Boularouz hands Premiership to Manchester United

By: Daryl | May 6th, 2007

Chelsea could only draw 1-1 with Arsenal today, handing the Premiership title to Manchester United. It wasn’t what they needed but 1-1 was a decent result after comedy defender Khalid Boularouz gave away a penalty (which Gilberto scored) and got himself sent off in the 43rd minute. Ten man Chelsea pushed on and Michael Essien equalized with a second half header to set up a frantic finale, but it wasn’t to be. Sky Sports interview Sir Alex Ferguson above, where he takes a nice big sip of champagne.

Hats off to Man Utd for this season, they’ve been as consistent as Chelsea (which is what they’ve lacked the last couple of seasons) but they’ve also been a joy to watch at times, especially with Cristiano Ronaldo in full flight.

The big game on Wednesday between Manchester United and Chelsea has now had all the air taken out of it, so instead of a ding dong title decider it will be Manchester United’s coronation, with Chelsea players looking on thinking about what might have been.

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Category: English Premier League, World Football

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willkill4food

Something has been troubling me since watching the match, and it wasn't Boulahrouz, if only because I wrote him off long ago as a lost cause who will leave in the summer. Its the current state of Arsenal. I hope I am not the only one that thought their performance was sub-par.

Now, Gunners will be the first to bring up their injury problems, but if one looks at the players that missed the match on both benches, the list is quite even. Drogba, Robben, Ballack, Sheva, Carvalho and Ashley Cole were all missing from the derby for the Blues. For the gunners it was Henry, Van Persie, Rosicky, Ljungberg, and Walcott. One could even argue that Chelsea's absentees were more damaging than Arsenal's, or that Arsenal have been missing these players for months and by now should be used to the starting XI they fielded at the Emirates.

But even without any fighting over technicalities, what I saw was undeniable. I saw 11 players in red being outclassed by 10 players in blue, in a stadium full of red. How did this happen? I have heard some fans saying that Arsenal were content just denying Chelsea the title, but I think that is just an excuse.

Tell me, is Arsenal the cultured/southern/foreign version of Bolton or Blackburn, hoping to take a point or two off of the top teams while at the same time beating mid to lower table teams? I admit that if this is the case they would do it prettier than either Bolton or Blackburn. But someone please explain to me what is going on at the Emirates.