This weekend it should be confirmed that Liverpool have won the league title. The Reds only need to draw against Tottenham at home to do so and with the Londoners form offset by how strong Liverpool have been this season you would be expecting them to win and win well. This would only be Liverpool's 2nd league title in 35 years which is astounding although their second in five. The Premier League has of course been dominated by Manchester City who have won a record breaking four in a row but have fallen short on a huge scale this season. With Arsenal only drawing 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace in midweek it means that Liverpool only need to earn a point from their remaining five games. They may well win with a 20 point gap in the end.
The weekend will also confirm who will contest the FA Cup final. Manchester City remain the favourites and holding aloft the famous trophy would at least add sparkle and a rare happy moment for the club in what for them has been a nightmarish season. City still have a good chance of qualifying for next season's Champions League and they could still even finish in 2nd place. For most other clubs this isn't too bad. But not for City. That's the Achilles heel that snaps when you become this big and this successful. City will have to get past Nottingham Forest who have had a superb season. Forest can pose a threat but City have evidently been getting better in the past few weeks. On the other side of the draw is Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. Villa are another side who continue to impress under Unai Emery but have sometimes lacked consistency this season. A trophy for Villa would be historic given that it has been 28 years since their last trophy, which was the league cup. As for Crystal Palace they have never won the FA Cup but they did reach the 1990 and 2016 finals. The Eagles have looked sharp this year and are a difficult team to face and one suspects this semi will be more competitive than the other.
Latest prices to win FA Cup: Manchester City 2.30, Aston Villa 4.00, Crystal Palace 5.50, Nottingham Forest 7.00
Ticket prices have been a concern and made the headlines in football. First it was Manchester United and now it is Manchester City and the costs keep rising to the fact that it can cost £70 per match. There is also a growing trend of the most elite clubs wanting to rid themselves of season ticket holders. All in all the most loyal fans pay the least amounts and so an average price for a game for them can level out at £40. It's obvious that the maths do not work for the clubs who can almost see a rise of double that amount for general fans just wanting to go to a particular game. Let's not forget in England in order to try and buy tickets which normally sell out in minutes first you have to pay upwards of £40 for the season to become a member. Clubs may argue that if fans want improvements, European football and the best players then the money has to come from somewhere. They may also argue and believe that the cost of one ticket is roughly one days pay. The problem really arises though when a family want to go to a game. Just one match can set a family of four back £280. With travel, food and drink that price can easily spiral to over £400. All for one game which could end in disappointment. It would be nice to see prices drop and reach realistic levels but the plain fact is is that it won't happen. The Premier League is too strong too commercial and frankly too popular the world over to see that happen. In fact what will happen despite some clubs announcing price freezes is that tickets will become even more expensive and there seems little anyone can do about that in the long term. If you want to be entertained, make sure you have the wallet to go with it.
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