THE CIRCUS

The Club Football Circus finally leaves town(for a while, anyway)

The first of two final-day title deciders this weekend saw CHELSEA hold off the Manchester City challenge to claim their fifth successive Women’s Super League crown. While the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool all had their moments throughout another successful WSL season, it was the well-established big two in the women’s game who pulled clear during the winter and served up an engrossing finale to the campaign, writes Neil Southwood.

After such dominance it was a slight surprise that each side stumbled during the final few weeks with the finish line in sight. Chelsea fell to a last-minute 4-3 defeat at Liverpool, seemingly handing the initiative to Man City who had put together a 14-match winning run. They looked in control at home to Arsenal a week later, leading 1-0 with just two minutes of normal time to play. Two Arsenal goals in three minutes however threw the title race wide open once again. Later that day Chelsea thrashed Bristol City 8-0 to gain the crucial edge on goal difference. They then successfully negotiated their game in hand away at Spurs to hold the initiative going into the final day. They would face the trickiest fixture of the two though – away at Old Trafford to the newly-crowned FA Cup winners.

Chelsea fans and quizzers who had backed them need not have feared. A goal within the first 2 minutes settled any remaining nerves and they cantered to the title from that point on. A thumping 6-0 victory made Man City’s narrow 2-1 win at Aston Villa redundant. The defending champions were ruthless when they needed to be, spearheaded by British record signing Mayra Ramirez who played a part in all four first-half goals that effectively settled the outcome. The two sides finished with identical records – 18 wins from 22 games – but crucially Chelsea’s goal difference was seven more than Man City’s. City will look back ruefully at the absence for the final three games of their injured top scorer Bunny Shaw and the impact she might have had during the run-in.

A fitting finale for Chelsea’s departing manager Emma Hayes, who won her 14th major honour in 12 seasons at the club! Her dominance in the English domestic game will be a hard act to follow and it will be fascinating to see whether the dynamic of the women’s league changes as she heads to the States. Will next season be the moment that the chasing pack finally strike or will the Hayes legacy continue for a while yet?

TWO points was Man City’s margin of victory at the end of the Premiership season as it had been ninety minutes earlier. Sounds tense as if Arsenal, unbeaten domestically in 2024,could still win it? But City were playing West Ham, already on the beach and with a manager with a fresh P45 in his pocket. Foden’s magnificent early goal put the margin up to four for a while; Arsenal went behind and to the consternation of quizzers who’d imagined a close finish, the margin was now at five. Arsenal 2024 are made of sterner stuff than Arsenal 2023.The Gunners equalized(margin back to 4),Arsenal take the lead(margin returns to 2).Without a care for news from London, the City crowd surrounded the pitch for an invasion that would inevitably send their heroes down the tunnel. The rest of the country looked on gloomily as they calculated that the punishments City should earn for financial malpractice would dwarf the points deductions handed out to Everton and Notts Forest. But are the Premiership too scared to make City play by the same rules as the rest?

The Circus Is In Town(Nigel Anderton)

On Friday 24 May, The Guardian declared in an exclusive that Erik Ten Hag would be sacked as the Manchester United manager, regardless of the next day’s FA Cup Final result against Manchester City. At that point I started to hum and sing the first lines of Bob Dylan’s ‘Desolation Row’; ‘they’re selling postcards of the hanging’. Whatever happened in the match, it would inevitably be overshadowed by the undignified speculation surrounding United’s beleaguered manager. And anyway, surely the 7/1 shots United had no chance against the newly crowned Premier League champions?

Sport has a way of making fools of ‘certainties’ and ‘sure things’ as many of us have found out to our cost. When the game started City soon got into their passing game, dominating the ball possession while United sat back in a solid defensive shape. For all their first half territorial advantage, City rarely threatened Onana’s goal. The presence of World Cup winners Varane and Lisandro Martinez gave United a solid, competitive centre and blunted the threat of Haaland. Bernado Silva, Foden, De Bruyne et al huffed and puffed but it was their opponents who scored twice before half time to take a well deserved lead. The first from Garnacho was a simple tap in after Gvardiol and Ortega got in a muddle and the Croatian defender headed a long ball over his advancing goalkeeper. The second goal was one of the best seen by this writer in over 60 years of watching FA Cup Finals. Fernandes’ disguised pass to Mainoo and the nonchalant pass across Ortega into the net was sublime. Pep brought on Doku and Akanji at half time then Alvarez ten minutes later. Yes Doku made an impact down the left wing and scored but the feeling was that United were in control and deserved the victory.

It would be wrong to question Guardiola’s team selection and see that as the reason for City losing the final. Rather, after having to endure a season of criticism and ridicule from ‘pundits’, the preparation, tactics and determination of Erik Ten Hag, his backroom staff and players should be applauded. Up in the posh seats, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the multi billionaire CEO of INEOS and also now delegated with responsibility for football management at Manchester United watched on. Alongside Sir Alex Ferguson. Perhaps Sir Jim might do well to consider the similarities between United’s position in 1990 and 2024. When Mark Robins scored a vital FA Cup goal at Nottingham Forest, United went on to win the cup and Sir Alex stayed at Old Trafford to build a dynasty. United were in a much worse position then than they are today.

So MANCHESTER UNITED won the 2024 FA Cup and THREE goals were scored during the game.

Remember the heady days of March when clubs from the self styled” best league in the world” were favourites for the three European Cups. Man City would surely retain their title; Liverpool were the shark eating up minnows in the second tier and the Premiership surprise package Aston Villa would be good enough for the third Cup. Only Villa survived the quarter finals and they were pulverised in the semis. Some consolation perhaps that all three were beaten by the eventual winners.

City’s hopes were ended by Real Madrid but only in a penalty shoot-out and the SPANISH champions went on to beat two German sides and extend their record in the Champions League.

The vultures circled over the Crucible as they do over so many sporting arenas these days. There was talk of a breakaway tour. Senior statesman John Higgins believes that the Crucible, home of the World Championship for fifty years, will be retired before he is. The dread words Saudi Cash were in the air. Enjoy the World Championship in Sheffield.

The winner, Kyren Wilson, was winning for the FIRST time though keen form students will haver noted that Kyren has been in four of the seven semi finals. He becomes the seventh different winner of the Worlds in the last ten years so odd that so many of you quizzers had chosen FORMER.

What happened to Trump and O’Sullivan the bookies favourites who had monopolised so many of the season’s tournaments? Both went out, rather tamely at the quarter final stage, saving us from more of Ronnie’s remorselessly self obsessed interviews. Trump is devastating over the usual weekly sprint over best of seven but vulnerable over the longer distance.