The countdown begins

And so it was confirmed-Chelsea are Premier League Champions for 2009-10. Not much drama in the end, Drogba's histrionics aside, but I'll not complain. Chelsea probably deserving champions, if even for their record against the rest of the Big 4* (*I guess Sky Sports don't consider Spurs as part of the Big 4 and I would have to agree with them!), where they finished 6 from 6. Their victories over Arsenal home and away were certainly convincing enough, but last month's victory at Old Trafford was far from perfect, and, until Steven Gerrard decided to play in Didier Drogba to gift Chelsea the lead after 20 largely unconvincing minutes, they didn't look great against Liverpool 2 weeks ago (their play in the final third has been awful at times this season). Still, aside from a loss to Wigan (who would have thought after watching Sunday's game?), any of their defeats were generally against 'quality' opposition, so they were as deserving as anyone else. The fact that they scored over 100 goals in the process did their case no harm either. Where the Premier League title mind end up next year is a discussion to leave for another day-all contenders have plenty of question marks hanging over them for 2010-11.

During the week, we have several 'preliminary' World Cup 2010 squads named. And, no shortage of surprises (from where I'm sitting). Who would have thought that Argentina would feature 2 Newcastle players but cannot find room for either Javier Zanetti or Esteban Cambassio from Champions League finalists Inter Milan? Who would have thought that Kaka would be preferred to Ronaldinho (if we look at form)? France don't include Karim Benzema but have Andre Pierre Gignanc? And so on. For now, let's assume my predictions made (elsewhere) on Monday hold true-Spain are dumped out early and we have a Brazil v Italy final, with Brazil prevailing. Not much imagination on my part, but I'm only going on what I've seen and read.

Chelsea go against the hapless Portsmouth in tomorrow's FA Cup Final. If there's one team and manager I wouldn't mind losing to it's Portsmouth and Avram Grant. Let's hope for an exciting encounter, but if I'm honest, anything better than 2/1 on Chelsea at -3 is generous...