Chelsea FC: 2009-10 Premier League Champions

At least one UK race to the finish has a clear winner.

Chelsea FC captured the Premier League championship today by thrashing Wigan 8-0. Entering the day, The Blues were a single point ahead of Manchester United in the standings and needed a win, a draw and Man U loss, or a loss and a Man U loss to take the PL season crown. Needless to say, they won the league in emphatic fashion.

As I wrote a few years ago in the wake of Chelsea’s heart breaking loss in the Champions League final, I’m not as big of a Blues fan as I was. I’ve grown weary of the PL and the chokehold “The Big Four” (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Man U) have on the title each year. (Liverpool, however, has never won the Premiership. Their last league title was in 1989-90 when it was known as the First Division.) As one pundit said, there are three teams vying for the league title, three or four more battling for the last Champions and Europa League spots, and 13 or 14 teams fighting relegation. My attention has shifted to the continent, to the Bundesliga (Germany), Eredivisie (The Netherlands), and Ligue 1 (France). Each have their own version of “The Big Four,” but their fortunes have changed as a parity of talent and financial backing has recently challenged their dominance. Plus, Chelsea is no longer an underdog, a team trying to make a name for itself. Their acquisition by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003 has given the team a seemingly bottomless pocket of financial funds to buy talent, putting them in the “Evil Empire” company of the Yankees and Man U.

But Chelsea still has a special place in my heart. Though I don’t follow them passionately anymore, I always check their results and standing during the season, and was hoping they would edge out Man U for the title.