The Premier League will be won, not lost



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Photo: Michael Regan (Getty Images)

There was some of the time on Sunday, just as there were a few moments in the last month when it seemed that Manchester City was finally going to lose points. Burnley, at their home in Turf Moor, was a model of the "elbow but do not break" philosophy, experts in the obscure techniques of shithousery. City seemed frustrated, and although the defense was not much sought after, a goal seemed unlikely.

Inevitably, the goal has come. When that was the case, it was in millimeters. After a scrum in the area, Sergio Agüero found the ball between his feet and managed to get it into the goal with just enough power so that Burnley defender Matthew Lowton could not get there in time before he was able to make it. he does not cross the goal line of the mustache. :

Less than three centimeters separated City and a draw potentially invalid for the title:

The Premier League season is long: 38 grueling matches, interspersed with the best teams with the Champions League and two national cups. So, this city has not been at its best score, the best dominatrix in a while is not a surprise. Even by giving fans and Liverpool fans heart attacks by not dominating, City is doing what they have to do: collect the victories in what should probably be the second longest winning streak in the history of Premier League raise their second league trophy in a row.

Liverpool has been incredible in itself, since what looks like a crucial series of four draws from late January to early March. On Friday, the Pool Boys demolished the league's worst Huddersfield 5-0 at Anfield, their sixth straight decisive victory in all competitions (and their tenth consecutive victory in the general standings). The last time Liverpool was seriously challenged, it was the last day of March, in a wild 2-1 win against Tottenham, which was his main hurdle in the league (all the disrespect for Chelsea , who sank in a comfortable 2-0 win for Liverpool a few weeks back).

The Reds have not lost any points since the 0-0 draw against Everton on March 3, and their only loss remains the best game of the season: a 2-1 defeat at Manchester City on Jan. 3. Like Sunday's City-Burnley match, this match also included a thin line between a goal and no goal:

While legitimate obstacles remain in the alleys of both teams (Liverpool has always been bad at St. James's Park, where they will face Newcastle this weekend, and they have to host a scary Wolves squad on the final day of The Season Host City On Monday, it was a formidable and confident club, led by Brendan Rodgers, the former Liverpool coach who was so close to winning the league with the Reds just a few years ago. and Liverpool a 97-point season that will be the best for a team that did not win the title and third overall.

Title racing stories often do not focus on excellence, but on major incidents, such as the Gerrard Slip. But this way of thinking contradicts the realities of football. Even if, for example, Aymeric Laporte had to slip into the closing seconds of City's closing match against Brighton, leading to a draw in Liverpool, City will not have "bottled" the title. Although there is real pressure on the players now that they do not come back in August, the points are worth the same when you get them back, and the City season will not be a failure because they only collected 96 points instead of 98.

Similarly, the four draws of Liverpool in 2019 should not be used as evidence in silly debates about whether Liverpool is "suffocated". The 2018-19 season of Liverpool has been almost perfect and no other season (the only exceptions being this season and the last). they would walk under the title. Moments are precious because they help us to contextualize a larger story, but in the long work of football, they are only a handful of moments in a marathon of regularity.

The points lost on the last day were the same as the points lost on the first day. Thanks to the best title race that England has ever seen, these lost spots have been fewer and more distant than ever before. The fact that the two best teams in England are on the line of the match and with such ridiculous totals is a gift that no slippage, no goal technology, or any form of acceptable form can deprive all those who have been invested in the last nine years. month. Whoever wins the title after all this will be the proud holder of one of the best achievements in the history of football in European clubs. Perhaps more importantly, anyone who finishes second can keep their heads up, knowing that he has lost only because of the best margins in a sport where the limit between success and failure, glory and despondency can be determined in a few millimeters.

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