After three years of watching Manchester United lift the English Premier League title, Chelsea has returned to the top.
The Blues took care of their business on Sunday, drubbing Wigan, 8-0, to secure the league title and set off celebrations four years in the making.
Didier Drogba finished as the top scorer in the league, edging out Wayne Rooney with a late hat-trick to give him 29 goals on the season.
Manchester United fell one point short of its fourth straight title, with its 4-0 win against Stoke City on Sunday not enough to catch Chelsea.
Here are the highlights of Chelsea's title-winning rout (followed by more stories to get your Monday going):
———————–
SOUNDERS ISSUE REFUNDS AFTER LOSS
After suffering an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy in front of a packed house at Qwest Field, Seattle Sounders ownership decided the team's performance wasn't worth their fans having to pay for. Their response? Issuing refunds to season-ticket holders who had to sit through the debacle.
"We don't plan on giving people money back every time we have a bad game," Sounders co-owner and GM Adrian Hanauer told the Seattle Times. "But as the owners of the club, we reserve the right to do whatever we think we need to do to treat our fans the way they've treated us."
ROONEY LIMPS OFF
Manchester United star and England striker Wayne Rooney limped off during his team's 4-0 win on Sunday with a groin injury, an injury his club insists won't interfere with his World Cup plans.
ASH CLOUD THREATENS EUROPA PLANS
The return of the infamous volcanic ash cloud to European skies could lead to problems for the Europa League Final, which is set to feature Fulham and Atletico Madrid in Hamburg on Wednesday.
It wouldn't be the first time the ash cloud caused problems for Fulham. The Cottagers were forced to travel 895 miles by bus to play Hamburg in the Europa League semifinals, a match they tied 0-0.
NEW ZEALAND NAMES WORLD CUP SQUAD
The World Cup is still a month away, but New Zealand didn't waste any more time picking its squad. The Kiwis named their 23-man World Cup roster on Monday, with New York Red Bulls defender Andrew Boyens among the selections.
————-
What did you think of Chelsea's performance? Think Seattle's refund is a good idea? Worried about Rooney being hurt, or hoping it's serious?
Share your thoughts below.
Thanks your infinite wisdom. Since you know so much about everybody else, why don’t you just tell us all how it’s going to go down this year and nobody needs to play anymore.
But still, enjoy last place for a LONG while. Oh and btw, will YOU still be a supporter when “your” club becomes Baltimore United, or St. Louis United, or Atlanta United?
Probably not. You’ll just become a hater of everything DC and MLS. Clown.
And go get a dictionary so you know the def of pandering.
Talking about the bandwagoning Seattleite clowns who couldn’t stand up for the Sonics, and surely won’t stand up for the Sounders unless their FO Pays them to keep coming out to games. Don’t get it twisted “hooligan”. This flash in the pan with fizzle in due time. Enjoy the fixture congestion.
Well there hasn’t been quite a million at RFK this season but I’m pretty sure you and the 15,000 other clowns ARE drowning in frowns. But cheer up mate, at least you guys got a win this season! Plus you have Emilio back…
P.S. We’ll give you Vagenas for your first round pick too.
There is nothing classless about Chelsea putting in 8 goals at all. I don’t know how your Sunday league works, but goal differential does matter (and if memory serves it is the first tie breaker in the Premiership.)
If United tied and Chelsea had lost who know what happens. In pro soccer players are told to pour on the goals for this very reason; keep a superior goal differential. It’s why when Barca plays the bottom feeders they just keep pounding goals in until it’s 6 or 7-0. Pro sports if no place for hurt feelings. If you don’t wanna lose 8-0: defend better.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the person responsible for player morale and effort for Seattle. Those two things should be a given and reflect poorly on Sigi Schmid. He is way overrated as a coach. Sometimes teams win despite their coaches. I think Schmid’s leaving Columbus was an improvement for Columbus. Schmid’s teams nearly always develop problems with scoring. He has to be really pushed to focus on offense. Seattle is not anywhere near as bad they play offensively.
That’s a pretty good idea, but I would expand it to give the fans a choice. I’m sure they would pick having a quality player added to the roster.
You must be really desperate to show everyone your new phrase. Vindictive diatribe? This was not the appropriate situation to use it.
