Celtic have won the Scottish Premier title with four games to spare thanks to a dramatic and stunning injury time free kick from Shunsuke Nakamura away to Kilmarnock this afternoon.

The Celtic manager Gordon Strachan has now emulated his predecessor Martin O’Neill by winning back-to-back titles in his first two years at the club. Quite some achievement and one the blue half of Glasgow would love to have at the moment.

Following Rangers’ win yesterday over Hearts, The Bhoys had to win today if they wanted to win the title this weekend. It looked as though the Park Head team were going to have to wait for another week, then with two minutes of extra time already on the clock, up stepped Nakamura to send the travelling green and hopped fans into ecstasy. The champagne, which looked like it was on its way back to the fridge, was popped and the party began.

The next game for Celtic is a at home next Sunday against Hearts and there will be a carnival atmosphere for the parading of the trophy.

The Soccer Blogger

There will be huge sighs of relief all around Old Trafford this afternoon as Chelsea were unable to take advantage of Man Utd’s two dropped points yesterday. Chelsea were held to a 0 - 0 draw by Newcastle United at St. James’ Park.

It was a deeply frustrating afternoon for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea. Instead of closing the gap to just one point, the Blues remain 3 points adrift and the showdown on May 9th is starting to look like an absolutely must win game if Mourinho’s men are going to make it three titles in a row. Utd have a vastly superior goal difference and anything other than the three points will surely mean the trophy heading north.

To be honest Chelsea never really looked like winning today and looked below par, creating few chances. Although there could have been a dramatic ending had Joe Cole not missed only by a matter of inches in the dying seconds.

But overall, it was a poor game all round. Especially when you consider how important a game it was for Chelsea and the potential outcome of the title. It was not what we were expecting from a team that must have smelt blood yesterday evening. But as a result the Blues appear to have handed the initiative back to Man Utd less than 24 hours after they dropped what appeared to have been two vital points. The balance of power seemed to swing back to the King’s Road, well after this afternoon, it’s firmly back in Manchester.

I would love to see the race for title go down to the last day of the season. Man Utd host West Ham on the last day and I for one, as well as everybody else, (Utd, Chelsea and West Ham fans aside I imagine) would love to see a situation where both teams had to win. Utd to secure the title and West Ham to secure Premiership survival. Now that would be worth watching. And I could see it happening. Keep your fingers crossed!

The Soccer Blogger

Thank you Man Utd! If for some strange reason you hadn’t been looking forward to the last few games of the Premiership and the race for the title, and I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t have been, well Man Utd provided the perfect reason for you to last night when a battling Middlesbrough went to Old Trafford and held Utd to a 1 - 1 draw.

Chelsea play Newcastle this afternoon (Sunday) knowing that a win will suddenly place them only one measly point behind Man Utd. And what is even better is the two sides still have to play each other, on May 9th at Stamford Bridge. It was already looking like a potential Title Decider. It is now!!

Losing two points wasn’t Utd’s only bad news on Saturday as both Kieran Richardson and possibly more importantly, Rio Ferdinand picked up injuries. Sir Alex Ferguson said, “It’s a big task now. The injuries to Rio Ferdinand and Kieran Richardson killed us in the first half. But that was just the bad breaks you get in football, there is nothing you can do about it.” Very philosophical!

It all looked oh so different though as United took a very early lead after just 3 minutes when Kieran Richardson slotted home after Wayne Rooney had collected Paul Scholes’ pass and rounded Boro keeper Mark Schwarzer. The Old Trafford crowd (including he Boro fans) must have settled back into their seats after that expecting Utd to rack up another cricket style score. However, it didn’t arrive and in first-half stoppage time Boro deservedly equalised as Mark Viduka’s diving header beat Edwin van der Sar.

It didn’t get any better in the second half as United struggled to break Boro down. They can even be very grateful to their excellent goalkepper Van der Sar’s who saved to this time thwart Viduka from scoring a potentially disastrous (for Utd) winner.

Whilst Man Utd were trying to put even more excitement into the title race, at the other end of the table, the Premiership waved good-bye to Watford. The bottom team were relegated after a 1 - 1 draw at home to Manchester City. It was a game that Watford simply had to win to keep alive any hopes of, what would have been a miraculous, survival act. They failed and they first relegation position is sealed. Who will join them?

Well, West Ham aren’t going to give up without a fight, that’s for sure. After their 1 - 4 defeat to Chelsea at home during the week, they bounced back in style to dent Everton’s European dreams, defeating the Toffees 1 - 0 through a Bobby Zamora goal on 13 minutes.

