Still, despite the tumult, the Premier League landscape changed very little, as few top clubs gained on the leaders, and the bottom three remained as they previously stood as well.
The one club, in fact, that did make a significant jump in table position was Liverpool, reaching a season high-water mark sixth after completing the double over Chelsea, who are now level with Tottenham on points for the final Champions League berth — and just six points ahead of the streaking Reds as well.
After 26 matchdays, the Premier League power rankings stand as follows:
| Premier League Power Rankings | |||||
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Manchester United As much as Manchester United losing its 29-match unbeaten run at the Molineux was a fluke, it wasn’t. Sir Alex Ferguson‘s bunch really never threatened goal after Nani‘s opener, and instead of going into “Manchester United time” mode, Paul Scholes attempted a Hand of God and Ryan Giggs lost his cool. Still, even if nearly all of their competitors hadn’t stumbled behind them, United would have to lose a couple more to lose the top spot. |
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Manchester City By virtue of being the only squad in the top five to look half-decent on the weekend, City gets the nod for second place in the power rankings. If they can somehow manage to get a win at Old Trafford, they’ll suddenly be within 2 points of their rivals in the title race. Still, it’s hard to say that the Citizens are clicking. If you disregard Carlos Tevez‘s 18 goals, the rest of the team has just 24. Though it’s an unfair comparison, if you subtract leading scorer Frederic Piquionne from last place West Ham, the rest of the Hammers have 21. |
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Arsenal Simply put, Saturday’s four-goal letup at St. James’ Park was a soul-crusher. Even worse, it was the Gunners’ first chance to capitalize on a United loss gone by the wayside. Arsenal will have to show a resilience that they’ve lacked in recent years if they want to stay in the title race following their record-setting draw. On the bright side, the form of Theo Walcott, Andrei Arshavin and Robin Van Persie should give them a veritable chance at such, and their impending Champions League exit will make things easier as well. |
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Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham’s escape act against Bolton may have been even more ridiculous than the one it pulled against Liverpool earlier this season — but it was good enough to gain points on nearly all of their rivals. Still, no big club other than Liverpool needed to do more in the transfer window, and Spurs managed to be ineffective and peculiar in their efforts. Bidding for Charlie Adam when there would be no place for him on the field? Bringing in Steven Pienaar despite the same problem? Bidding over 100 times as much for Guiseppe Rossi as for Phil Neville? Not adding to the always-injured backline? Not only did Harry Redknapp not live up to his transfer-genius reputation, he seemed to have no control over the transactions whatsoever. |
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Liverpool Liverpool’s best players are finally playing in their most natural positions on the pitch — thanks to Fernando Torres‘ exit and King Kenny’s innovative set of tactics. The results speak for themselves: four consecutive wins, including an away victory at Chelsea, without conceding a single goal. The Reds are just six points behind the top four, and Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez have just a half hour of game time yet between them. |
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Chelsea In Chelsea’s last 20 matches, the Blues have scored just 25 goals and are 8-5-7. At some point, you have to differentiate between a slump and over half of a season. They did add some major pieces in David Luiz and Fernando Torres, but it’s hard to say how either really solves Chelsea’s problems with pace and width in midfield — issues augmented by the formation change that has accompanied the addition of Torres. |
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