Chelsea moved one step closer to its first Premier League title in four years with an easy 2-0 victory against Liverpool on Sunday.
Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard scored the goals as Chelsea maintained its one-point edge over Manchester United, which defeated Sunderland, 1-0, on Sunday.
The Premier League title chase will come down to next Saturday, when Chelsea faces Wigan at Stamford Bridge and Manchester United closes its season with a home game against Stoke City.
Here is some other news from the weekend:
XAVI FACES WORLD CUP DOUBT
FC Barcelona star and Spanish national team midfielder Xavi is playing with a torn leg muscle that could sideline him for the World Cup.
Xavi revealed the injury after Barcelona's 4-1 win vs. Villarreal on Saturday. He insisted that he would be fine for the World Cup, but Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola admitted that Xavi was risking the World Cup to help Barcelona in its charge to repeat as Spanish champions.
FC TWENTE WINS DUTCH TITLE
Costa Rican striker Bryan Ruiz scored one of his team's two goals to help FC Twente clinch the Dutch League title with a 2-0 win vs. NAC Breda on Sunday.
Former England manager Steve McLaren helped guide Twente to the first league title in the club's history, edging Ajax, which also won on Sunday.
The match also signaled the end of Blaise N'Kufo's time with FC Twente. The Swiss striker is set to leave Twente to join the Seattle Sounders this summer.
QUICK KICKS
Bayern all but clinched the German Bundesliga title with its 3-1 win vs. Bochum on Saturday.
Juventus tied Catania, ending its hopes of a Champions League berth.
Italy calls in 29 World Cup candidates for mid-week mini-camp (No Giuseppe Rossi).
Paris St. Germain won the French Cup, defeating Monaco.
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What do you think of these developments? See Chelsea holding on to its lead in the final week? Praying Xavi stays healthy for the World Cup? Did you gain some respect for McLaren's managerial skills after leading Twente to the Dutch title?
Share your thoughts below.
Starting from the bottom, at least to me, would be more gratifying by far. Of course, I like a challenge as well. I am not so sure a persona such a Mourinho is in the mold of a builder. I don’t know much about Steve Coppell and what happened at Reading. But I will be interested to see what happens to him in the next several years.
Rafa is another story. With Liverpool trying to find a buyer I think Rafa would be smart to leave. I think it will be at least 5 years before the club will be straighten out. With the amount of debt the club is carrying I just don’t see the money being available to acquire high quality players. Liverpool is the first of the big four to fall under the weigh of high debt loads that each carry. I think Arsenal is in the best shape financially and could be the dominant club in the next 5 to ten years if things stay like they are now.
The USMNT success at the Confed Cup was almost a fluke. A lot of things had to happen just right for the US to make the final. Italy, on their off days, was going on safaris. So clearly they were not talking it seriously. And the Egyptian team’s hotel rooms were ransacked by the escorts that the players called. So that tells you where the Egyptian teams heads were. And to the Brasilians, the winners of 5 WCs , the Confed Cup is hardly on their radar screen. Brasil just played well enough to win the Confed but by no means did the Brasilians bring their “A” game.
The fans who raised the expectations of the USMNT must be the fair weather fans. The ones who only pay attention if the team is doing well in lead ups to the WC or the Olympics. The “Day-in-Day-out” fans , I think realize what the situation was in the Confed Cup. It will be at least 3 more World Cups, not including this one in 2010 before the USA is a world beater. The USA has a ways to go before it is on par with the top powers in the world.