Premier League Tuesday: Manchester City Beat Tottenham Hotspur To Claim Champions League Berth

The reason it’s boring, incidentally, might have something to do with the introuction of Patrick Vieira to further vlog up the midfield. Nice one, Roberto Mancini. You know how to make this sport super-fun. Oh, and William Gallas is finally coming off after picking a thigh injury to go along with his first half hamstring problem. His last action of the match is to deflect a certain goal over the crossbar.

Would it be possible for Fulham to turn this match around? Well, yes. It’s still not very likely, but they’re all over the visitors at the moment, and they’re starting to get worried with just a two-goal cushion between themselves and dropped points. There are about 25 minutes left. Time enough for Bobby Zamora to further damage, maybe? With the way this game is going, I wouldn’t rule anything out.

That’s not to take anything away from Tony Pulis’ men, who were superb. They defended better and attacked better, and didn’t bother with going after the ball when they didn’t need too, which was most of the time. A thoroughly deserved victory for the hosts, and a desperately disappointing defeat for Arsenal.

The first goal came off possibly the most laughable free kick defending of all time, Kenwyne Jones literally not having to move to guide the ball past Wojciech Szczesy with his chest, and while the second was slightly unfortunate, deflected long range shots are only really a problem if you can’t get the ball out of your own defensive third. Which they can’t.

Six minutes of injury time meant that the game wasn’t anything like done there, and each side came within feet of seizing the lead in a phenomenal climax to the match. Ultimately, the luck wasn’t there for either of them, and each had to settle for a point. It’s good enough for Blackpool to go to 17th on goal difference, but all hopes of Tottenham catching Manchester City for fourth appear lost.

The match wasn’t all fun and games, though. PFA Footballer of the Year Gareth Bale was forced out with a bad ankle injury midway in the second half after a scissor tackle for which Charlie Adam really ought to have seen red. While initial tests seem to have ruled out a break, it sounds as though this could still be serious enough to rule Bale out for the season.

So we’re back to square one at White Hart Lane, but with six minutes of injury time there’s still plenty of time for either of these teams to find a winner (and for more hilarity from Heurelho Gomes). I honestly have no idea how this match is going to turn out - we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s already been one of the strangest games of the season.

And then came calamity. From that corner, Gomes lost the ball, then went chasing after it, scything down Gary Taylor Fletcher as the forward tried to work the ball back in. It was another penalty, and this time Adam went left, smashing the shot home despite there being some debate as to whether or not he should be the one taking it. So Blackpool lead 1-0 at White Hart Lane, and I think Adam has probably just set the Premier League record for shortest time between taking two penalties. Bizarre scenes.