Good Afternoon, everyone, we’re already headed towards the conclusion of Premier League season 2018/19, and as the Premier League title race is getting more interesting each week, today I’ve decided to write this article on some closest Premier League title race finish. After the end of yesterday’s Premier League matches, we’re now just 6 Gameweek away to find the new English Premier League champion. Since the start of this season’s Premier League, it has been the 3 horse race but after Tottenham lost 4 out of their last 6 Premier League matches, they are now out of the Premier League title race. Now it’s only Manchester City and Liverpool who are fighting for this season’s Premier League title. Many times in the past, we witnessed many teams who looked more confident to win the league failed at the late fixtures and handed the title to the others in a very dramatic way. Without further ado, let’s have a quick look on some closest Premier League title endings which were decided on final day of the league or before on 2-3 Gameweeks.
2011/12 Season
The date 13 May 2012 will always be going to remember as the biggest day in the history of the Manchester City and also in the history of English Premier League. It was the day when Citizens were crowned first time as England’s top division league winner in nearly over four and half decades in English top division League. The Premier League season 2011/12 was the most dramatic season in the history of Premier League. After the end of GW32, Manchester United were 6 points ahead of their city rival Manchester City. All the drama started from the GW33 matches, Wigan beat Manchester United by 1-0. In GW35 matches, Manchester United threw the 2 goals against Everton and ended the match 4-4 at Old Trafford. Manchester City won all of their matches from GW33 and took advantage of United’s failure. After the end of GW35, City were just 2 points behind the Manchester United and they were facing Manchester United on GW36.
On GW36 both clubs from Manchester were in the do or die situation, both teams were in the huge pressure situation ahead of that match. In the famous Manchester Derby, City’s Captain Vincent Kompany scored the only goal of the match at the added time of the first half and took Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table in terms of better goal difference. With that Kompany goal, Manchester City made the league double over Manchester United. In the earlier meeting in October 2011. Manchester City registered the 6-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, which was the biggest ever win over Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Premier League. Both teams won their respective matches on GW37 and in GW38, we were headed towards one of the most dramatic climaxes in the history of Premier League.
On GW38 Manchester City played against the relegation-battling team QPR at home and Manchester United played against away to Sunderland at Britania Stadium. Manchester City only needed to win in their last match with any scoreline to win the title but Manchester United needed a win of at least 8 or more goals to win the title in case of city won their match against QPR. When the match of Manchester United won the match at Britania Stadium, City found themselves 2-1 behind against the 10-men QPR. Just as Manchester United were celebrating the title-win at Britania Stadium, and clock hits 90th mark at Etihad Stadium, Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko scored the brilliant header at 91st minute and levelled the match to 2-2 and at 93rd minute, Sergio Aguero scored the brilliant goal and helped Manchester City to win their First Ever English Premier League title. Roberto Mancini boys snatched the Premier League title from Sir Alex Ferguson’s side and won the league title just 2 minutes before the end of Premier League seasons 2011/12. Manchester City became the first team ever in Premier League to win the title in terms of better goal difference.
1994/95 Season
In the second closest Premier League title race, I’m picking the Premier League title race of 1994/95 which was ended just a year before I was born. In the 1994/95 season also, Manchester United ended as the runner-up in the last league game of the season. In a very dramatic last day of the 1994/95 season, Blackburn Rovers were two points ahead of the last two season’s Premier League winner Manchester United. All Manchester United supporters were praying for Blackburn to lose their match at Anfield against Liverpool and hoping for United to win their match against West Ham.
Both of their matches were started at the same time, Alan Shearer scored his 34th goal of the season and the first goal of the match against Liverpool in the 20th minute to hand the very important lead for the Blackburn Rovers. On another match, Manchester United found themselves a goal behind West Ham. Micheal Hughes scored the brilliant half-volley from inside of the box to give early blow for Manchester United. The first-half ended Blackburn leading over Liverpool by 1 goal and Manchester United trailing by 1 goal against West Ham.
As the second-half started, Brian McClair scored the leveling goal for Manchester United in the 52nd minute, he utilized the brilliant cross from Gary Neville on free-kick and scored the header from very close range. As the clock hits an hour mark, both teams were playing 1-1 draw on their respective matches. On 64 minute at Anfield, Liverpool striker John Barnes scored the leveling goal with 1 touch finish from inside of the box for Liverpool. Just a few moments later, Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was brought down by the Blackburn midfielder David Batty inside the d-box, but the referee David Elleray completely denied the Liverpool’s appeal for the Penalty.
In another match, Manchester United kept pushing harder at the front to score the leading goal but somehow West Ham goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko kept making some brilliant saves and denied the Manchester United attack. The drama started when Blackburn Rovers found themselves behind in the 90th minute of the match, the Jamie Redknapp scored the beautiful curling free-kick from outside the box to upset the Blackburn supporters. As soon as Redknapp scored the goal for Liverpool, Blackburn fans and team staffs started to celebrate on the ground making a huge cheering sounds as they heard the outcome of other match was Manchester United 1- West Ham 1. The match ended at Liverpool 2- Blackburn 1 at Anfield. Despite losing the final match, Blackburn was crowned as a Premier League 1994-95 champion. It was like a dream for Blackburn supporters and was the biggest heart-breaking day for Manchester United supporters. The Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish was awarded manager of the season for helping Blackburn to end their nearly 8 decades old trophy drought.
