Back when things were still astonishingly glorious at Leicester, before Claudio Ranieri could be found trying to choke out N’Golo Kante in his blue Chelsea shirt, Ranieri wrote an article for The Players’ Tribune where he made a prophesy that seemed to be, at the time, in jest.
Chelsea defeated West Ham on Monday to go 10 points clear at the top of the table with only 11 matches remaining. With Eden Hazard playing out of his goddamn mind, Diego Costa constantly threatening in every sense of the word and N’Golo Kante bossing things in front of the formidable pairing of David Luiz and Gary Cahill, the title race is over.
After appearing a shadow of his former self throughout the season, particularly over a wretched three-month period stretching from early December through late February when Wes Morgan outscored him by plundering a goal against Derby County, Riyad Mahrez sprang to life with a magical and all-important goal against Hull City on Saturday.
After twisting and turning at the top of the box, the Algerian scored his fourth goal of the Premier League season, lifting Leicester City five points clear of the relegation zone in the process.
From a neutral’s perspective, thank God for Harry Kane. The Tottenham striker scored his 18th and 19th goals of the campaign to keep a bit of pressure on Chelsea before their match against West Ham on Monday. Tottenham defeated Everton 3-2 on Sunday in a match featuring the Premier League’s leading scorers, Kane and Romelu Lukaku.
At the start of the season, Liverpool fans were filled a sense of cautious optimism. If it weren't for the fact that the club is in the midst of a 26-year drought since its last league title, the fan base may have actually dared to say that this would be their year to end what has been an agonize quarter century for the club with the second-most league titles in England.
It would have been hard to fault their confidence, as the stars seemed to align for something special to happen at Anfield this term.
In between weeks eight and nine of the 2015/16 Premier League season, Liverpool added to their list of great signings by bringing in former Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp.
Going into the 2016/17 Premier League Season, Liverpool had extremely high expectations. During the first half of the season, Liverpool saw a mixture of great results against high-caliber teams who had their hopes set on the title race. However, in 2017 Liverpool has seen a handful of mixed results that have set back their title race dreams.
This season could not be more quintessential Arsenal if it tried. From their annual shellacking by Bayern Munich in the round of 16 to their current standing of fourth in the Premier League, everything is going according to plan.
Hand in hand with these results are the seasonal calls for Arsene Wenger to leave and the questioning of the big-game ability of the majority of their squad, particularly the team’s highest-paid player (who’s also asking for more money), Mesut Ozil.
Newcastle United travelled to Brighton & Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium for a match between first and second in the English Championship. With the top two sides in the division earning automatic promotion to the Premier League, matches really don’t get any bigger than this.
Albion took the lead through Glenn Murray after Murray, Newcastle’s Ciaran Clark and goalkeeper Karl Darlow all clashed together in a clusterf**k of cliche Championship football, the referee pointing to spot.
Last year, on February 28, Louis van Gaal became a meme. It was bound to happen eventually. This is a man who once exposed himself to his Bayern Munich squad in the dressing room to make some kind of point no one understood, once booped a camera and once did whatever this is.