The Home Straight – But who will take the league titles?

By: Rob | March 20th, 2010

We’re entering that wonderful part of the season, where every game matters because the title is on the line. Unless, you watch the SPL. Anyway, the title races this years are really hard to call. In France any one of six teams could win the league. The Premier League is still a three horse race. Barca and Real are level pegging. And in Italy, Inter are desperately trying to give local rivals Milan a chance at winning the title.

So here’s a league by league run down of what’s going on, and then you can have your say on how each of the leagues is going to end.

Ligue 1
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Secretly, Ligue 1 has become the most open league in all of Europe while no-one was looking. Bored of Lyon’s dominance a couple of years ago, most people looked to Germany to become Europe’s next big league. But last season seemed to be an exception – and this season even more so. I mean – just look at that. Marseille in sixth have just three points less than Bordeaux, who sit top. They’ve played the same number of games too. Good luck predicting that one.

La Liga
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In La Liga, it is unsurprisingly, a two horse race. And its the two horses you would expect – Barcelona and Real Madrid. What is magnificently exciting, is that they are level. 65 points each. Don’t forget, in La Liga, its head-to-head results that decide placings at the end, not goal difference, so Zlatan Ibrahimović’s goal in the first leg of El Clásico might prove extremely important. As might the fact that Real have been dumped out the Champions League, while Barca fight on two fronts. The second El Clásico is going to be special. Also, nice to see Valencia in third and doing well after their recent troubles.

Premier League

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The Premier League has been criticised a lot in recent years for just having the same title winners – but this season’s race between three of the big four, is fascinating. Man United are two points clear of Chelsea and Arsenal, but have played a game more than Chelsea. Arsenal might have lost to Chelsea and Man United, but they’ve got the easiest run in (which means they’ve earned similar points from arguably harder matches), which means it genuinely is a three horse race. Chelsea being out of the Champions League now, might well play into their favour though.

Serie A

Serie A 200310
Serie A has turned into a bit of a one-horse race in recent years (though there was a closeish race a couple of years ago with Roma), but this year, Inter have done all they can to ensure there is a title race. When Inter flattened Milan at the start of the season, it seemed inconceivable that the latter could finish the season Champions, but that is football. Just a point behind their cross-town rivals, it’s going to be quite a race to the finish – with Inter still distracted by the Champions League, it could go either way.

Bundesliga

Its far from settled in Germany either. Bayern sit top, but only two points ahead of Schalke, who in turn are one ahead of Bayer Leverkusen. German football is beginning to show some strength again, just ask Italy, ever worried about that UEFA ranking.