by Kareem Manning
The Premier League has officially become a two horse race after last weekend's enticing match ups which saw both Manchester City and Man United leave their opponents trailing and choking on their dust.
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| Balotelli scores at the death with a coolly taken penalty kick |
This weekend pitted the best of London vs the greats of Manchester, with Manchester City gearing up against the in form Spurs, while the defending champions Manchester United took a trip down to London to face a rather off coloured Arsenal. Going into the weekend it seemed to be an intriguing match up with favourable results that could have potentially caused a crucial mix-up in the title race. Contrary to the false consensus that was upheld by the majority, where critics and reports were counting on an upset, the Premier League title race continued to roll on as it has from the inception of this season as the Red Devils and City dispatched their London counterparts in stylish fashion.
City conjured up the win in injury time, throwing salt into fresh wounds of what was a very spirited Spurs side. Looking at the positives, if Spurs can keep this more-than-capable side together with the addition of one or two investments they will definitely be considered a true heavy weight and would unarguably be able to match their rivals in Manchester City. With the citizens missing their two most influential defensive minded players in Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany, I wasn’t too surprised with the eventual fight back from 2-0 down, but credit to both Redknapp, who instilled a burning hunger and fiery drive in his lads, who are now easily one of the most exciting teams in the league when on the attack. Man City however showed us that they indeed, were the team with the predatorial killer instinct, with a fantastic late win which only adds to their unbeaten home record, a crucial bonus for teams competing for the coveted title.
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| United's Rafael lunges in on an incisive run by Chamberlain |
An extremely depleted Man United side expertly neutralised a sorry Arsenal with an important away win as they cruised to victory at the Emirates Stadium with a 2-1 scoreline. The final score did no justice to United’s performance as they created chance after chance and totally dominated Arsenal for 80% of the game, bossing possession and limiting Arsenal to half chances. At times many may have thought Arsenal was giving up as their performance showed. The killer instinct that I mentioned earlier - that core characteristic of what transforms a team from being just a team, to being champions is what the Gunners lack. One must have the mentality of being a champion if one will ever be, and judging from the substitution made by Arsene Wenger, who swapped Arsenal's best attacking performer on the night, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, the champion mentality is oblivious and the trophies will remain further out of reach unless this is mentality is altered. Wenger, belief is key.
United's win certified that the title race will continue to be battled out in the north of England as they collected three vital points that kept them within range of Manchester City. One thing going against United though, is the amount of injuries, as players crawled to the finish, giving Sir Alex Ferguson a massive headache for the huge fixture list in the coming weeks.
To be successful in this extremely competitive League, one quality is needed as games will be drawn and lost. It is the ability to bounce back from unwanted results. The ability to return to your best after you've been cut short is crucial to help get the team back on track, as teams like Arsenal and Chelsea show, who continue to string too many losses and draws, making them inconsistent and bereft of that champion mentality I keep mentioning. The two at the top of the tree in City and United, have proved that there are easily the two most consistent teams and are by far the strongest in the league in terms of the collection of players at their disposal and even management. It will be very difficult to predict this league finish as we can never count out Sir Alex and United but for now it is advantage to City in the MANCHESTER PREMIER LEAGUE.
