Pennant Fever

Liverpool, who lost to Chelsea on Saturday in the F.A. Cup, crushed Chelsea 4-1 today in league play to ensure that the Blues will not finish in the top four of the Premier League. However, Chelsea can still qualify for next year's Champions' League -- if they win the Champions' League title by beating Bayern Munich in the final. If that happens, it won't be enough for an English team to be in the top four -- only the top 3, plus Chelsea, would be invited to next year's Champions' League.

With one game left, here's where we stand:

1. Man City: 27-5-5 (86 points) (goal differential of 63)
2. Man Utd: 27-5-5 (86 points) (goal differential of 55)
3. Arsenal: 20-10-7 (67 points)
4. Spurs: 19-9-9 (66 points)
5. Newcastle: 19-10-8 (65 points)

Since this weekend's games are the last of the season, they will not be spread out over the weekend as usual. Instead, all games will start at exactly 10 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday so that no team can know the results of any other game. Unlike American sports, European soccer leagues try to avoid having really dramatic games in the last week of the season (they want to avoid fan mayhem). So the final match-ups seem fairly bland. But I'm sure they will bring plenty of drama to the English, and especially to Man City fans. Here are the key games:

Manchester City v. Queens Park Rangers (who are in 17th place)
Sunderland (11th place) v. Manchester United
West Bromwich Albion (10th place) v. Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur v. Fulham (9th place)
Everton (7th place) v. Newcastle United