Chelsea show spirit; Man Utd/Pool continue chase; relegation issue no clearer

Lousy Premiership fixtures led to five games on Saturday and five on Sunday. Alright for those who have access to Sky, where three big matches were featured live on Sunday, otherwise highlights of Match Of The Day would suffice for the average football enthusiast.

Saturday brought Charlton v Everton, Portsmouth v Blackburn, Sunderland v Fulham, Wigan v Birmingham, and Tottenham v Man City. Spurs maintained their winning form after Newcastle with a 2-1 win over City, which Robbie Keane again the main instigator of many attacks. This placed pressure on Blackburn to follow suit, only for the Lancashire side to twice concede the lead against battling Portsmouth to finish 2-2. Craig Bellamy finished off two superbly taken goals with his left foot, with Lomano LuaLua scoring a neat effort himself.

Charlton v Everton ended goalless, surprisingly, Darren Bent was possibly rested with the FA Cup replay with Middlesbrough in mind on Wednesday, while Mike Riley gave the Sunderland v Fulham fixture a chance to proceed before deciding some 20mins into the game to abandon it due to snowy weather. Wigan v Birmingham was an evening kick-off, and Birmingham knew they had a chance to distance themselves further from the relegation three with a vital away win at the JJB Stadium, but they were held by an expected stern home front that took the lead through John McCulloch's header and Andreas Johansson's headed finish. But Birmingham look to have suffered enough to know not to surrender, Emile Heskey resiliently running down the left to square across for David Dunn to put enough on the ball for it to cross the line.

The highlight of the weekend came on Sunday, where all the games were big games. Aston Villa v West Brom regarded the relegation issue, yet ended in a 0-0 result which does nothing for either side. It is not convincing for those who seek the exit of David O'Leary, neither does it allay fears for Bryan Robson's side, perched now in the zone, a point and place behind Birmingham. Middlesbrough came down from Thursday night's excellent comeback to face the North East derby, where a 1-2 home defeat cap their season of having a bad game after a good one. Not convincing for Newcastle but the job was done.

Chelsea faced West Ham at Stamford Bridge, went a goal behind from early through James Collins' header, and then a man down as Maniche was judged to have gone over the top with his challenge on Lionel Scaloni, a straight red. But Chelsea showed they do not buckle from such a disadvantage, with Didier Drogba then Hernan Crespo tidying away for a half time 2-1 lead. John Terry and then William Gallas finished off a comprehensive victory. The message clearly was 'The Bridge isn't falling down.'

Liverpool v Bolton meant a win for Liverpool would keep them that much more in 3rd place and seeking for Man Utd to slip up and relinquish 2nd place. Not a first half to write home about for both sides but mainly Liverpool were seeking the goals and not giving Bolton the openings they can easily carve chances from. Stelios Giannakopoulos made a great chance for himself but Pepe Reina was down to stop it. Peter Crouch touched a return to Robbie Fowler of the only goal of the game. Three points in the bag, that is needed.

The main focus was left to last and so much depended on its result. Man Utd v Arsenal comes at a time where a Man Utd defeat would have made it harder to catch up with Chelsea, render Utd 2pts ahead of Liverpool, albeit a game in hand, and a big scalp for one of their main adversaries. A defeat for Arsenal would keep them in 6th behind Spurs and Blackburn but a point and a game behind 5th place. Again, a draw would mean little to either side. I was surprised to see no Thierry Henry, but perhaps Arsene Wenger wanted to test his side without his talisman starting, giving Robin Van Persie a chance with Emanuel Adebayor. Also with games against Portsmouth and West Brom to follow, it could be considered less risky for Henry to come through those than a battling Man Utd.

But even without Henry starting, Arsenal were the brighter of the two from the whistle and Man Utd took time to come back into the game. Wayne Rooney wasn't his usual bustling dribbling self but come some 10-15 mins later he was causing problems to the Arsenal defence. A contentious moment came when Ruud Van Nistelrooy played through a superb ball for Rooney to chase. Rooney rounded Jens Lehmann and cut back to shoot, but the ball deflected off Kolo Toure and then the post. Rooney immediately claimed handball and replays showed he was correct, Toure getting up with both forearms in the path of the ball. The referee was Graeme Poll, you either love him or hate him. I don't hate him, I just feel he likes the limelight rather than adjudicate appropriately, for it appeared he had a decent view of the incident. Then there is the view of the linesman to consider.

Half time came at 0-0, but the breakthrough came from a Mikael Silvestre cross from the left that was allowed through to Rooney, who controlled and drilled past Lehmann. Then from there Man Utd pushed up to increase their lead. Arsenal brought on Henry with some 20mins of normal time but it may have been too late for him to make any impact, for his first touch came from a freekick that was slightly wide and then his involvement in attack was minimal. Arsenal made chances through Van Persie and Adebayor. Van Persie narrowly missed with a shot and when Robert Pires fired in a drive, it curled in Adebayor's direction, with the Togo man missing out on a touch with a flick. Whether this was telling on Man Utd's pressure for their second goal is questionable, but Rooney ran across behind Phillippe Senderos and collected the ball on the right , ran on to ride a Senderos challenge and square for Park Ji-Sung to beat Emanuel Eboue and touch in.

While Arsenal made a number of breakthroughs from which they could have converted goals, Man Utd kept shape strong enough to earn the win. It may have been justice for the potential penalty claim that was overlooked, but Arsenal gave a good account of themselves. This defeat could be immaterial for the Gunners, with the game against Portsmouth on Wednesday night, then Spurs visiting Everton and Blackburn hosting Liverpool at the weekend as Arsenal face West Brom.

For Man Utd, they are still in the chase for Chelsea. With the Friday evening game at home with Sunderland, Chelsea could possibly find they are 4pts ahead of their match away to Bolton. Then Utd won't play until the following weekend away to Spurs as Chelsea host Everton. The next game after that weekend for both teams is their encounter at Stamford Bridge on the last Saturday of April. The chase could very well conclude then.




RedsMan.