Saturday Recap

An eventful day in the EPL....

Arsenal's lead atop the Premeirship is now one point, and it's a small miracle that it is still in fact a lead at all. With Manchester United thumping hapless Fulham at Craven Cottage 3-0, Arsenal were in need of points to keep their lead in the league, and a miracle 93rd minute goal by Nicklas Bendtner salvaged a 1-1 draw for the Gunners, who were at home to Aston Villa. Arsenal were clearly still hungover from their tumultuous past weekend and played uninspired football, particularly in the attack, although it could be said that Phillipe Senderos played as bad of a defensive game as is possible, consistently getting abused by Gabriel Agbonlahor and Marlon Harewood. Cesc Fabregas, Emanuel Adebayor, Mathieu Flamini, et. al played very sub par, and it's never been more clear now that Eduardo is missing, that Arsenal are sorely missing the services of Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie. Villa for their part, must feel bitterly disappointed not to come away with all three points after soundly outplaying Arsenal. A win at the Emirates would have put them level with Everton for the moment in 4th place and only whetted their appetites for Champions League qualification for next season. As it is, they can head back to the Midlands feeling good about their form, but disappointed that they didn't enhance their position as much as they could have.

United will go approach their last ten games with the swagger and the confidence and the belief that they are indeed the best side in England, and will surely feel optimisitic about catching and then fending off Arsenal (and perhaps Chelsea still) in route to defending their Premeir League crown.

As much as we love to focus on the glamour clubs at the top of the table, the real theatre this year is occurring in the bottom half, where after today, teams placed 12 through 18 are separated by a mere 4 points, meaning any one of SEVEN clubs will be joining Fulham and Derby in relegation by season's end. Reading and Birmingham both scored crucial wins, while Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Bolton suffered defeats. Wigan and Sunderland drew, and it's anybody's guess who will be relegated as we enter the last phase of the schedule.