Interesting

Well, you can't say relegation ever fails to deliver - it was looking sewn up weeks ago, but as ever the form book goes out the window and teams just seem to gift perfect opportunities to each other

Newcastle rather shockingly lost to Fulham at home, I admit Fulham have been improving on the road of late, and were a bit lucky, but you expect more from a relegation threatened side

And what with Hull gaining one crucial point at Bolton, Newcastle will need to get something from Villa Park, but with Hull facing United it's definitely open to them

But of course, United have lifted the trophy and one game against Hull isn't going to interest them with a Champions League final coming up

Boro are effectively relegated, they need to beat West Ham on the road and overturn two teams with better goal differences...I'll give you a tenner if they manage it

So, it will be an interesting day next week - nobody has been relegated yet, although should West Brom fail to get a point from Liverpool they will be in a few hours

You could barely have written this better (which is more than you can say for the top end) - drama, speculation, Newcastle, goal differences, Middlesboro finally being relegated - it's all there

The main news is of course United's third successive title, and the Beeb are focused on how they did it - seriously what a load of old tripe - had Liverpool not thrown away relatively simple games at home in December and January they would've been champions, they beat United comfortably home and away and still left the door wide open - United needed to go on a massive winning run to overturn the Pool, and they let them! That's it, Liverpool handed it to them

Is Phil an excitable Geordie in disguise?

Does anyone else think Phil McNulty is somewhat hasty?

I've blogged before about his flip-flopping over the title race, but now he is calling Shearer a genius after his first win

...Against Middlesbrough! Seriously Phil, you don't get a lot worse than that - let's be honest, if you don't beat Boro at home then you're useless, the flip side is not that you are a genius for beating them, would you like to know how many points Boro have picked up on the road in 2009....that's right - two (or three if you use the last six months), only West Brom are worse, and considering the Albion have managed to beat the Boro both home and away do you really rate Middlesboro as any sort of test?

Yes it was a local derby between two relegation threatened sides, but look at this rationally - it was Newcastle's game to win, yes, they could've drawn it, but to praise Shearer for making the fairly obvious move of replacing an ineffective Owen with the other main striker and winning the match is still a long way from anything special

I'm not slating Shearer, he's obviously doing enough somewhere, but you cannot base his success on a handful of games, if they had not won this it would've been a black mark against him, but to win it is merely a sign of at least competence

I remember looking at the fixture list a few weeks ago and expecting Newcastle to have the best chance, but also having to rely on Hull and Sunderland - this is what is happening, you cannot judge Shearer on the back of six games

I am the Messiah, not Shearer

With this statement I shall save Newcastle:

Last week I placed a bet on the Toon to go down (just shy of evens), and with their draw against Pompey I have gained confidence and thrown caution to the wind to announce it to all and sundry

So when Newcastle face up against Wolves next season, I expect a few drinks, Geordies

You can still get pretty reasonable odds of 8/11 (but only at Stan James), or 10/17 at betfair - not too late

Also in the news - Giggsy finally won the PFA Player of the Year

I don't know what to make of it really - you can't criticise Giggs as anything other than a committed professional and a true legend of the game, but it does kind of make a mockery of the whole thing when they give out a 'player of the year' award as a lifetime achievement award

Granted, it's not been an exceptional year for talent, and the nominations were a bit iffy, but if you're going to do that, and when you consider its other flaws (as I mentioned last week), the whole concept is somewhat devalued and has therefore lost my respect

I love being right

Well, nuts to that - Liverpool now need United to lose two games or draw three

The one glimmer of hope is that was the one game you could expect to be drawn; Hull, Newcastle, West Ham, West Brom and Tottenham are all that are left and now only 15 points will do

But United have to lose six points off their remaining seven games - Portsmouth, Tottenham, Middlesboro (a), City, Wigan (a), Arsenal and Hull (a)

Do you see it? I don't, Arsenal are playing well and will meet United three times over the coming month, but realistically that's just two points lost - Portsmouth should be a full three gained, as should Hull - three more wins on top of that will effectively seal the title - Tottenham have a slim chance of getting a draw at OT, Boro, Wigan and City (purely for local reasons) are maybes, but remain slim

So five games, of which united have to cock up three - in my opinion it's a long shot, you have to hope for injuries and fatigue from the Champions' League action

In other news I found an old post of mine from January, I was right about Stoke having favourable games and being likely to get into the 40s - they're not going down now

I also expected Bolton to be OK, they were 3 above the drop zone then and now they have a six point cushion with 5 games left - so I was right...

I expected Blackburn and Newcastle to scrape towards 40 at the end - looking good on Blackburn, but Newcastle have to at least beat Pompey and Boro to stay up (I did say 16th, unlikely now)

I also expected Hull and Sunderland to slip, albeit Sunderland have only gone from a five point cushion to four, it's worth three places - Hull have collected only 7 points since I wrote that nearly three months ago and I think they need four or five points from somewhere (better beat Stoke and Bolton then)

Boro I expected to go, against the bookies opinion - and they now sit three (as opposed to one) from safety with Arsenal, United and Villa to play - only a crucial trip to Upton Park looks worth anything, and that Newcastle v Boro on 11th May game now looks like it could define the season

Not a bad prediction considering I named the current bottom six, and predicted Stoke and Pompey would live, and bear in mind back then Hull were 10th and Sunderland 12th, and Stoke were 19th

I'll stick with Boro and West Brom, and place a hefty chunk on Newcastle to go with them

Update: I know this completely ignores form and their rivals' performances but I worked out United's points-per-game ratio, and at their current rate they should get 16 points off seven games - meaning they finish on 87, and Liverpool can mathematically only get 86