Premier League heads for an exciting run-in

The race for the Premier League title took some more twists and turns over the weekend with Chelsea winning at Manchester United and Arsenal picking up a very late three points at home to Wolves.

Woeful

The race for fourth place went pretty well for Manchester City. Their remarkable 6-1 win at woeful Burnley has put them in the driving seat after Tottenham lost at Sunderland and Liverpool could only draw at Birmingham.

At the bottom, West Ham picked up a hard fought and unlikely point at in-form Everton whilst Hull and Burnley lost.

Advantage

Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Old Trafford puts them two points clear of United and three ahead of Arsenal with just five games to go. As well as the points advantage, Chelsea also have the best goal difference of the three.

United went into the game without the injured Wayne Rooney and the threat of Dimitar Berbatov as a lone striker is hardly comparable.

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has said that Manchester United are a weaker side without Rooney.

“They’re not the same team without him. Rooney is a fantastic player who is difficult to replace with anyone else. Berbatov is good but Rooney is totally different. Rooney can sometimes come back to receive the ball and use it for all the team and then he can attack in any direction. He is an unbelievable player.”

In the words of that famous old phrase, ‘no shit Sherlock!’

With the game at the Emirates four minutes into injury-time and ten man Wolves hanging on at 0-0, it looked as though Arsenal’s title chances were disappearing. Then, not for the first time this season, up stepped Nicklas Bendtner to prove that he actually can occasionally hit a barn door!

Defending

Manchester City’s game was over after seven minutes at Burnley when they went 3-0 up. There shouldn’t be teams in the Premier League who are capable of defending as shambolically as Burnley, but City were pretty good and put themselves ahead of the others in the fourth place race.

They are a point ahead of Tottenham who predictably lost to two goals from Darren Bent, the striker Harry Redknapp compared to his wife when it came to finishing. Although Bent did manage to miss two penalties just to show that Harry wasn’t entirely wrong.

Silly

Three points further back having played a game more are Liverpool. When they lost their 1-0 lead at Birmingham in a game they needed to win, Rafa Benitez decided to take off Fernando Torres. No, it doesn’t make any sense to me either. That guarantee of a fourth placed finish is starting to look a little silly.

Aston Villa stayed in the race, a point behind Liverpool with a game in hand after Ashley Young gave them a 1-0 win at Bolton to ease the memories of their horror show at Stamford Bridge.

Thriller

At the bottom, Portsmouth are doomed but managed to pick up a point in a 0-0 draw at home to Blackburn. I bet that was a thriller! The problem for Pompey now, after losing players to injury and suspension, will be to put out eleven fit players for the FA Cup semi-final next week.

Hull lost 2-0 at inspirational Stoke and we have already discussed Burnley. West Ham showed great character to twice come from behind to get a 2-2 draw at Everton. On the basis that the bottom three might not get another point, that may be enough for West Ham.

Certain

Whatever happens, the run-in will be the most exciting we have had for a few years. Nothing is yet certain and it would take a brave men to put money on the final league table positions. Chelsea are favourites for the title, Manchester City for fourth and Pompey, Hull and Burnley to go down. Will I be putting any money on that? No way!