Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions without kicking a ball after Manchester United suffered a shock defeat to bottom-of-the-table West Bromwich Albion on Sunday afternoon.
Jay Rodriguez scored the only goal of the game as Darren Moore maintained his unbeaten start in charge of the Baggies, who despite taking four points from their last two games remain almost certain for relegation.
With just four games left to play the Midlands outift are nine points shy of seventeenth place Swansea City who also have a game in hand over both West Brom and nineteenth place Stoke City, who played out a 1-1 draw with West Ham United on Monday evening.
Old school
It was a tale of two English strikers at the London stadium with Peter Crouch coming off the bench to put Paul Lambert’s side in front on seventy-nine minutes while Andy Carroll followed suit in stoppage time having only been on the pitch himself for a few minutes.
The Hammers are now seven points clear of the bottom three while Stoke are five points from safety but move level with Southampton who will no doubt still be licking their wounds after squandering a 2-0 lead to lose to dethroned champions Chelsea.
Thrown away
Goals from Dusan Tadic and Jan Bednarek saw the Saints two up with an hour played though three goals eight minutes turned the result on his head, keeping the Blues’ feint hopes of climbing into the top half alive and leaving Mark Hughes’ side bang in trouble.
Swansea City are still looking over their shoulder after only managing to draw with Everton though Crystal Palace did their hopes of survival the power of good by beating rivals Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Eagles are now six points clear of the relegation zone and just a point shy of the Seagulls, who couldn’t have asked for a tougher run with a tough trip to Burnley coming up next weekend before they face each of the top three sides in the division.
Scrap
They do have a game in hand over some of their rivals though that is away at Tottenham Hotspur so you may be tempted to back them for relegation at a price of 9/1.
Huddersfield Town are, like West Ham and Brighton on thirty-five points following a 1-0 win over Watford while Burnley beat Leicester City to go three points clear of the Foxes in the race for sixth place.
Sean Dyche’s side have also made ground on Arsenal after they were beaten by Newcastle United on Sunday while Liverpool are just a point behind Manchester United after beating Bournemouth 3-0 – Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino all on the scoresheet.
Saturday’s action concluded at Wembley where Manchester City eased past Spurs 3-1 to give them the chance to clinch the title though even the most optimistic of City fan’s couldn’t have wished for matters to be resolved this soon after their derby defeat a week earlier.
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