. It is a day to celebrate our league, to celebrate the teams built by City and Liverpool and to hope the greed of owners who would have killed their golden goose is kept at bay.