So, it looks as though London will have to make do with Muhammed Al Fayed’s Fulham tribute to Michael Jackson, as the Egyptian’s golden gift to the club of which he is Chairman is the closest the capital is likely to come to silverware this season, now that Chelsea’s aspirations of reaching the Champions League Final at Wembley have been scuppered by Manchester United.
Arsenal, having crumbled in February’s Carling Cup Final against Birmingham City and been humbled in back-to-back campaigns by Barcelona in Europe, now trail league leaders United by seven points, with Chelsea another four back in third place and looking set to surrender their Premier League crown with little more than a whimper. Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League quarter-final second leg this evening seems a mere formality.
West Ham United fell to Stoke City at the quarter-final hurdle of the FA Cup a month ago today, while the Cottagers (they of the aforementioned Japanese “MJ” monstrosity) never looked likely to rival last year’s haul of UEFA Europa League Runners Up medals, although they may still earn another trip to see the Continent’s second favourite son, as they stand second to West London rivals Chelsea in the Top Flight’s Fair Play League, with the current Champions remaining on course for European football despite this season’s uninterrupted travails.
Having derided London teams’ chances, leaving aside the fact that QPR are Championship Champions-elect, one must add that the PFA Player of the Year awards still hold hope of rewarding individual endeavours in the Metropolitan area in 2010/11. Tottenham’s Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart are up for the top gong, together with Arsenal’s Samir Nasri and West Ham’s Scott Parker; London contributing the majority of a seven-man shortlist. Bale and Nasri are also in contention for the Young Player of the Year accolade, along with fellow North Londoner Jack Wilshere.
The emerging superstar’s Arsenal team-mates appear, on the surface, to have imploded as usual this year; ejected from three competitions inside a fortnight at the turn of March. However, a first win six at Bloomfield Road on Sunday allowed the Gunners to retain title ambitions, albeit unsupported by concrete confidence. If Arsene Wenger’s men were to beat Liverpool at Emirates Stadium this weekend, win their game in hand in the North London derby and turn the league leaders over at home, they will hold the edge once again over a team attempting to fight on three fronts.
Furthermore, if Chelsea, also boasting an extra game versus Birmingham at Stamford Bridge, and their strikeforce can belatedly discover their scoring touch in time to win all of their remaining fixtures, starting at former Fulham boss Roy Hodgson’s resurgent West Bromwich Albion this Saturday, then the remotest of possibilities will persist in this helter skelter season.
In fact, if United would just stop winning - even after giving teams two-goal headstarts - that would at least instil some form of faith down South that Sir Alex Ferguson’s luck is finally on the wane. London, it seems, may unfortunately be forced to endure that endemic outbreak long after their pandemic quest for trophies has next been quarantined.
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