The club soccer season of 2011-12 had without a doubt one of the best final months in the history of the world’s most popular game. Starting with the Champions League semifinals – one series that ended in penalties and another that saw an incredible upset – then moving on to a monumental Manchester derby and then the incredible comeback win for City that ended the EPL season.

Well, the “Super Bowl of club soccer,” as I call it, was no slouch either and a fitting cap to an unpredictable and all-round exciting year.

We, again, saw an incredible effort from the underdog and one of the most unlikely wins in a while.

This wasn’t supposed to be Chelsea’s year. This wasn’t supposed to be how Roman Abramovic won his most-coveted Champions League title.

This season started off with hope for the Blues. They had brought in a manager for the future and were going to build a new Chelsea. Needless to say, Andre Villa-Boas didn’t work out and the players rebelled. The team that ended up hoisting that massive trophy was one that looked very similar to the Chelsea sides of yesteryear.

There was Frank Lampard, Salomon Kalou, Jose Bosingwa, John Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba. All relics of the old guard who were supposed to one way or the other be left at the wayside. But these players all played their roles and played them well in holding off the hosts in Munich.

As the story goes, Mikel even told penalty-taker Arjen Robben that “Peter Cech knows which way you’re going to shoot.” That rattled Robben so bad that he missed and then even opted out of taking a penalty kick to decide the game. Who says all former teammates are friendly?

Under the guidance of Roberto Di Matteo – most recently canned by West Brom – the old guard stood firm through 120 minutes. And then all Chelsea had to do was beat a German team on penalties – much easier said than done.

We all know the result now and we all say Bastian Schweinsteiger’s cheeky attempt fail to roll home. And so John Terry, the alleged racist, the Chelsea captain that hung his team out to dry in Barcelona, the man who tried to barge to the front of the trophy presentation even though he was suspended. He was the most improbably happiest man wearing shin guards in Munich on Saturday night – but that’s a story for another time.

There were lots of improbably happy people, and lots of disappointed fans – in Munich and the supporters of Tottenham back in London.

After finishing sixth in the Premier League, Chelsea will still get to defend its Champions League crown. Whether it can or not is another story. But, after all, we have seen some pretty crazy, improbable stuff in the world of soccer.

Remember when I said that soccer in general was on an amazing run? Well that form continued during the final day the English Premier League season with all 10 games stacked to be played at one time – one of the funnest and manic situations in sports. To make matters even better, there was a legit title race that would be settled, a battle for spots in Europe and two teams fighting to stay up. What more could you ask for?

With Manchester United playing against a Sunderland table firmly entrenched mid-table and looking like they cared more about the night’s new episode of Game of Thrones that awaited, the Red Devils easily came away with a 1-0 victory. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side had done its part to try to wrest the title away from favoured Manchester City, would it be enough?

On paper, it should have been a cakewalk for City. They were playing at home – where they hadn’t lost all season – against Queen’s Park Rangers – the team with the worst away record in the EPL. But the thing was that QPR was fighting for its EPL life and an animal with its back against the wall is most dangerous – just ask Joey Barton.

With the score tied 1-1 after some uncharacteristically shoddy defending from City, Barton saw fight to throw an elbow into the face of Carlos Tevez. That earned him a straight red card and QPR would now have to fight on a man short.

Even better, Barton kneed Sergio Aguero in the back after being sent off and nearly caused the insane Mario Balotelli to come off the bench and fight him. Now that would be a Pay-per-view event I would pay $49.99 to see.

But now with all 10 Rangers parked just outside their box, the Blues had a really rough time breaking them down. Even worse, hitting on a counter attack, QPR scored to take a 2-1 lead. City fans feared for the worst; many fans were seen holding their heads, crying about a title they bungled away to their oft-superior rivals.

This lasted until the 91^st minute at Etihad Stadium, when United were already celebrating their victory and counting down the seconds to their latest title triumph.

Then something incredible happened: Off a corner from David Silva a minute into injury time, Edin Dzeko headed in the ball to even the score 2-2. Two minutes later, Mario Balotelli gave Aguero a return pass, he dribbled past one QPR defender and scored the title-winning goal with about 30 seconds to spare.

Any sports fan – except for United fans – should have leapt for joy at what was one of the most exciting two minutes that soccer has ever seen. To comeback and win from 2-1 down in injury time during a normal game is thrilling enough; to win a title that way – the club’s first since 1968 – was even better.

It also turned out to be the first tie-break victory since 1989, when Arsenal won the league on goal differential. That was also years before the Premier League even existed in its current state.

