Sunday's game between Liverpool and Manchester City is shaping up to be the one that decides the Premier League title this year, so Nick Miller picks out 10 of the best title-deciders from down the years...
10. Widzew Lodz vs. Legia Warsaw, 1997
Yes, the one you were all waiting for. Fixture computers are rarely appreciative of things like "drama" and "narrative" largely because they're computers and not capable of sentient human thought or emotion. For now.
However, sometimes they spill an arrangement of games from their cold, blinking screens that fits perfectly with mankind's need to be gripped and entertained. One such occasion was in the Polish Ekstraklasa in 1996-97, when Widzew Lodz led Legia Warsaw by a single point going into the penultimate game, which as luck would have it was between those two sides.
Legia went into a 2-0 lead and held it until the 87th minute, at which point all hell broke loose. Lodz scored two quick goals to draw level before Legia hit back and thought they had a winner, only for the goal to be disallowed. Lodz then countered and scored a winner of their own, giving them the win that sealed the title.
9. Napoli vs. Milan, 1988
"Bianchi, the w---er, had started experimenting and had left Bruno Giordano out," said Diego Maradona, clearly a little irked with Napoli manager Ottavio Bianchi as the 1987/88 season built towards a climax. "Everything turned to s---."
A pithy appraisal of the 1987-88 title race, which saw defending champions Napoli slip from a commanding position to just a point ahead of Milan as Arrigo Sacchi's side came to Naples for the third-to-last game of the season. Maradona levelled after Milan had taken an early lead, but Ruud Gullit then inspired his side in a rampant second-half display, setting up goals for Pietro Paolo Virdis and Marco van Basten. Careca pulled one back for Napoli, but the 3-2 win was enough and Milan held on to win their first and only Scudetto under Sacchi.
8. Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, 2009
Some games are title-deciders because they are the climax of a dramatic season, but some are title-deciders because they emphatically crush a nascent challenge. Barcelona won the league in 2009 by nine points in the end, but for a while Real Madrid were on their coattails, just four points behind their Catalan rivals before this game at the start of May -- obviously if they won this game, the race would most likely go down to the wire.
However, Barca rather brutally crushed their rivals, handing out a 6-2 humiliation with goals from Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique and a brace each from Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi. The defeat seemed to crush Real's spirit, as they lost all four of their remaining games while Pep Guardiola's side went on to claim the treble.
7. Inter vs. Sampdoria, 1991
In the closing weeks of the 1990/91 season the Serie A title race was a three-horse affair, with Sampdoria narrowly ahead of the two Milan sides. Their fourth-to-last game was away to Inter and was an utterly extraordinary affair, with Inter dominating for long spells (their keeper Walter Zenga was virtually a spectator) and missing a penalty, which Gianluga Pagliuca saved from the great Lothar Matthaus. Giuseppe Bergomi and Roberto Mancini were sent off, Jurgen Klinsmann had a goal debatably ruled out for offside, there were goalmouth scrambles and eventually, despite being second-best for much of the game, strikes from Beppe Dossena and Gianluca Vialli gave Sampdoria a victory that would allow them to lift the Scudetto by five points.
6. Rangers vs. Celtic, 1905
While they have obviously been the dominant forces in Scottish football, the number of title-deciding games between the Old Firm sides is actually fairly low since the traditional New Year derby would often be the second and last in the season, up until 1976 at least.
The Scottish title has been decided at both Ibrox and Parkhead, but only once have they been asked to play in a one-game tie-breaker, as they were in 1905 after both sides finished level on 41 points. A Scottish Cup semi-final earlier in the season was forfeited by Celtic after fans rioted, so in order to try and calm things down the SFA appointed an English referee, and it worked to an extent, as the game passed without significant incident. Celtic scored twice in a minute through David Hamilton and James McMenemy and while Rangers pulled one back, the Bhoys held on to win their fifth title.