2013/14 Season
The Premier League season 2013/14 is the recent Premier League season on my list to the closest title race ending. As soon as legendary manager Sir. Alex Ferguson retired from his managerial role as Manchester United manager, Liverpool who never won the Premier League title during the Sir Alex’s reign at English Football as Manchester United manager, enjoyed most of their time at top of the 2013/14 season. Despite having 8 match suspension, their star striker Luis Suarez ended the season as top scorer with the 31 goals but his 31 goals couldn’t succeed to bring the glory to Liverpool’s supporter that year.
Though the early tournament favorite Manchester City won the Premier League 2013/14 under their new manager Manuel Pellegrini, Liverpool who finished on 7th place on previous year surprisingly played the way better football that year. They also enjoyed most of their time at top of the table on that season. What surprises most of the Premier League fan that season is Manchester City only remained at top of the Premier League for just 2 weeks in the entire season but succeeded to snatch the title from Liverpool's hand. After the end of GW33, Liverpool were 4 points ahead of the Manchester City and 2 points ahead of second place Chelsea. Manchester City still had two games on hand to recover that 4 point gap with Liverpool. When Liverpool faced Manchester City at Anfield on GW34 at Anfield, everyone thought the winner of the match will ultimately end their season as a Premier League winner.
In a very dramatic match at Anfield against Manchester City, Liverpool won the 5 goals thriller by 3-2. Despite City comeback from 2 goals down and leveled the match in the second half, Liverpool's Phillipe Coutinho’s powerful shot on the later stage of the match done the job for Liverpool that day. He took the full advantage on Kompany's poor clearance and beat Joe Hart with a beautiful curling shot. As the referees blew the final whistle of the match, all Liverpool players and fans started the Chant “We are gonna win the League ”. Liverpool won their next match against Norwich and registered the 11th straight Premier League win.
Manchester City played disappointing 2-2 draw at home against Sunderland. After the end of GW35, Chelsea was 5 points behind Liverpool at second place and City was 9 points behind Liverpool with 2 games on hand. On GW36 Liverpool was playing against second-place Chelsea and they had a great chance to extend their lead to 8 points with Chelsea. When the match just reached to the added time of first half, the infamous Gerrard Slip happened and Liverpool disappointedly lost the match by 2-0 at home. After the end of GW26 matches, Chelsea were just 2 points behind Liverpool while City’s chance to win the League increased as they won both of their GW36 matches and reduced the point to just 3 points from Liverpool with 1 game in hand. As City’s goal difference was way better than Liverpool’s goal difference, City had a great chance to win the 2nd Premier League title in 3 years in terms of better goal-difference on both occasions.
On Gameweek 37 both Liverpool and Chelsea played their respective matches and the third-place Manchester City registered a win on both of their GW37 matches and reached at the top of the table with 3 point advantage over second-place Liverpool. While trying to score more goals on Crystal Palace goal post at Selhurst Park, Liverpool wasted their 3 goals advantage and ended the match disappointedly by the scoreline of 3-3. That result made easier for Manchester City to win the title on the final day of the season. On the final day, Manchester City just needed one point against West Ham at home to win the title for the second time in the 3rd year. Manchester City won their final match by 2-0 with Nasri and Kompany's goal in front of 48000 spectators and won their 2nd Premier League title. Despite Liverpool ended their season with a win over Newcastle at home, they end the season at second place falling 2 points behind the champions Manchester City.
2018/19 Season
I know there are still 6 game weeks left to end the 2018/19 Premier League season. But the way this season is heading towards its climax, I'm 100 percent sure that this season will also end in the same as I explained the previous 3 at above. As we are headed towards the conclusion of this season, the title race is becoming more and more interesting each week. Manchester City is in very hot form at the moment and with the win over Cardiff on a mid-week match, they’ve now registered the 13th consecutive Premier League wins and again reached at the top of the table. It’s the 24th time this season’s Premier League that any team have replaced the first place and represent themselves on the top of the table. After the end of GW32 matches, Manchester City is just 1 point ahead of the second place Liverpool. A few months ago, It looked Liverpool is going to end their longest drought to England top division league. They had a great chance to extend their lead to 10 points over second-place Manchester City but after series of 3 draws in their away matches and 1 draw at home vs Leicester City, Manchester City eventually catch up Liverpool with 13th consecutive win in the Premier League and reached at the top of the table with 1 point lead over Liverpool.
The last season’s Premier League winner and current Leader Manchester City have already won this season’s Carabao Cup, they already reached the semi-final of this season’s FA Cup and also the quarter-final of the Champions League. If they win all the competition, they will become the first English club to achieve quadruple. Manchester City was so closed in 2013/14 season for quadruple but after their defeat against Wigan in the FA Cup final and Barcelona in Champions League, Manchester City ended the season 2013/14 with only two trophies. In England, only Liverpool in 1983/84 and Manchester United in 1998/99 have done a treble in one season.
Out of 6 games, Manchester City still has the two big games left against current top6 teams. They have a home game against Tottenham at GW34 and an away game against Manchester United on GW35. While Liverpool has only one game left to play against the current top 6 sides. On GW35 they will host Chelsea at home but as the way Wolverhampton have played so far this season in the league, they also can cause some problems for Liverpool on the final day of the season.
Both teams are giving their everything on the pitch to win this season's Premier League and at the current moment, it's very hard to predict who will end their season at the top.
Does Liverpool finally end their long Premier League drought this season or Manchester City successfully defend the title, don't forget to write your thoughts on the comment section.
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