It’s Chelsea & Manchester United

What a week to watch football! It’ll be Chelsea and Manchester United for the Champions League final, with Zenit St. Petersburg meeting Rangers in the UEFA Cup final. PSV, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Lyon and Inter have effectively wrapped up the league titles in Europe, with only Chelsea and Man Utd competing in the Premier League. It’ll be an interesting end to the season, particularly with the plotlines between the two English sides. But how did they get here?On Tuesday, United dispatched FC Barcelona with another professional performance. They were helped by a by-now-rare goal from Paul Scholes that shows he’s still got a bit of class. So excited was he that he even celebrated enthusiastically for a few seconds before once again setting his jaw and assuming his usual passive countenance. Barca deserved to go out, and their squad looks set to be dismantled in the coming months. Thuram, Zambrotta, Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Deco all look certain to leave, while there are also talks of Henry, Dos Santos, Abidal, Valdez, Marquez and others being part of the clear-out. For me, the real problem is the engine room, with Xavi and Iniesta too slow and predictable to provide the necessary incision. Barcelona increasingly look to Messi to save them, which he nearly manages. But the rot is too deep and the club need to overhaul the squad with younger, faster, hungrier players to augment the brilliant Messi and the promising Krcic. Finally, Valdez is a quality shot-stopper, but has been found out repeatedly by high balls into the box, with his positioning also letting him down. A new keeper would not be a bad idea.

United seem to have problems of their own. Despite grinding out the result against Barcelona, they were far from dominant and have allowed Chelsea back into the league title picture. Ferguson doesn’t seem to know his best team, because Giggs and Scholes shouldn’t be anywhere near it. In Andersson, they have Roy Keane’s heir, a tenacious box-to-box midfielder with plenty of energy and enthusiasm. Nani is already showing glimpses that he can adapt as Ronaldo did, and has caused teams plenty of problems. The same can’t be said for Giggs, whose Indian summer is officially at an end. United face their bogey team in West Ham this weekend, which may just hand Chelsea the title.

For their part, Chelsea have proven that they have the quality to win without a manager, and indeed in spite of one. Their mental strength is as impressive as their petulant and cynical behavior is abhorent. It’s instructive that most neutrals would prefer United win the title. But that’s looking increasingly unlikely with any United slip-up effectively handing it to Chelsea, who will also be full of confidence heading into the Champions League final. They’ve beaten Manchester United recently and are coming into form at the right moment.

It’s sure to go down to the wire, but Football Yobs thinks it’ll be Manchester United winning the Champions League and Chelsea taking the Premier League. You heard it here first.