United and Chelsea edge away from Arsenal

What a player

United

United went to Bolton and with a week of huge games against Bayern Munich and Chelsea to come, Sir Alex decided to go without Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand. It was a gamble and for a long while it looked as though it might backfire as Bolton gave as good as they got.

Even after Samuel had put United ahead with an exquisite finish at the wrong end, Bolton still looked capable of causing an upset. If the referee had interpreted Nemanja Vidic’s challenge on Elmander in the same way as everyone else in the ground, United would have been down to ten men and who knows what might have happened.

As it happened, the referee waved play on, Elmander had five stitches, Vidic looked relieved and played brilliantly and United scored another three and made the game look a whole lot easier than it actually was.

Chelsea

Chelsea had a potentially tricky game at home to fourth place pretenders Aston Villa. It started fairly evenly with Chelsea just about on top but Villa looking assured. When Lampard gave Chelsea a deserved lead after fifteen minutes it started to look as though Chelsea were over their ‘blip’ and starting to look like their old selves. Then, on the half hour, John Carew equalises and you could cut the tension at Stamford Bridge with a knife.

The 5-0 win at Portsmouth in midweek started to look like a false new dawn and Chelsea were back to their recent struggles. A penalty just before half-time took Chelsea in ahead at the break.

What were we to expect in the second half? Villa building pressure and piling forward to look for the equaliser? A nervous Chelsea defending for their lives and trying to run down the clock?

No, Chelsea scored a further five goals to make it twelve in two games and send a fairly emphatic ‘we’re back’ message to everyone else.

Frank Lampard scored four goals. OK, two of them were from the spot, but what a player he is.

Arsenal

Arsenal missed out by only picking up a point at Birmingham. In a tight game, Arsenal had more possession, more attempts on goal, more corners and more class. Having said that, Birmingham are a fine side and they stayed in the game on merit.

It looked to be all over when substitute Samir Nasri burst through the home defence and struck a beauty past the excellent Joe Hart with just ten minutes left.

Unfortunately for Arsenal they still have Manuel Almunia and his poor attempt to stop a lucky rebound off the remarkable Kevin Phillips in injury time could cost them dear come the end of the season.

Wenger

After the 1-1 draw, you would imagine that Arsene Wenger would be gracious and congratulate Birmingham on their fighting spirit and the great season they have had. No, of course he wasn’t!

Wenger had his usual rant about other teams putting in bad tackles on his players and this vendetta he seems to think there is against his club. He was particularly angry about a Craig Gardner tackle that injured Cesc Fabregas.

The fact was that Gardner’s tackle was hard, but fair. It was, in fact, a good tackle. It was the sort of tackle that you want your midfielders to be making. At the risk of sounding like good old Rafa, I have another fact. Each team committed thirteen fouls in the game. Arsenal had the ball more often than Birmingham so on average, Arsenal fouled more than their opponents.

I have a recently discovered respect for Arsene Wenger but he really has got to stop going on about teams trying to hurt his players. It is insulting, not true and boring.

Cracker

Next week’s game between Manchester United and Chelsea should be a cracker and the winners will fancy their chances of taking the title. If it’s a draw, Arsenal will still fancy their chances. It’s the best title race for a long time.