Chelsea remain four points clear at the top the Premier League after an impressive come-from-behind win against Tottenham Hotspur, while Arsenal are 10 points behind the leaders after losing 1-0 at Norwich.
In the early game at White Hart Lane, Chelsea dominated the first half and went into half-time deservedly leading 1-0 thanks to an unstoppable volley from Gary Cahill.
But after an inspired André Villas-Boas team talk Spurs came out flying in the second half and shocked Chelsea through two quick goals from William Gallas and Jermain Defoe.
But Chelsea’s middle three of Oscar, Hazard and Mata are as good as any side in Europe and Mata scored twice in three minutes midway through the half to put Chelsea back on top. Daniel Sturridge completed the scoring in added time to wrap up an impressive Chelsea performance.
At West Brom it looked the Champions would drop points on Chelsea as they had James Milner sent off in the first half and then fell behind to a Shane Long goal. But you get the feeling that Man City are never out of games and that they will find a way to come back and win and that is what they did today thanks to two late goals from substitute Edin Džeko. It is funny that City’s never-say-die attitude has long been a trademark of their rivals from the red side of Manchester.
Speaking of United, they once again went 1-0 down via a Wayne Rooney own goal, but the England striker scored twice at the right end to help Sir Alex Ferguson’s side to a 4-2 victory against Stoke. The fact that they have conceded 11 goals in only 8 games has to really worry SAF. That projects to 52 goals over a full season, and teams don’t win the title letting in that many goals.
The big upset of the day was at Carrow Road were Norwich beat a really poor Arsenal side 1-0 thanks to a Grant Holt’s first-half goal. The win was Norwich’s first of the season and moved them put of the bottom three.
As for Arsenal, they have only won one of their last four league matches and are now 10 points behind Chelsea and six behind the two Manchester clubs. It is not even Halloween, but it looks like already that a top three finish is beyond Arsenal this season.
Elsewhere, Liverpool won a league game at Anfield for the first time this season, beating Reading 1-0. Fulham heaped more misery on Aston Villa as they also won 1-0 while West Ham United thrashed Southampton. The Saints are conceding an average of three goals a game, and despite their pretty football, look a certainty to get relegated unless they tighten up their defence and learn to win some ugly games.