5. Werder Bremen vs. Bayern Munich, 1986
With two games left of the 1986 Bundesliga season, Werder Bremen were two points ahead of Bayern Munich knowing that a win would seal their first title since 1965. It was a tense match full of needle and in the closing stages Rudi Voller, who had spent much of the season out with a broken leg following a reducer by Klaus Augenthaler in the reverse fixture, was called from the bench. Voller promptly won a slightly dubious penalty, leaving Bremen's Polish defender Michael Kutzop with the chance to win the game and the title.
Kutzop had previously never missed from 12 yards, but this time he sent the keeper the wrong way, only for the ball to smack against the post and go wide. The game finished 0-0, meaning Bremen could still win it on the last day, but they lost 2-1 at Stuttgart while Bayern hammered Borussia Mönchengladbach 6-0 and took the title.
4. Manchester City vs. Manchester United, 2012
Of course, while there were only two more games of the 2011-12 season, there was so much more drama to unfold before our scarcely credible eyes. However, this was the game that really won the title for Manchester City because had they not beaten the chaps from across town, then the final day heroics with Sergio Aguero would have been moot.
It looked like City had already thrown the title away from a commanding position once, a defeat to Arsenal in April seemingly the final nail in their Premier League coffin, leaving them eight points behind United. However, they stormed back with a few convincing wins while United stumbled, and went above their neighbours on goal difference with this 1-0 derby win thanks to a Vincent Kompany header. They then beat Newcastle 2-0 to set up the final day, and you know the rest.
3. Pro Vercelli vs. Inter, 1910
Italy has seen its fair share of dramatic, title-deciding games in the "regular season" but in the years when goal difference wasn't yet used to separate teams level on points, a tie-breaker/playoff game had to be played. The last time this happened was in 1964 when Bologna beat Inter 2-0, but perhaps the most dramatic occurred way back in 1910 when Pro Vercelli and Inter finished level on points.
Pro Vercelli, who had won the title (then called the "Prima Categoria" as Serie A wouldn't be established until 1929) in the previous two years and would go on to also win it in the next three, had three key players unavailable on the day of the playoffs, as they were required to play in a military tournament, and thus asked for the game to be postponed.
The football authorities turned the request down, partly for scheduling reasons and partly because they thought Pro Vercelli were trying to buy their players time to recover from injuries. Pro Vercelli didn't take this well and in protest sent out a team of youth players -- and for "youth players" read "players aged 10-15 years old." With that in mind, Inter might have been disappointed that they only won 10-3.
2. Manchester United vs. Arsenal, 1998
Notoriously reticent and publicity-shy Manchester bookmaker Fred Done famously paid out on United winning the Premier League at the start of March 1998. While it looks like -- and indeed was -- a foolhardy act of hubris and PR now, it wasn't the most outlandish prediction at the time, given United were 12 points clear of an inconsistent Arsenal side who had drawn far too many games before Christmas.
However, Arsene Wenger's side did have three games in hand and this match saw them start to reel United in -- the 1-0 win courtesy of a Marc Overmars goal -- giving them the impetus and confidence to go on an extraordinary tear, winning the next eight games to claim the league. The title might not have been won on the table that day, but there was a shift in the minds of both teams that was not to be reversed.
1. Liverpool vs. Arsenal, 1989
"You Don't Have A Prayer Arsenal" ran the headline in the Daily Mirror a few days before the final game of the 1989 season, and in some respects they had a point. After all, Arsenal needed to beat a Liverpool side who were imperious at Anfield by two clear goals to claim the title that had looked in the bag at various stages of the season.
Arsenal had been 18 points clear in February but gradually chipped away at their own lead, the nadir coming in dropped points at Highbury to Derby and Wimbledon in May. Famously, George Graham of course set up Arsenal to be tight defensively, rather than go for the all-out attack that many might have opted for, and despite Alan Smith's opening goal in the second half, it looked like the plan had failed. Then Michael Thomas closed in, right at the end, and grabbed the title with both hands.
Graham's plan had worked perfectly.
"None of the boys believed we could turn it round," Thomas said years later. "The only one who really 100 percent believed was George Graham."