Englandas three biggest clubs must have wished for significantly more than this from 2013. In the more simple, more confident (more sunshiny) days of August, this was a time that promised much for several. For Chelsea, 2012-13 was a new start established on the ruins of gloriously unlikely European triumph: a Champions League champion -- their own -- was in charge and the world's hottest young creative talent had signed up to construct a new legacy. In Manchester, United had obtained the league's most useful player and the Bundesliga's best( ish) pintsized tip to reinforce a that lost the category in its final second last year while City, well, they had that second. In these unseasonable springy blusters, those dreams have yielded to a less bright reality. Chelsea's one-nil success over Manchester United, early on Monday, a game that pleased no-one -- specially the basic (although she or he may have raised the tiniest of smiles/glasses when Ashley Cole was compelled to withdraw), was a case in point. In West London, Roman Abramovich has "gone too much this time" in getting Rafa Benitez to replace double club star Roberto di Matteo. Even though it could have indirectly light emitting diode to today's result and, hence, to a Wembley appearance, the visit of identified knock-out expert Benitez probably also ensured that Chelsea would win just one of the weekend's two activities and therefore that they would drop to Southampton. Which they did. And that is a bit of a challenge for Chelsea. They may win the FA Cup and they may win the Europa League -- they perform Rubin Kazan in the quarter final on Thursday -- but if that comes at the expense of qualifying for the Champions League -- they're currently just two points away from Arsenal, enjoying a Gervinho-Fabianski-inspired revival -- then the summer of 2013 will soon be a rustic, circumspect event for Chelsea's supporters. If they do not get the FA Cup and the Europa category or end in the most effective four then they'll need their Chelsea back again. 4 RLZ this time. They will, at least, have gotten Rafa Out. For Manchester City -- perhaps not involved with today's game but fortunate enough to face its victors in the semi-final -- 2012-13 has only been waste. That semi-final, and the ultimate to which it may lead, is all that's left for the light blues to play for. Embarrassing in the Champions League and woefully off title-pace, even though City do find a way to overcome Chelsea and then somehow Wigan -- who just don't lose activities following the clocks change -- and therefore win the cup they'll only have repeated 2011's accomplishments and in a model developed on development regression is worse than nothing. United, of course, have the name right where Giovanni Trapattoni once advised some puzzled journos to keep their cats. After last season's dissatisfaction, that obviously isn't nothing. It's little, though, when compared with the thing that was available beforeNani jumped deftly from the Old Trafford grass and stacked his men in to Alvaro Arbeloa's ribcage. At that point on that night in March, Sir Alex Ferguson was looking at a dynasty-defining, subscript year. A dozen points clear in the category, about to play an FA Cup quarter final in the home and 2-1 forward on mixture to a looking Real Madrid, the treble -- fourteen years after it had been first achieved -- appeared on again for a group likewise constituted by a mixture of youth and knowledge (and Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes). That'll not happen now. Instead, United supporters will look forward to a shortish group of insipid or semi-sipid -- there is a Manchester derby in a few days -- encounters that they can generally win 1-0. And therefore model 2012-13 of the Barclays Premier League has come to this. By the first of April, the league's largest clubs have only footnotes for carrying on. Their significant domestic organization has been taken care of -- by United needless to say but, still: the plan is likely to be performed out elsewhere and by others. Which leaves a not-particularly-edifying scrap for next as the sum of organization at the "elite" end. Thank goodness for Paolo di Canio. Follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter
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