Arsenal hit the post twice but could find no way past Manchester City as the Premier League title rivals drew 0-0 on Wednesday. Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas both hit the post in the first 30 minutes, but Arsenal were not able to turn their possession into goals.
Both sides finished with 10 men after Pablo Zabaleta was sent off for an 89th-minute challenge on Bacary Sagna, who subsequently attempted to headbutt the City defender and was dismissed.
Man City were disappointingly defensive, but they stuck to their game plan and got the point that they wanted. With the draw, Arsenal remains two points adrift of City in third having played a game less. The draw leaves second-place City two points behind neighbor Manchester United, which also has two games in hand.
In the other games, there are three or four managers who are clinging to their jobs by a thread. Roy Hodgson’s tenure at Anfield has to be over as Liverpool lost 3-1 at Ewood Park to Blackburn. Liverpool have picked up 6 points from their last six games and a change has to be made at Anfield before Liverpool find themselves in a relegation battle.
Another manager under a lot of pressure is Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa. Houllier saw his side lose 1-0 at home to Sunderland, a lose that dropped Villa into the bottom three. Houllier left the field after the game to “Your Getting Sacked In The Morning” from the Villa fans. They might well be right.
Just when it seemed that Avram Grant had turned the corner with West Ham, they traveled to Newcastle and got thumped 5-0. The loss dropped the Hammers back to the bottom of the table, one point behind Wigan who drew with Bolton 1-1 tonight.
The last manager in trouble is Carlo Ancelotti who saw his Chelsea team lose 1-0 at Wolves. The champions are in a freefall and have won just one of their last nine games. Ancelotti has said he is lucky to still have his job and that luck might be running out as Chelsea have turned into an old, tired team.
With Arsenal and Man City drawing, Spurs were poised to close the gap on second place, and also to create a gap between themselves and Chelsea who are in the fifth. But in a night when nobody in the top five won, Spurs lost 2-1 to Everton as Louis Saha scored his first league goal in about a year.
So the top of the table looks like this. Manchester United (12-0-8) leads with 44 points, followed by Manchester City (12-4-6) with 42, Arsenal (12-5-4) with 40, Tottenham (10-5-6) with 36 and Chelsea with 35.