The big relegation battle of the day, a true six pointer, was a The Valley where Charlton took on Sheffield Utd. Utd will have left feeling the happier after another 1 - 1 draw which saw them remain above the London club.

The Soccer Blogger

Well, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if David Dein did return, someday. He strikes me has being a very clever and patient man. He is also still a powerful man when it comes to the direction Arsenal will take. He still owns a sizeable shareholding in his beloved club (14.6%), a fact that won’t have escaped the remaining board members, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Dein used some if not all of this in conjunction with the American billionaire Stan Kroenke.

Things have already started to move as on Wednesday last week, the day Dein was removed, Kroenke increased his shareholding to 12.19%. Coincidence? Hard to say, but one thing I do know is if you combine those two shareholdings, the American would have a 26.79% stake and, according to the club’s constitution, he only needs 30% to invoke a mandatory takeover bid. I for one wouldn’t bet against him acquiring the remaining 3.21.%. You don’t become a billionaire my lying down and accepting defeat, do you?

Should Dein return you can bet that he would want Wenger to still be in charge of the team. Dein, who was instrumental in taking Wenger to the club, is known to be close to Wenger. However, it remains very uncertain as to whether the Frenchman would be there to welcome Dein back. Wenger was somewhat non-committal about his future once his contract contract expires in just over a years time. Avoiding the question directly, Wenger stated he just wanted to concentrate on the short term. Then again, suppose what else could he really say publicly.

It is understood that Wenger is extremely upset by Dein’s departure and from the way he handled his usual Friday press conference it was easy to see. He tried to put on a brave face and smile but quite frankly it looked and sounded hollow, at least to me.

The news didn’t really get any better for Wenger and Arsenal yesterday as the dropped two more points away at their north London neighbours and arch rivals, Tottenham. At the same time Liverpool were easing gently past a struggling Wigan at Anfield and, in so doing, were cementing their grip on third place. With all the upheaval going on in the boardroom, Arsenal must be very careful that those troubles do not transfer themselves to the pitch, which is very easy to do. Just look at Leeds for example! If Arsenal can’t divorce to boardroom from the pitch they could be in serious danger of losing out of fourth spot and next season’s Champions League. Dein leaving is a blow, missing out on the lucrative Champions League would be a disaster!

The Soccer Blogger

There must be something funny in the water in London at the moment. At least there appears to be at two of the capital’s top clubs. First there was to abrupt departure of Mr. Arsenal himself, Vice-Chairman David Dein and just before the weekend, Peter Keynon, the Chelsea Chief Executive, announced that Chelsea “promised not to sack Mourinho in the summer”. What a strange thing to say!

The quote states: “Jose has a contract until 2010 and he wants to stay. [Maybe he meant 8.10pm? Who knows these days?] We are not going to sack him, he has the club’s support. That’s the situation and we are agreed on it.”

This comes after reports during last week that a Chelsea delegation had flown to Los Angeles to have talks with the former Spurs player and German national coach Jürgen Klinsmann about potentially taking over the reigns at Stamford Bridge. There’s a real vote of confidence for Jose. No we’re not going to sack you but we’re just talking to other people about replacing you!

Some are saying that the comment “not to sack” Mourinho, was a kind of peace offering and public backing because of the talks with Klinsmann however, if that is true the offering appears to come with a few strings attached.

It can’t be ignored that despite their embrace after last weekend’s FA Cup semi-final win, the relationship between the owner and manager is still on the troubled side. Surely Kenyon’s statement is just s pre-cursor to talks still to come between Abramovich and Mourinho about the future.

It is very unfortunate and a sad reflection on the game that such words from a Chief Executive [not to sack] can not be taken as 100% true. Many fans may have been happy to hear those words but many more still will not be too surprised if Kenyon’s words don’t come true. And I for wouldn’t don’t blame their scepticism, would you?

Since that delegation flew to Los Angeles, Klinsmann has apparently stated he is not interested in returning to London. What will annoy certain fans is that Keynon has now said that no offer was made to the German. Really? Why fly all the way out to LA then? Shopping? Jürgen invite them to a BBQ?

Even though Klinsmann has appeared to right himself out of the equation, you can only expect all this rumour and speculation about Mourinho’s future on the Kings Road to continue. Hardly great preparation for the assault on an unprecedented four trophies, is it? I would imagine that Jürgen wasn’t the only name on Chelsea’s list. Surely such names as Rijkaard and Mancini are on it too. And until Roman and Jose meet and the Portuguese an puts pen to paper the big names will continue to be linked with the Chelsea managers job and the rumours will multiple.

I feel sorry for Jose, bless!

The Soccer Blogger