The race for fourth – the North East decides
Wigan’s defeat at Arsenal last night saved Tottenham’s Danny Rose from a rather uncomfortable last day of the season.
The young left back has been on loan at Sunderland this season and they meet Spurs on Sunday at White Hart Lane.
If Wigan had repeated their impressive victory of last year at the Emirates on Tuesday night, it would have left them just one point behind Sunderland.
It would have been fascinating to see exactly where the player’s loyalties lied, whether they were with his contracted club Tottenham who have to win to maintain any chance of Champions League football next season or with the team he has starred for all year.
Fortunately for Rose he has been spared this predicament but his Tottenham team mates are now praying that Newcastle can miraculously rediscover their form of last season and do them a massive favour by not losing to Arsenal.
It’s always difficult to know how results will go on the last day. Some feel it’s better to play against a team needing points because the tension of the situation may inhibit their play, others that if a team has nothing to play for the freedom of having the shackles off will release a team to express themselves and play at their best.
We’ve seen examples of both in recent weeks with the champions Manchester United not quite hitting their peak in the first half against Arsenal or for much of the game against Chelsea.
Whilst Swansea demonstrated at Wigan and indeed even in defeat at Old Trafford that although they were basically just fulfilling their fixtures they were keen to do so by maintaining their standards.
Newcastle and Sunderland now find themselves in the position of being the two teams who can affect the last major race to be decided in the Premier League this season.
Toon boss Alan Pardew has already added intrigue and been forced to retract comments that he didn’t care if Arsenal beat his side four nil, while no one can be entirely sure how Di Canio’s Sunderland will perform at White Hart Lane.
Whichever team does claim the last Champions League place we should all hope that their isn’t the bad taste that was left after the final day last season, when a dubious first and last goalkeeping performance for West Brom by Marton Fulop effectively handed third position to the red half of North London.
The news that Newcastle’s number one Tim Krul is injured and his back up Rob Elliott will miss the game due to suspension will doubtless set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of White Hart Lane.
Allen Whyte
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