Gary Newbon presents the Pieman's Blog

Manchester United are simply the best. Both the Pieman and myself predicted that they would retain the Premier League when the season began. The addition of the World Club Championship and the League Cup are a big bonus topped by being on the verge of retaining their European Champions League. The final against Barcelona in Rome on Wednesday May 27 is the match all Europe will savour. United will win because they have a great squad and are covered in every position. They also have Cristiano Ronaldo. Of course Barcelona have some great players such as Lionel Messi but United also have the relentless Sir Alex Ferguson as their manager and he stays one step at least ahead of the rest...

No-one should be distracted by the Carlos Tevez situation. Sure, he has made an important impact every so often. Sure, he is a very good player. If he stays, great, if he goes, ok. His presence elsewhere will be disappointing for United but the cost will not be as much as is being made.

Everyone is waiting for the last Sunday of the season of the Premier League (May 24th, 4 p.m. kick-off) to see who is finally relegated and what team Manchester United start with, just three days before the ECL final in Rome. United will be at Hull, one of four clubs trying not to be in the two who go down with West Bromwich Albion. The fixtures are Sunderland v Chelsea; Hull v United; Aston Villa v Newcastle and West Ham v Middlesbrough.... WBA are bottom and gone. Middlesbrough have 32 points and minus 28 goal difference; Newcastle have 34 points and the best goal difference with minus 18; Hull 35 points and minus 24 with Sunderland 36 points and minus 19.... It’s down to the wire. I was at the Hawthorns to see the Baggies lose to Liverpool on Sunday. I will be at Villa Park this Sunday and expect Newcastle to be beaten. Funnily enough, I think West Bromwich are better than the others at the bottom!

Sir Alex will want United to win whatever side he picks. That's in his nature and he would not want to be accused of causing an upset. But he has to think of Rome. Anyway, these clubs have had the previous 37 games to have made sure they were not in this position. Football people often look for excuses and blissfully choose to ignore their own shortcomings either in a match or the season. Or in some cases both!

The play-off finals are about to be staged at Wembley. The biggest one is the Championship game with the winners of Sheffield United and Burnley being promoted to the Premier League. It’s a tough call but I fancy Burnley. They have had a marathon season, over 60 games, with a run to the 5th round of the FA Cup and semi-finals of the League Cup before going out in extra time to Spurs. Owen Coyle has done a great job as manager. Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell will be favourite to bounce this club straight back after controversial relegation last season.

Gary Newbon presents the Pieman's Blog

All season I have been predicting that Manchester United would retain the Premier League. I knew they were good but now they seem to be the best team in the world. They have a great manager, great players, a fantastic attitude to playing football and the power and depth to achieve it. They need four points this week to clinch the title again and with home matches against Wigan and Arsenal they could do it before second place Liverpool even play again! I really believe they can also retain the European Champions League and become the first club to achieve back to back competition wins in this ECL. United against Barcelona in their perfect-looking final.

Alan Shearer eventually achieved his first win as Newcastle manager at the sixth attempt… and good luck to him. Shearer is clearly making a difference. The 3-1 home win over relegation rivals Middlesbrough could be enough to keep them up with two matches left. They may need another win... last games are home to Fulham and then away to Villa. But the St. James's Park win on Monday means it’s now West Bromwich Albion bottom, then Middlesbrough and now Hull. You would not want to bet against those three going down. I was wrong about Stoke. Everyone at the start of the season was predicting relegation for Stoke. Their manager Tony Pullis made the Britannia Stadium a fortress with 9 wins, five draws and just four defeats. They dug in to win with the loudest crowd around. Take a bow Tony Pullis.

UEFA need to address two problems in the European Champions League competiton. They must put their very best referees in charge of the later stages of the competiton. Tom Henning Ovrebro may have been the best referee in Norway for the last five years and he may have taken over 20 ECL games but I did not see any mention anywhere of him being amongst the elite in Europe. He had a shocker at Stamford Bridge for the second leg of the ECL semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona. He missed at least one penalty decision for Chelsea (maybe two were penalties but not all four!), but it was not a conspiracy to stop a repeat on an all English ECL final again! Anyway, if that had been the case (and it was not) then the referee would not have sent off a Barcelona player. By the way, as you may have seen, that was a mistake as well! Yet the behaviour of some of the Chelsea players afterwards was terrible. Some must be punished. Didier Drogba using crude and obscene language into a love TVC camera with millions upon millions listening around the world deserves severe punishment. His captain John Terry should not have condoned it and manager Guus Hiddink should have publicly criticised him as Reading manager Steve Coppell did about one of his player’s bad on-pitch behaviour at the weekend. The fact is – yes, the referee did make mistakes but so did some Chelsea players. Drogba missed a good chance and Michael Essien failed to mark and defend properly for the very late Barcelona equaliser. The culture to always blame the referee and not the shortcomings of the players is beginning to become so predictable and boring!