Down at the bottom of the table, wins for Bolton, Wigan and QPR have kept all three well and truly in the fight; and at the same time dragged a resurgent Blackburn and a no-longer comfortable Aston Villa into the mire also. In fairness, Bolton's come from behind win at Molineux does look to have condemned Wolves to the drop, as they now sit fully six points from safety with no signs of encouragement to suggest a comeback is within their power. Wolves aside though, it looks to be a fight between as many as five clubs to stay out of those final two spots.
Of the basement dwellers, Mark Hughes' QPR team were surely the least expected winners. They put an end to Arsenal's outstanding recent form, with a 2-1 win to end a streak of 7 successive wins for the Gunners. This result has thrown the race for fourth back into very interesting territory - if Tottenham can overcome Swansea on Sunday they will move level on points with their bitter North London rivals. Given the ten point lead they held not so long ago, this is perhaps not a reason to be dancing in the streets for Spurs fans - but of late it has looked increasingly like Arsenal were going to pull away and leave Redknapp's men for dead. Not so any more, this one can be expected to go the distance as well.
Hard on the heels of the two North London clubs come West Londoners Chelsea, who are still in with a shout of sneaking into the coveted top four. Roberto Di Matteo continues his impressive cameo, posing the question for Comrade Sackovich to consider who he should hire and fire next.
Meanwhile, Everton battled to a win over Roy Hodgson's West Bromwich Albion which saw them leapfrog Merseyside rivals Liverpool into 7th spot. The Toffees may not maintain that lofty spot until the end, but I would not bet against it, and for me it begs the question of what David Moyes could do without the constraints that he has operated under throughout his entire outstanding tenure in the Goodison hot seat. Fair play to Gollum, year after year he has delivered excellence that none of his 'also-ran' peers can rival.
So, as we are seeing, plenty of questions. There was one fixture though which we've yet to mention, and as far as I'm concerned it's one that rather than delivering a question, gave us an answer.
Manchester City lost their 100% home record in a 3-3 draw with Sunderland. The fact that they salvaged a point when trailing 3-1 with five minutes to go is commendable, but it's not enough. I think this result has settled things...Manchester United are going to win the league.
This may seem a bit premature with a lot of football still to be played, but I think this result has proven it. I simply cannot see Alex Ferguson's men relinquishing top spot now, particularly given that a win against Blackburn on Monday could provide them with a five point cushion. United still have to go to City of course, but if the lead is five points that fixture may well lose it's relevance - indeed, with City's faltering form it could even be a nightmarish scenario for the Sky Blues of their fierce rivals claiming title Number 20 right before their eyes.
The reason I think it is now time to declare this race over, is that over 20 years of Premier League football, in order to beat Ferguson, teams have had to be consistently excellent. Every Wenger Arsenal team that lifted the trophy was outstanding - either for an entire season or, in the case of 97-98, from Christmas onwards. Jose Mourinho's Chelsea vintage of 05 and 06 set new benchmarks of consistency and effectiveness - even Carlo Ancelloti's team in 2010 totted up an enormous number of points and goals. Blackburn in 95 is perhaps the only team which could arguably be seen as anything less than legendary, but they possessed the irresistible goal threat of the infamous SAS and were deserving champions.
Manchester City, since around Christmas time, have fallen well short of the level that is required to beat a Fergie team. They have found already that slip-up's are costly and mistakes will be punished, and that when you're in the same league as Manchester United, anything below your best is not likely to be good enough. This latest draw is in itself not necessarily the fatal blow, but it is indicative of a recent inconsistency that simply won't do. They only have themselves to blame - by Christmas they could and should have been miles clear, but even then with the incredible run that United are on (and the easy fixtures they have in front of them) I'd still think City would have reason to be fearful. As it is, losing further ground and handing further initiative to the Red Devils, I just don't see any way back.
I firmly believe title number 20 will be going to Old Trafford, and there is nothing Roberto Mancini can do now to stop it. If and when they do lift the trophy, we'll look at the question of just how such an average United team can come out on top yet again, but that's a topic for another blog. As it is now, the only question is have City blown it? In my eyes, the answer is yes.
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