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At the top of the Premiership, Manchester United missed the chance to extend their lead over Chelsea to nine points … or, looking at it another way, Chelsea missed the chance to narrow the gap between United and themselves to three. As it is, the gap remains at six points after a weekend of two ‘classic’ encounters between giants of the English game.
Chelsea lost 0-2 at Liverpool on Saturday, the first time that Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez has beaten Mourinho’s Chelsea in the Premiership.The Reds’ second goal was a clear contender for goal of the season, Jermaine Pennant controlling a loose ball outside the area to the right of the goal and hitting it sweetly into the top left hand corner of the net. Worrying for Chelsea fans would have been the inability to react to being two-down after less than 20 minutes.
On Sunday, it looked for half an hour in the second half as if Arsenal would lose at the Emirates Stadium for the first time, in front of a crowd of 60,000. Wayne Rooney put Manchester United in front on 53 minutes, but in the last ten minutes, Robin Van Persie and then Thierry Henry, in added time, turned the game around for the Gunners. The results squash the first four places into a band of twelve points, with Liverpool third and Arsenal fourth, just one point behind.
All this at the end of a week when a new global TV deal for the Premiership was announced. As from next season, the club finishing top will get at least £50 million (around 76 million euros), which will make winning the title even more attractive. Chelsea got just over £30 million (around 45 million euros) as Champions last season. Next season, the bottom club will get that.
But it may not be enough of a consolation. Clubs that go down sometimes stay down, and this can be disastrous if their budgets, especially in respect of players’ salaries, are geared towards Premiership football. Leeds United, historically a big club, won the title in 1992, but in 2004 they slipped out of the Premiership with severe money problems and are currently fighting against relegation from the Championship. So the battle to avoid relegation from the Premiership can be a desperate one.
At the end of the season, three teams will go down to the Championship. At the moment, Watford, who were promoted this season, seem to have booked their ticket down already, with a meagre 12 points from 22 games, although they have two games in hand on disappointing Charlton, clearly missing coach Alan Curbishley … who is now at West Ham, currently occupying the third relegation place. Curiously, Charlton are now coached by Alan Pardew … recently sacked by West Ham. West Ham have signed Scottish international midfielder Nigel Quashie from West Brom, but the Hammers’ directors should perhaps have looked a little more closely at his CV: Quashie has played for QPR, Nottingham Forest, Southampton and West Brom … all relegated while he was playing for them.
In Scotland, a hat-trick by the Dutch striker who sounds like a Viking, Vennegoor of Hesselink, helped to give Celtic a comfortable 5-1 win over lowly St Mirren, while second placed Rangers won 1-0 at Dunfermline. But the result of the day was arguably Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s 3-0 win over Hibs. This is only Caley’s third season in the top flight, and they are managing to survive on meagre crowds (record attendance: 7,100, against Celtic) and a miniscule budget (record signing: John Rankin from Ross County last August for just £65,000 – 99,000 euros). It’s not the English Premiership; it’s a different world entirely.
By Phil Town
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