Many have quarrels with City’s massive payroll, backed by a middle-eastern oil Sheikh, but was as pure of a victorious joy that there could have been and we should all applaud their tremendous effort this season.

United’s 89 points were also the most ever by a runnerup, although it does stand to reason that the title could have very easily theirs had the ball bounced any different way for City on Sunday.

And, fittingly, with Bolton’s 2-2 draw against Stoke City, QPR stayed up anyway.

With the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea on Saturday, we should see a thrilling conclusion to what has been a tremendous season of league football.

Soccer has been on quite a roll lately and it didn’t slow down at all with Monday’s Manchester derby. Last week sports fans got to watch Chelsea’s incredible ability to hold Barcelona while down to only 10 men after John Terry’s idiotic red card, and then the next day watching Bayern Munich and Real Madrid go back and forth, only to see the semifinal decided on penalties.

In Manchester, the game wasn’t as exciting as the result. The chances were few owing to some good defence although the lone goal did come thanks to some shoddy marking on Chris Smalling’s behalf.

Smalling’s inclusion in the lineup was thanks to a late injury to Jonny Evans, but the something’s-off managing from Sir Alex didn’t stop there. Instead of the red-hot Antonio Valencia starting on the wing, or even Ashley Young, Ji-Sung Park was afforded his first league start since January. In the back four, Phil Jones took over for usual starter Rafael – who did take part in United’s 4-4 draw with Everton.

It was interesting that Ferguson would dramatically change his lineup on such a big stage. Even his substitutions, like inserting Danny Welbeck instead of Chicarito, weren’t all that conventional.

The most riveting part of the game may have been a near altercation on the sidelines between Ferguson and Roberto Mancini. After Mancini hauled off Carlos Tevez for Nigel de Jong, the bowling ball of a midfielder proceeded to go in for a harsh slide tackle on Welbeck, a move that surprisingly didn’t injure the United forward. A lot of finger pointing and yelling went on – probably deserved since de Jong has a history of that sort of foul.

But, like I said, this wasn’t about the game, it was about the result. With their victory, Manchester City is now atop the Premier League by virtue of goal differential. United will have to either hope that City stumbles in the last two games of the campaign, or rack up a ridiculous goal differential in getting two wins.

United has a game at home against Swansea and then a visit to Sunderland on the last weekend. City has to travel to Newcastle – a really tough game – and then host QPR, a sure win.

Of course, anything can happen in English football. We could see either team lose any game or we could see a stunning final day.

Anything’s possible, after all, the English FA did just name West Brom’s Roy Hodgson as manager of the national team. This came only two days after Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp – the previous favourite for the job – led his team to a victory and shed his awful losing ways.

Stranger things have happened in English football.

After only eight months on the job, Roman Abramovich couldn’t take the growing pains anymore at Chelsea and sacked Andre Villas-Boas. That’s only 10 months after AVB led Porto to an undefeated season and claimed the Europa League crown.

Talk about “what have you done lately?”

This firing signifies a complete lack of patience by the Russian oil tycoon and a lack of faith in a man that was supposed to rebuild the aging English giant. But how can Abramovich expect his club to grow if he keeps meddling like this and firing the men who are supposed to be in charge? Since buying the club in 2003, a stunning eight managers have worked for the team. That’s nearly one every season – although two were just caretakers.

It’s not like CFC have a bad team? It’s loaded with talent and they don’t mind throwing money around in the transfer market. But what has happened is that the veterans simply aren’t playing up to snuff and are usually injured. Frank Lampard may have scored ten goals this season, but he has done so with a perpetual frown on his face. John Terry has missed nearly as much time as he has played and he’s currently involved in a racial abuse trial – what a captain he is.

Then there’s the case of Fernando Torres – who is on pace to go down as the biggest transfer bust in football history. After spending 50-million pounds on the striker, he’s failed to deliver goals of any sort. Even worse, Abramovich has reportedly forced him into the lineup on several occasions to try to justify the price he paid.

What AVB really needed was time, some that Abramovich will apparently afford no one. The 34-year-old wunderkind manager was supposed to rebuild Chelsea from the ground up, but was opposed at almost every turn.

In hind sight, you could say that he was destined to fail the minute he signed on. It’s nearly impossible in any sport to contend for titles on multiple fronts while trying to restock with young prospects.

So now let the rumours begin about whom will replace him as Chelsea manager for the long term. It’s not often that two of the biggest managerial jobs in England – CFC manager and the English national team manager – are up for grabs at the same time. It’s just too bad that both look like poison chalices.

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