Premiership Season 08/09 over

Here we are at the end of the premiership season. This by far has been one of the more interesting ones that I have witnessed. For the first half of the season we saw a relegation battle that had at least 8 teams in it at any one point. We saw some underachievers overachieving, surpassing even their own expectations. And as we have seen before, we saw Manchester united crowned champions of the Premier League for the 11^th time. A ridiculous number by any measure, when one considers how many years the league has been in existence (founded 1992). Their closest rivals this season were Liverpool Fc who trailed them at the end by 4pts.

Nicolas Anelka became the second Frenchman to win the golden boot with a tally of 19 goals, beating out Ronaldo’s 18. even though he might not get a trophy for this, Trinidad’s own Kenwyne Jones scored the last goal of the season. Not sure how much this will go to raising his stock.

Tottenham narrowly missed out on a Europa league spot after losing to Liverpool on the final day, but did well to finish 8^th after wallowing in the nether realms of the relegation battle for the first half of the season. (As a fan, I eagerly await the transfer window). Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham will be the English representatives in this newly renamed competition.

Of all the teams that were stuck in the relegation battle, none were impressive on a closing weekend when they all needed to shine, yet Sunderland (lost 3-2 to Chelsea) and Hull City (lost 1-0 to a third string Manchester United team) avoided the drop. Newcastle, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion weren’t so lucky. They will all be plying their trades in the English Football League Championships next season.