To quote famous American sportscaster Marv Albert, it has come down to this.

After 59 matches and more than 5,000 minutes of football, the last and most important match in Manchester United’s 2010/11 season is little more than 24 hours away.

Any season in which you win the Premier League title, and a record-breaking one at that, is a very good season, but one match stands between this campaign being just very good and it being great.

This current United side might be considered more very good than great alongside those that have come before it, but if they can topple the team considered by most as the world’s best tomorrow night at Wembley, there won’t be any question about the greatness of its accomplishments.

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Tomorrow evening, the center of the football world will be Wembley Stadium in London, as Manchester United take on Barcelona in a highly-anticipated Champions League final.

Along with the tens of thousands that will fill Wembley, millions around the world will be tuned in from their televisions and computers to catch the action.

Our friends at Soccerlens are knee-deep in Champions League final coverage, and there are several must-read pieces there, including this one for those who might be unsure who to root for (I’d like to think that most who come here won’t have that problem, right? Right?). And come tomorrow, they’ll be live-blogging the madness from start to finish, so even if you happen to be glued to the TV for much of the evening (or afternoon, or morning), drop by for a minute to mix it up with fellow United fans and Barcelona fans alike.

The 2011/2012 Manchester United home kit has been revealed and it will be available from June 3, 2011. However, you can pre-order the kit now so you will receive your shirt on June 3rd.

The simple red shirt with a black and white striped collar is quite similar to the current home shirt. The only major differences are the style of collar and the white stripe on the shoulder and arms has been removed.

Fans don’t seem to be content with anything Nike does. Until last year, they were changing the kits around too much and this year they are ripping off fans by just changing the collar of the shirt.

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Four years ago, United were in a similar situation as they were in yesterday, with the Premier League title already secured heading into the final day of the season and a visiting opponent facing the drop.

On that occasion, West Ham came to Old Trafford needing at least a point to escape relegation, and thanks to Carlos Tevez’s goal right before halftime, the Hammers received the result they needed and then some.

That day, United didn’t field their best starting lineup, even though Edwin van der Sar and Wayne Rooney both started and Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, and Paul Scholes all came on in the second half, and the focus was likely not as high could have been, with nothing tangible to play for.

This time around, Blackpool came in needing the right result against United and favorable results elsewhere to secure survival, but there were no favors to be done yesterday.

And while the Blackpool contingent at Old Trafford were left brokenhearted at the final whistle yesterday, it was a day full of celebration for the overwhelming majority of those in attendance, as United capped off the Premier League season in style, coming back in the second half for the second time this season against Blackpool to end the campaign almost perfect at home.

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When Manchester United and Blackpool met at Bloomfield Road almost four months ago, it proved to be one of the matches of the season.

Thanks to goals by former United prospect Craig Cathcart and DJ Campbell, United found themselves down 2-0 at halftime, and the deficit remained the same deep into the second half. Then, with less than 20 minutes remaining, the first goal came. Two minutes later, it was followed by another. Then, with the clock ticking towards the end of the 90 minutes, the winner came.

United’s 3-2 win, courtesy of a Dimitar Berbatov brace and a Javier Hernandez equalizer sandwiched between, was the second of three occasions this season in which United rallied from 2-0 down in the second half, and those three great escapes from defeat are a large part of why United enter the final day of the season with the Premier League title already wrapped up.

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To remain at the top, you can’t afford to rest on your laurels, and despite winning a fourth Premier League title in five seasons and advancing to a third Champions League final in four seasons, the expectation is that this year’s summer transfer window will be a relatively busy one for Manchester United, at least in comparison to the last couple of summers.

With the 2010/11 campaign nearing a close and the transfer window a mere couple of weeks away from opening, transfer rumors are already in high gear before the silly season even officially begins.

Aston Villa star Ashley Young is purportedly one of the names at the top of United’s summer shopping list, and while some might not see the logic in United splashing the cash to bring the former Watford man from the Midlands to Manchester, he has every chance to be a success at Old Trafford.

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In less than two weeks’ time, we’ll bid adieu to the finest Manchester United keeper since Peter Schmeichel, as Edwin van der Sar will stroll off into the sunset after the (hopefully victorious) Champions League final against Barcelona.

Is the end also approaching for another United veteran?

Any conversation about United’s stellar successes over the last two decades, and for that matter, the club’s storied history, must include Paul Scholes. It doesn’t take being a United fan to acknowledge that fact, and even the most fervent of United haters can respect and even admire the impact that he’s had on United and on English football in general.

Scholesy has been at the forefront of United’s return to football’s elite in the 90s after little success in the 70s and 80s, and he’s had a huge hand in ensuring we’ve remained there. Without our midfield maestro, we wouldn’t be celebrating just having knocked Liverpool off of the perch they were so firmly entrenched on before he and the likes of Cantona, Keane, Giggs, and Beckham, to name a few, took over.

But after giving us a multitude of memories, like that thunderbolt against Barcelona, which needs no introduction or explanation, and so many other magical moments and performances before and since, we know that the day will soon come when he’ll be waving goodbye to the game.

Will that time be this summer? It’s certainly something to think about, because it’d be ideal for the living legend to go out on top, and being able to end his career with a Premier League/Champions League double would be the ultimate sending-off.

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In a season in which we’ve done so very little the easy way and have scraped and scrapped to many results, I suppose it’s only natural that’s how we would achieve the required result today.

But for those who deal in black and white, there’s only one thing that matters in the present and hopefully for a long time to come:

Manchester United are the kings of English football for the 19th time.

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In less than 24 hours, we could be celebrating one of the biggest achievements, if not the biggest achievement, in Manchester United’s storied history.

But to wrap up a 19th English top-flight title and set off those celebrations, United will have to earn a positive result at a venue that has been a trouble spot quite often in recent history. Considering how away form has been such a point of contention for this season, that’s only fitting, right?

With Sunday’s 2-1 win over Chelsea, United are now six points ahead of Carlo Ancelotti’s side with two matches remaining. All that’s required from here is a solitary point, and United can get the party started early by getting the necessary result tomorrow at Blackburn, who are in a fight of their own coming down to the end.

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As Old Trafford shook on Sunday, so should have the heads of all of those who thought that it’d be the day when Manchester United’s luck finally ran out.

Dominant is an adjective that hasn’t and won’t be used in describing this Manchester United team, but perhaps they were saving it for when it really mattered. It was an occasion that didn’t call for dominance, because a win any way it was achieved would’ve accomplished the same numerical feat.

But in one fell swoop, a 90-minute display of dominance and unwavering calm, United not just knocked Chelsea off of their perch as Premier League champions and Liverpool off of their perch as English football’s most-decorated champions, they sent them hurtling.

Such was the way that United resoundingly answered the bell on Sunday, showing that there would be no repeat of last season, answering any doubts that anyone may have had about United’s worthiness as championship winners this season. The scoreline may read Manchester United 2, Chelsea 1, but there are times when scorelines don’t tell the story, and it doesn’t come remotely close to here.

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