For Manchester United, the season’s end cannot come soon enough

At the start of the season, there was a broad consensus on the make-up of the Premier League’s final top four and a band of overwhelming favourites to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The order depended on who you asked but just about everybody agreed that Manchester City and Liverpool would be joined by Chelsea and Manchester United.

Two of those four clubs have spent the past week competing in the semi-finals of this season’s Champions League, having already secured their place in next season’s too. For City, to win the competition would be the crowning moment of the Abu Dhabi era. For Liverpool, it could still complete an unprecedented quadruple. It is late April and this season could still be a historic one for both clubs.

Their two rivals, by contrast, can barely wait for the campaign to end. Chelsea and United play each other at Old Trafford this evening in a fixture that will have little bearing on their respective seasons, a game that has been shunted around the schedule to clash with the Europa League. Many viewers might decide that West Ham’s first European semi-final in 46 years is an altogether more enticing prospect than this meeting of two jaded giants.

Chelsea still have the FA Cup final to look forward to, at least, and will eventually secure their top-four finish. It is some way sort of the sustained title challenge many expected, but then very little has gone according to expectation at Stamford Bridge over these past few months. The takeover saga is reaching its most decisive days. Most importantly, whatever the outcome, the future of the club is secure.

United have not suffered an existential crisis in the same way but that is just about the only thing that has not gone wrong at Old