A Big Weekend for Europe's Big Three

You wait all season for these climactic title-clinching games. It took nine months to get here, nine months of action week-in, week-out, through the European winters, through mediocre mid-table afternoons, and through thrilling top-of-the-league slugfest. And, just like that last weekend, it was all wrapped up in the space of 24 hours.

The three biggest leagues on the planet — the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, and Spain’s La Liga — were all won in a matter of hours on Saturday. But no prizes for guessing who won them. The story of this year’s big three leagues is very much a return of the likely lads.

Manchester United started things off on Saturday by earning a 0-0 draw at home against Arsenal. A point was all they needed, and they got it, to lift the trophy in front of their bitter rivals of the last decade.

And of the three title-winning sides on Saturday, United had to work the hardest. After all, they had to play a game to clinch. Barcelona and Inter Milan had a far easier time of it as the teams chasing them faltered once again to simply hand over the crown. In Spain, Real Madrid lost 3-2 to Villarreal. And in Italy, A.C. Milan fell meekly to Udinese, 2-1, to gift the title to their crosstown rivals and prove that, yes, everything Jose Mourinho touches turns to gold.

So of the top-tier leagues, only France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga remain to be decided. Bordeaux and Wolfsburg are in pole position for those titles.