Scratch My Back Time in the English Premiership

The photo finish in this season’s English Premiership League has created a very interesting scenario where those involved in the race for the top and fourth places find themselves doing their fiercest rivals favours, all in the name of the game. Champions Manchester United and their foes Manchester City, leaders Chelsea and London adversaries Tottenham Hotspurs and Merseysiders Liverpool will in the last three weeks of the season find themselves conducting night vigils in favour of their sworn enemies’ success, in an interesting turn of events not witnessed for a very long time in English football.

Paul Scholes’ last minute header at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday, coupled with Spurs’ inspired trouncing of leaders Chelsea hours later at White Hart Lane has triggered a very interesting scenario which will now see every match involving these teams attracting huge interest from those who would otherwise wish the most horrific and obscene defeat on them. Scholes solitary strike might have been recorded in one match, but it certainly had an effect on at least two other matches. One can easily contend that as the final whistle went in the Manchester derby, the euphoria caused by the goal osmosed into the London derby as Spurs built on that to beat Chelsea 2-1, and leapfrog City into fourth place.  Liverpool, who then beat ..., 3-0 on Monday night, also clearly derived inspiration from Scholes’ exploit as they kept their fight for 4^th place alive.

Fast forward one week and here is the interesting twist: As United take on Spurs at Old Trafford this Saturday afternoon, both City and Chelsea will find themselves doing the unimaginable: cheering on their erstwhile city antagonists. Chelsea will be hoping Spurs will help them put some breathing space between them and the chasing Red Devils, while City will pray United will help them get back into 4^th place by halting Spurs’ fairy tale run.

Despite facing the top 3 in their last 5 games, Harry Redknap’s men have proved their worth (just as Arsene Wenger challenged them to) and so far collected all 6 points on offer, ahead of the crunch tie at the Theatre of Dreams. Although success away to United has eluded Spurs over the years, the Londoners would not have asked for a better run up to the showdown, and their tails will be high.

And then there is Liverpool...

There is no secret to the intense rivalry between Man U and Liverpool, but guess what, the Merseysiders are United’s best bed mates to winning their fourth straight Championship. On the other hand, United can play a huge role in ensuring that Rafa Benitez’s Europa League semi finalists get another run in the prestigious European Champions league come August this year.

For that reason, on Saturday, the Kop will put its full force behind United and will be tempted to risk the injured Fernando Torres replacing the troubled and misfiring Wayne Rooney in the United attack, if only for this match. So in love are Liverpool’s followers with the European Cup that they must be willing to help United go one better than them in terms of league titles.

A Spurs win on the other hand, will imply victory at at least two fronts: the decimation of United’s title challenge to the joy of The Blues of London, and a guarantee for Champions league football for Redknap and co, to the obvious chagrin of Liverpool and City. Whichever way it goes, it will not be just the winners of the tie who will be popping champagne.

Suppose United scratch Liverpool/City’s backs and dethrone Spurs on Saturday, the tables will turn 2 weeks later, when Liverpool host Carlo Ancelotti’s Blues at Anfield. It is many a pundit’s verdict that the penultimate clash at Anfield will be the decider, not just of the Championship, but the English representation in the 2010/11 Champions League. The Reds of Manchester and Liverpool will once more be forming an alliance to defeat the Blues of London and Manchester’s cause. The Citizens will find themselves switching allegiance and routing for a Chelsea win, just as Spurs will also be expecting a huge favour from the Roman Abramovich owned side. If they would have succeeded in beating or even holding United at Old Trafford, Spurs will certainly be demanding nothing less than their pound of Liverpool’s flesh from Chelsea.

Talk of Unholy Alliances...

I see Gunners Thru...

This weekend, Zim’s 4 reps in continental football, Gunner, Dynamos, Caps Utd and Lengethens return to the African Safari with very mixed chances of going thru.

It is expected to be done and dusted for traditional giants, De-Mbare, given their crucial win in the DRC against FC Lupopo. It will be a real shocker if De-Mbare were to fail to sail thru.

Kepekepe made life difficult for themselves for failing to come to the party against neighbouring Moroka Swallows. However, matches between Zimbabwean and SA teams are always difficult to predict, and they may be able to salvage something across the Limpopo. Remember Ajax and Monos last year?

I find it difficult to even start talking about the not so Happy People of Lengthens. It will be one of the greatest comebacks of my football supporting life is by some unimaginable chance, we will still talking about them in the next round of the Confed Cup. They trail 3 – 0 going into an away leg to Simba SC of Tanzania. Well, their game was over by half time in the first leg.

The most poised match for me is the Gunners – Alhy match at the Cairo International Stadium in Egypt on Friday night. I know not many are very keen on Gunners chances going into this game, which is understandable given Alhy’s pedigree on the continent. In fact, I was taken aback by the seeming silence by the mainstream continental football media on Alhy’s loss at Rufaro. It seems they were all saying, “Well, it’s just a slip up away from home, they will recover back in Cairo”. And they (Alhy) indeed are expecting it to be an easy overturn.

Even after putting patriotism aside, I have this hunch about Gunners actually dumping Alhy out of this one, to make the importance of Maroto’s goal at Rufaro finally dawn on everyone. After watching them at Rufaro, not that they played anything out of the ordinary Gunners game, I just felt that Gunners have what it takes to dump Alhy out of this year’s competition, and shock the footballing continet.

This match kind of reminds me of the Dynamos – Etoille du Sportive Sahel match of March 2008. Etoille, were the defending Champions when they came to face De Mbare at Gwanzura. De Mbare played a very ordinary game, and some might even say they survived as the then dangerous teen Charmiti missed a number of seaters in the Etoille front line. Just like Gunners, De Mbare ground out a 1 – 0 win, courtesy of a Desmond Maringwa header.

Going to Tunis, many thought 1 – 0 was no toll order for Etoille to overhaul. Guess what the final scoreline was, 0-1 in favour of De Mbare, Maringwa again. Goalkeeper Willard Manyatera played arguably the best game of his entire career to date. This was most unexpected and made headlines. Only the Die hard De Mbare fans expected a win out of Tunis, a draw would have been good enough. Just to put the feat into perspective, Etoille had won the Cup in 2007 by overhauling Alhy 3 -1 in Cairo, with Charmiti starring.

Can Gunners re-write the De Mbare script? Maybe in exact words, but a favourable result is in sight. There is no doubting that Maroto might strike again in Cairo, and that is going to make life tuff for Alhy. They will get into this game expecting Gunners to park the pass and absorb the pressure, but I am sure Darlington Dodo will know better than that. In Tafadzwa Dube, they also have a potent match winner between the posts. By their body language at Rufaro, Alhy don’t expect a tuff time in Cairo, but Gunners are capable of frustrating them, and frustrated they can be. This will be the chance for the unheralded Gunners players to rise to be counted in African football, and just like the De Mbare fairy run to the semis in 2008, this may just be the result Gunners need to perform an unprecedented act in their debut season in African football. Most importantly for Zhuwawo and co, if they loose, its no big deal, but if they win...? So why not?