Manchester United at home was the first of three tough fixtures for Arsene Wenger, next week it’s Chelsea and then Liverpool before they face FC Porto in the Champions League in Lisbon.

If their performance against United, with a makeshift defence was any indication, then Arsenal can kiss their title aspirations goodbye. They never looked like scoring in the first half and van der Sar was never tested, as the United defence always seemed to have an extra player on hand to thwart any attack. Although the Arsenal got within striking distance on many an occasion they could not finish.

The first goal came from an excellent Nani chip, which appeared to be going wide, but Almunia jumped for the ball and tipped it into his own goal in the 33rd minute. Four minutes later an Arsenal assault on the United goal was cleared down field and Rooney set off like a rocket, sent the ball wide to Nani who squared it back to Rooney who beat Almunia low down to register his 100th goal for the club. I must say that I not seen Rooney looking this fit before, his speed both on and off the ball is very impressive.

In the 52nd minute Park wrapped it up for United when he ran onto Fletcher’s long pass and beat Almunia from the edge of the area.
Wenger’s frustration was obvious as he watched a team that has scored 60 goals this season look like they belonged in a different league.

There was a ray of hope for the Gunners when Thomas Vermaelen hit one from about 20 meters which took a wicked deflection off Jonny Evans’ knee to sent van der Sar the wrong way.

On this performance its “watch out Chelsea.”

In the other match on Sunday Manchester City hosted Portsmouth at Eastlands and made heavy weather of beating the bottom club in the league. Emmanuel Adebayor marked his return from the Angola disaster with a goal in the 40th minute. 5 minutes later Kompany made it 2 – 0 to City when he headed home Martin Petrov’s corner.
Both goals came against the run of play as Avram Grant’s ailing team had the better of play before the first goal.

As for Saturday all matches went according to expectation, with Wolves managing to pull a point out of the hat against the Tigers and Liam Ridgewell saving Birmingham’s bacon in stoppage time.
Brian Laws can not be too disappointed with the Clarets 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea. They showed real grit and determination and could easily have snatched a point, were it not for John Terry’s class header in the 82nd minute.

So from 7th to 4th it is very tight with only 2 points separating the 4 teams. Arsenal are 7 points clear of 4th placed Spurs but they have dropped to 4 points behind United who are 1 points adrift of Chelsea, who have a game in hand. At the other end of the table anyone from Sunderland (13th) downwards is in real danger with only 3 points separating 19th and 13th place. Pompey are rooted to the bottom on 15 points, five adrift of Hull City.
With the Transfer window now closed, it will be interesting to see who was signed by whom in those dying minutes.

There are a couple of catch up matches during the week. On Monday night Sunderland take on Stoke City at the Stadium of Light in what should be a battle royal. Both teams are struggling with only one win in their last 5 outings and that was for Stoke, so don’t be surprised to see a score draw or even a Potters’ victory.

On Tuesday night Hull are at home to Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti will accept nothing less than 3 points. The Tigers may have other ideas, but if Drogba and Malouda are back for Chelsea to join Lampard and Terry’s big head, I don’t give the Tigers much of a chance.

On Wednesday night Fulham play Portsmouth at Craven Cottage and on current form that should be one way traffic for Fulham.

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