End of Season Predictions

With the end of the European seasons coming up, I thought I would look at how I see things going. I want to take a quick look at the English Premier league, the FA Cup, and the Champions league.

First, The Champions League. Having watched three of the four first leg quarterfinal games, I think I have an idea of how it will all play out. The teams I think will progress are Bayern Munich, Lyon, Inter Milan, and Barcelona. This means that the semi-finals will be Lyon v. Bayern and Inter v. Barcelona. These should both be exciting ties, but in the end I see a final of Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Needless to say, at this point I am having a real difficult time seeing anyone but Barcelona raise the cup for the second consecutive year. I would like to see Lyon make it to the final, but I don't see them beating the holders either.

In the EPL, I used the BBC Sport predictor to find out how I see this season ending. I'll look at the race for the title, the relegation battle and the battle for fourth. First, in the relegation battle, it seems that Portsmouth have no way out. The only team in the bottom four I see getting any points in the last games is Hull, which will pick them out of the drop zone and will leave West Ham, Portsmouth, and Burnley to go down.

In the title race, It will be tight. I see both Chelsea and United finishing with 87 points and Arsenal finishing with 83. I think this one will come down to goal difference. I think the goal difference will likely favor Chelsea as they have Bolton and Wigan left, both of which can let goals flow like a river. Manchester United have some fixtures against teams who like to park the bus and I don't think they will be able to grab enough goals against them.

In the Race for fourth, I think the game which will decide it will be the penultimate game between Spurs and Manchester City. I honestly believe Spurs can win that game and will take the fourth spot with 71 points, but if Man City can pull that game out, they get 69 and Spurs miss out by a point. As I see it however, Spurs get 4th, Liverpool in 5th, Villa in 6th and City finishing in 7th.

Finally, in the FA cup, I see the final to be a repeat of the 2008 Carling Cup. Spurs will meet Chelsea at Wembley in May. And though many of the Spurs players have come out and said we can get fourth and the FA Cup, I don't see it working out. I think Chelsea will lift the cup for the second straight year.