The Premier League 2008/09 Season Review (Part Two)

January

Ah January. The month when the transfer window reopens, excitement grows and anticipation builds. It was certainly made all the more interesting with Man City’s millions as the club fervently pursued AC Milan’s Kaka, the Brazilian eventually opting to shun ADUG’s pile of money or just bottle it as some may say. With the biggest names in world football linked with a possible move to Eastlands, Mark Hughes finally plunged into the market to announce the signing of proverbial world beater...Wayne Bridge.

Charles Insomnia, I mean N’Zogbia, became so riled at Joe Kinnear’s misinterpretation of his name that he eventually decided to jump ship and join Steve Bruce’s Wigan and amongst some of the other big-name January February signings, Arsenal finally managed to land Andrei Arshavin while Robbie Keane rejoined Spurs.

Back to matters on the pitch and Liverpool would lose their grip on the title as they failed to win a league match in the New Year allowing Manchester United to gain a three point lead at the top. Following United’s 5-0 victory over West Brom, Edwin van der Sar broke Petr Cech’s shut-out record with 11 successive clean sheets – a run he would extend to an extraordinary 14 matches.

January would also see Harry Redknapp proclaim his wife is better than Darren Bent, Cristiano Ronaldo winning the World Player of the Year award and a certain Rafa Benitez went on a rant too.

February

February would signal the end of ‘Big Phil’ Scolari’s reign at Chelsea. Gene Hackman’s body double just couldn’t cut it in the Premier League and was quickly replaced by one of Roman Abramovich’s Russian mates.

While Liverpool continued to stutter in the title race it was full steam ahead for Manchester United and Ryan Giggs continued his quite remarkable record of having scored in every season of the Premier League since its 1992 inception.

After months of rehabilitation and recovery, February also brought about the emotional return of Arsenal striker Eduardo, 51 weeks after that Martin Taylor horror tackle. On the international stage David Beckham picked up his record equalling 108th England cap with the national side being taught a footballing lesson by Euro 2008 winners Spain in the process.

March

At the beginning of March Manchester United picked up their second piece silverware (or third depending on how you look at it) with the Carling Cup and all the talk was centred around a truly unprecedented quintuple charge. Although in an efficient performance of real potency, Liverpool upset the applecart at Old Trafford and crushed United 4-1 to reignite their title aspirations.

Aston Villa’s flailing hopes of grabbing that precious fourth Champions League spot were dealt another hammer blow by Tottenham to make it seven without a win and a settlement in the Carlos Tevez affair was finally reached.

In Europe the English clubs were undoubtedly starting to get right up Platini’s nose as Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United all progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Elsewhere in March Wayne Rooney decided to pick a fight with one of Tim Cahill’s age-old adversaries and there was the alleged Fabregas/Horton spitting spat too.

April

In a considerably eventful month of April Alan Shearer dominated the headlines as he returned to Newcastle as manager to replace Joe Kinnear with all April fools conspiracies eventually put to bed.

A star was born in Federico Macheda, the young Italian announcing himself to the world with a cameo performance against Aston Villa to grab all three-points for the champions and put them back on the title trail.

Speaking about United that Carlos Tevez does get about a bit doesn’t he. The Argentine striker found himself splashed all over the back pages once again as question marks over his future at Old Trafford began to surface. While in one of the games of the Premier League season Andrei Arshavin grabbed four goals as Arsenal and Liverpool played out a thriller at Anfield. Woeful defending or not, this match proved exactly why we adore this league so much.

A much maligned PFA Player of the Year award was handed to Ryan Giggs and a valiant Manchester City bowed out of the UEFA Cup at the quarter-final stage. In the Champions League Chelsea came out on top against Liverpool while Arsenal and Manchester United booked their place in the semi-finals.

May

And so it came down to the final month of the season. The battle to avoid the drop just as intense as the media furore surrounding Susan Boyle and relegation still loomed large for some seven clubs.

Although before we discuss the last day of the Premier League campaign let’s give it up for Steven Gerrard who picked up the Football Writers Player of the Year while Joey Barton set himself up for a fundamentally bleak future in football with his latest display of hot-headedness.

On the penultimate weekend of the season Manchester United could celebrate their 18th top flight title despite only drawing with Arsenal so it all boiled down to relegation issues on ‘Survival Sunday’. While West Brom were already down much was made of Sir Alex Ferguson fielding a weakened team against Hull but the kids did alright and it would be Middlesbrough and Newcastle who would go down without as much as a whimper.

In the Champions League there was controversy all over the place at Stamford Bridge and Manchester United brushed Arsenal aside to meet Barcelona in the ultimate final in Rome. Although it was not to be for Ferguson’s side and the Catalans, inspired by the brilliance of Iniesta and Xavi proved too strong for United at the Stadio Olympico.

The FA Cup would pit Chelsea against Everton with the Merseyside club appearing in their first FA Cup final in some 14 years. In the sweltering heat of Wembley Stadium despite Louis Saha’s record-breaking 25th second strike, Chelsea asserted their supremacy on the match and Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard ensured the trophy would be heading to West London.