A class act by the ownership of a team who are trying to show their fans they appreciate their tremendous support, is NOT Vindictive diatribe. Your comparison and analysis was absurd.
He was integral in the push to end Civil War in the Ivory Coast during the last World Cup…and he donates 100% of his endorsement money to charity…I don’t think he’s THAT bad of a person.
(Keep in mind, this is coming from a Chelsea hater.)
All fair points. I’m not saying Drogba is a clear Player of the Year…I just think his name should have been in the discussion (and let’s be honest–it really wasn’t).
As for the Big Four, I put it in quotation marks because it’s now a debatable term. That said, I still think the point is relevant when you consider 3 of the 4 teams finished in the top three and the fourth made it to Europe…and one of the teams in question is that of the other player in this debate.
Drogba is an effing a-hole; I don’t care about his nationality… I can’t wait until he is out of the game. It’s so difficult to enjoy watching him play so skillfully when he deserves a couple fists in his face every time he takes the field.
Chelsea swept Man United
Barcelona swept Real Madrid
Assuming Barca doesn’t slip up this week the better team will win the title
Nuff said
I believe its going to be released at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, live on one of the ESPN channels.
right, and you’re a hooligan. Most of you guys are so infantile the only thing you can do is dig for insults or just plain make stuff up. Can’t take the truth in the twist of fate this season. First with the Swede getting bottles thrown at him, and now with the pandering.
My next guess is a collapse in Champions League, crushing loss in the Open Cup final, and missing the playoffs.
Still happily married btw, and she hates on bandwagoning Seattle dweebs just as much as I do. That’s why we left after all. Drowning in the frowns of a million clowns.
🙂
Pay no attention to him JJ. He’s just a Seattle basher. Anything done in Seattle and he’s got some snide comment about it. He’s just pissed that Chang didn’t think of it when really DC should have done it last year. Funny thing is he used to live here. Best I can figure is his wife left him or cheated on him here or something and now he hates all of Seattle.
You make a lot of comments for being so ill informed. Go to the Times sight and read the interviews. This whole thing DID start with Zak’s comments. And Hanauer accepted full responsibility for where the team is right now. He didn’t just lay it off on the players.
what a potty mouth on jj, who simply can’t handle the fact that it was all just marketing all along, but it’s only pimping or whoring when it isn’t his club.
Love the double standard there good buddy, you’ve fully earned your golf clap from me today.
Yeah, they’ve also got a USL player on the team. I’m surprised Duncan Oughton isn’t on the list. Is he injured?
Chelsea deserved this they finally got a squad together that could beat Man U. Well done blues.
its not just about the end result its about the style of play. Rooney was the only goal threat for united. Own goal was second for United. They often played a 4-5-1 with rooney on his own. Where a D is keyed to stop him. Where drogba gets the benifit of playing with lampard, kalou, malouda and anelka.
Also the “big 4” didn’t exist this year. I wish people would not use that.
Thanks for reading between the lines for us Dad … you are simply retarded for even comparing the 2 situations. Apples and Oranges bitch.
Everyone is frustrated. Fans, Players, Coaching Staff, FO, this was a great way to show they are not happy with what is being put on the pitch. This is about lack of heart, not lack of skill.
It should light a fire under the players, but the true test will come this weekend in NY.
I remember a lot of chumps saying DCU’s front office was “pandering” and “bribing” people with those discounted Open Cup final tickets and concessions…
It wasn’t marketing, it was “pimping”, etc, etc.
Now they applaud this blatant bribe. LOL.
As I said above, Drogba scored 28% of his team’s goals. Rooney scored 30%. Drogba had a hand in 38% of his team’s goals. Rooney had a hand in 34%. Chelsea beat the other “Big Four” 6 times this season. Drogba had 6 goals and 4 game winners in those games. I’d say this qualifies as heavy lifting, and I’m pretty confident Chelsea wouldn’t have won the league without him.
Yeah, that’s kind of my point. People don’t like Drogba. They criticize his attitude. (And no one will say this, but I think they see him as a “scary African”, while Mr. Rooney is a national hero.)
Again, my point isn’t that Drogba should have won–it’s that if everyone were impartial and objective, this should have been a much closer contest than it was.
