Wigan Latics score in 3rd minute of added time.

Thats Hull and Burnley as good as gone now too. Would be shocked if either survive.



Arsenals win is great for the neutral. A three horse race will make better viewing. Feel Chelsea and Utd may edge ahead in the coming weeks though.



Spurs are in a healthy position for forth but not a great result for Villa.



Tomorrow could be a defining day in PL title race and battle for 4th.

Sticking with Hull City, Burnley, Portsmouth as my bottom 3.

Still think Liverpool will get 4th.

Title?... What a run in it's going to be!

Brian Laws last 21 games in management W 1 D 3 L 17. Still amazes me he got a premiership job. How many managers could go from being in charge of a struggling Championship club to a Premiership club?

TBH Brian Laws and the Burnley job are a very good fit. The Burnley job is a hiding to nothing, Brain Laws had pretty much nothing left to lose.



It's not like Burnley would have a large or decent choice in who takes them back to the Championship.

They may look the weakest on paper but they're not a bad team. When they came to Old Trafford and got a 3-3 draw in the group stages they played well and I think Fergie underestimated them with the team he put out and it nearly backfired on him. It's a cliche, but at this stage, there is no easy games.

I'm a bit indifferent on the race for fourth. On the one hand, I would like Liverpool to miss out but not if it means City get it. Hopefully Spurs or Villa will pip them both. In an ideal world, would love Everton to get it as that would really irritate Liverpool fans

We'll only compete for fourth once Moyes realises that the season starts in August.



Would like too see Spurs get it but then again i'm not Wedknapp's biggest fan, he thinks he triffic enough without taking Tottenham to the CL.



Will be a great race either way.

Almost as baffling as the Iain Dowie one. Surprised Curbs never got approached for either.



There are a few 'average' managers knocking around the PL though.

I expect Liverpool to finish 4th. I'd love Spurs to do it though. I wonder if the City fans(Cibaman, as he's the only one who posts when they haven't just won a game) will be gutted of they don't make it? I know Hughes said his goal at the start was top 6, but surely expectations have been raised.

'Curbs' certainly has a meatier CV.

Have Dowie or Laws ever taken a Premier League side down?

Part of my hope that they don't make the top 4 is based upon it being harder for them to recruit if they aren't a CL side.



TBH, if Citeh are willing to blow money in a Tevez fashion, finishing 4th might not actually make that much difference.



I thought top 4 was too much of a jump this season. I think they were mad for getting rid of Hughes when he was making a clear improvement in the side. But having got rid of Hughes, it's pretty obvious that not finishing in the top 4 will be a failure.



Should Citeh fans be gutted if they don't do it? IMO not really. ATM they are just at the start of a journey which should see them becoming one of the powers of English football. They should be enjoying the experience that the Sheikh has given them, not fretting all the way that they're not getting there quickly enough.

But Curbishley also has a recent history of shafting a club because everything didn't go his way. That's unlikely to endear him to any PL chairmen.



Dowie most definitely will have taken a PL side down. This will be Laws first and only experience of managing in the PL. Having PL experience will probably help him in the eyes of Championship and League One clubs, where he'll be lucky to be in the future.

Meatier was intended to cover the walkout at Charlton. Neither Laws nor Dowie have taken a Prem club down[size=50 of course that will all change come the end of May.[/size

Dowie was in charge of C.Palace when they got promotion in 2003/2004 and was still there when they got relegated the year after IIRC !?!

Just checked. Dowie got Palace promoted to the PL and took them down the season after.

Very true.

Maybe they have hired Dowie to see if he still has bouncebackability ?

Has he, who ?



If you're on about West Ham, he quit in protest that Gianluca Nani in his 'football director' role and the board decided to sell McCartney & Ferdinand against his wishes when he had it stipulated in his contract that he dealt with all transfer activity. He gleaned alot of support from other Premiership for his actions, SAF being one.



He recently got paid his compensation didn't he, as I think he took them to court over it. They argued he'd walked out etc, I saw him on Goals On Sunday a while back, whilst he couldn't talk about the case, he was on about how having that hanging over him (the court case) had stopped him from getting positions (i'm not sure how).



He might be limited, as in, he's not the man to push you from 12th upwards, but man alive, if I was a Hull fan, I'd take Curbishley all day long, For Hull this year & next, getting to be a 12th - 15th placed league side would be fantastic, he could deliver that.

From my point of view, there is just a massive incompatibility between multi-millionaire football managers and employment tribunals. IMO employment tribunals are totally justified when we're talking about powerless employees being treated terribly by their supervisor or office manager, but totally out of place when we're talking about Premier League football managers who are earning 20 grand a week doing a job most of the world would kill for.



Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley have had their day in court, took their clubs for millions, IMO they now deserve for football to turn their backs on them and they can spend their ill-gotten gains however they wish.







TBH I'd agree with you. Curbishley is clearly a superior manager to Dowie and Laws.



But if Curbishley and Keegan are willing to throw their dummies out of their pram at one club and take them for millions, what's going to stop them at the next club? Nothing. That's why other clubs won't go near them.

Curbishley won't come North. That is the sole reason he isn't in either of the aforementioned jobs.



Besides, he seems happy in his 'tired platitudes' media role. Good for him, i say.

Liverpool have turned up for their cup final again, Benitez will keep his job as long as they get this result every season

Big decision that. Definitely a foul but should it of been red? Was it outside the area? It's a hard one to judge. He was initially fouled outside the area but the foul continued into the area. Mascherano could easily of gone off as Valencia would surely of got a shot off.

It's been a cracking start

He dragged him back outside the area and then Valencia threw himself on the floor once he got inside the box, but it should have been a red so its swings and roundabouts I suppose!