It has been a season littered with imperfections from Manchester City. Their first-choice goalkeeper was dropped after several high-profile...
It has been a season littered with imperfections from Manchester City.
Their first-choice goalkeeper was dropped after several high-profile rickets; their captain has made individual errors for which his side have been punished, with his defensive partner initially ridiculed for his lack of pace; their most potent striker has been able to start just half of their league matches, and the forward bought in the summer has now gone 15 games without a goal. This has been anything but plain sailing.
Then again, nor has it had to be. The most intriguing aspect of this thoroughly enjoyable title race is that every team has had an obvious flaw - City's key has simply been making less mistakes than others, or perhaps having the financial muscle to put polyfilla in any cracks that appear, whether through injury or form.
Despite it being preached from sections of the tabloid media insisting that Liverpool 'deserved' to win the title, such talk is cheap. Should City take at least a point against West Ham on Sunday they will win the league and deserve to do so.
The league table doesn't have a little note next to Liverpool's name revealing that 'they played awfully pretty stuff' or that Chelsea had 'insufficient quality in the final third'.
The final positions are calculated by points and nothing else matters - this is a race and not than a beauty contest. No offense to Liverpool or Chelsea.
In all likelihood we should be toasting a deserved championship success, Manuel Pellegrini's first outside South America and City's second in three seasons. The 'noisy neighbours' are now deafening their city rivals.
