There’s no doubt that Manchester United have usurped the title of “team to beat” from Chelsea in the Premier League. Their biggest challenge may not even come from the embattled, aging, injury-plagued Blues, but from fellow Londoners Tottenham, who have managed to deliver stomach punches to two of the “big four” each of the past two weekends.
Elsewhere in the table, Arsenal finally got back on track at Villa Park — but weren’t exactly impressive in doing so — and Stoke continued their resurgence by holding again-defensive Manchester City at the Britannia.
As for Liverpool, they may not have pulled out the win at White Hart Lane, but they lost little ground in the standings despite such, and they looked a different team than that which let Wigan and Stoke take it to them.
See the rankings below.
| Premier League Power Rankings | |||||
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Manchester United Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Jermaine Defoe, Dimitar Berbatov — your list of players ever to score five goals in a Premier League game. United looked their best for the first time in a long time, and their best is nearly unbeatable. |
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Chelsea Chelsea’s 1-1-3 November was a month as poor as you can remember in the Abramovich Era. The Blues have legitimate problems with age and depth — meaning spending is likely forthcoming in January. |
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TottenHham Hotspur When you beat two “big four” squads in a row with late comebacks, you crack the top three in the power rankings. Tottenham is going to miss Rafael Van der Vaart, but they surely have enough going for them right now to not miss him very much. |
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Arsenal Jack Wilshere, Marouane Chamakh, and Samir Nasri have been legitimate bright spots for the Gunners — the former of which notched his first Premier League goal on Saturday — but you’d be lying if you didn’t think for a moment that Aston Villa was going to come back in the second half against Arsenal. |
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Manchester City City followed up their 4-0 offensive explosion with a predictable 1-1 draw at the Britannia. Things are going okay at Eastlands, but City haven’t done anything to make you too excited about their title chances in a while. |
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Bolton Wanderers Blackpool almost turned Cinderella back into a pumpkin with a 2-0 lead late at the Reebok, but Bolton showed great grit coming back to salvage a point in the final minutes. Owen Coyle has the Trotters playing inspired football, but they’ll have their hands full at Eastlands this weekend. |
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Stoke City Remember when Stoke lost 3-2 every week and was teetering on the drop zone? The ugly football at the Britannia has been producing impressive results of late — 10 points in their last 4 matches. |
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