Chelsea Deservedly Wins the Title

Well, the season is over and Chelsea, deservedly, has won the title. Entering into Sunday's final game, Chelsea needed a win over Wigan to win the Premier League title. Not only did they win, they put up and 8 spot and won 8-0. Just complete domination. Not that Wigan is the toughest team in the league, but 8?! That's always impressive. Of course, once a team is down by 4 or 5 and its in the second half, are they even trying anymore? The game didn't matter to Wigan. Of course they wanted to win, but they didn't have much riding on the line, not like Chelsea at least. So once you are down by 4 in the second half and it's the last game of the season, what's your inspiration for continuing to put forth much effort? Four, eight, who cares? All the players want is for the 90 minutes to be up so they can leave for their summer holiday in Ibiza.

But Chelsea was deserving of the title. They ended up beating Manchester United by a point. The next closest team, Arsenal, was ten points behind United. So it was really a two-horse race by the end of the season. But Chelsea was more deserving of the title because they beat United both times they played this season. It's actually sort of like Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga. Barcelona currently leads Real Madrid by 1 point in the standings and there is one game to play. However, no team in La Liga is even close to Real and Barcelona. They lead by almost 30 points over third place Valencia. That lead, in and of itself, brings to light many of the current problems in La Liga. No two teams should be that much better than the rest of the clubs in the league. That aside, if Barcelona somehow slipped up this weekend and Real won, Real would win the title. But Barcelona beat Madrid both times they played this season. So as a Madrid fan, I actually don't really want Barcelona to lose. Perhaps that doesn't make me a "true" fan as I should always want a title, no matter how we get it. But what's the satisfaction of winning the title if you lost both times to the team that finished in second? You won, but you would know that when it mattered, the other team was better than you, they just had one more lapse than you did. If anything, it would just give you an undeserved boost of confidence. There would be a false sense of accomplishment which could be more destructive than anything. Consistent champions don't get there by other teams losing. Sometimes they need the help of other teams and they need them to lose. But champions get there by winning and beating those other teams. Although its always sweet to see your rival lose and its bitter to see them win the championship, it's better than winning the championship but feeling unsettled about it because you know you didn't quite earn it.

Granted, I realize that the Premier League was much different than La Liga. There were a lot of quality teams, not just two teams like in La Liga. One could argue that Man U was deserving of the title because they beat Manchester City both times they played this season, and Manchester City beat Chelsea both times they played this season. Thus, Chelsea "giving" Man U the title by losing is different than Barcelona giving it to Madrid. Maybe I'm off and maybe any championship, no matter how it comes, should be celebrated. I understand if its the Champions League or the World Cup, because that's different. And it's not the championship wouldn't be celebrated, but it wouldn't be that special. When you already have twentysomething league titles, what's so special about one more if it comes as a result of your rival losing, but not because you could beat him? Maybe there is satisfaction and I'm just not seeing it. Regardless, the season is over and Chelsea finished on top. And its tough to argue with the fact that Chelsea deservedly won the title.


Here is Chelsea's impressive finish of the season. All 8 goals in 2 minutes.