Its crazy how new zealand has 2 semi pros, one is a professional banker in nz and the other plays for the Tampa bay rowdies of the usl 2nd div wow
Torn about Tyrone. He’s definitely the dumbest Sounder. He reminds me of Pong, in both a good way and a bad way. His own mates voted him defensive MVP last year, which is something. But then he’s a solid bet to make you scream at the tele at least once a game, and probably more.
Get rid of Montero? Yeah, a team with trouble scoring should bench its only scorer. The problem rests between the service and his foot, not his foot and the goal.
get rid of tyrone marshall – how many of his defensive mistakes have led to goals ? too many.
Ok, I find sounders fans exhausting, BUT that was cool move by the Ownership.
If RBNY had done that during 2009, we would have had a free season.
The idea actually came from a player. Steve Zakuani was the one who said Seattle fans shouldn’t have had to pay for that. Hanauer took the idea and ran with it.
I believe at the time Drogba had one fewer goal and almost 3 times as many assists in two fewer games.
As for match winners, Drogba had 9 to Rooney’s 10. My counter argument to this would be what I already wrote above–6 goals in 6 games against the “Big Four”, four of which were game-winners.
Like I said, I don’t think Drogba is definitely the player of the year, but he really should have gotten more consideration. I will buy that Rooney is more important to his club than Drogba, but Chelsea would have really struggled without him–he accounted for 28% of their goals. He either scored or assisted 38% of them! (Rooney’s numberse are 30% and 34% respectively.) I will say there is no way Chelsea would have won the league without Drogba’s services.
I’m pretty certain that attitude plays a part in the decision… and his is one of the worst in football.
Or…it shows how horrible the NZ team is.
kimo said…
Simply put…I loathe Chelsea…
—————————————————–
I guess I’m happy for you…simply put.
“Vindictive diatribe”? Nice interpretation. He was pissed off at the lousy effort his team put forward, and has been putting forward all season. I don’t blame him. As a fan, I am as well. If I were an owner or the GM (or both, in this case), I would be livid. What they did was totally unexpected and incredibly cool. Your interpretation is, well, ridiculous.
I have nothing wrong with what the original poster here said (although I think it goes without saying that Chelsea “deserved” it).
At the pro level, though, I’ve watched enough Premier League post-match interviews with classless managers (that is, pretty much all of them!) to find the whole “deserve” issue something that is never without an underlying narrative of sour grapes.
If your an LA fan, I don’t find it too entertaining to get it handed to you in the 2nd half. I can deal with losing say 4-3 if it was entertaining, but you could tell the Sounders seemed to give up except for a couple of players.
Looks like the expansion season is coming in year 2.
Getting Jaqua back and putting Montero on the bench will help, if nothing else maybe they can get pass to the other team Pete to where he belongs on the bench.
haters are always gonna hate. delusions are all man u fans have until the new season starts and everyone begins at ground zero.
The difference with Drogba and Rooney to me was the support. Drogba was on an offensive Juggernaut and if he didn’t score someone else would. While Rooney basically did the offensive lifting alone until the last few weeks when Nani got involved.
So I guess that means that C. Ronaldo was worth the decisive 2 points to ManU, who finished on 85. 87 points or more has been good enough to win the last three years when second place has finished on 86 or 85. On one hand, that makes him exceedingly valuable. On the other hand, its only 2 points.
Well Chelsea are professionals and see Ryans post above about not boring your home support on the day you win the title. It was a celebration and Wigan would have put 8 past Chelsea given the chance so why not the other way around. I think the fact that there was a record to be had probably added to the ambitions to thrach Wigan on top of being beaten by them earlier in the season.
Yes, the winner of the Europa League gains automatic entry to the Group stage of the following years competition. Fulham may qualify even if they don’t win on Wednesday. How you ask? Through the UEFA Fair Play League. England is currently thought to be in the 3rd position, which is the last position to get an extra spot. Fulham are also the highest team in the EPL Fair Play Table not already qualified for a European competition. If Fulham do qualify as holders, then Burnley will get the Fair Play spot.
Sounders fans will have the ability to vote Hanauer out of his GM position in 2012…maybe he’s trying to stay on their good side