Just a week after Manchester City’s mauling of their more illustrious neighbours at Old Trafford set many tongues wagging about a changing of the guard at the top of the English game, came arguably a more noteworthy result - Arsenal beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
In successive weeks Chelsea losing away at QPR and at home to Arsenal - the weakest Arsenal side on paper since the beginning of Arsene Wenger’s reign - has pulled the Blues away from the Manchester clubs. With the aforementioned Arsenal being stripped of many of their prized assets in the Summer, the big four (regardless of make up) has become a big two, and a new quartet of teams seems to have formed on the next rung down the ladder.
This quartet of teams (Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea & Liverpool) jostling for 3rd and 4th places (and thus money spinning spots in the Champions League) arguably find most common ground in their capacity for shipping goals. Arsenal travelled to Manchester United and leaked eight, Spurs welcomed City to The Lane and Edin Dzeko helped himself to four goals all of his own, on Saturday Chelsea allowed Arsenal to plunder five at Stamford Bridge and Liverpool travelled to Spurs and conceded four.
Equally all four have irresistible offensive weapons, although this is rather more to be expected of any prospective top six team than their leaky defences. Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie has picked up the baton from Cesc Fabregas and raised his game to the extent that he has now scored 28 goals in 27 league games this calendar year and 10 in the current season. Gervinho has settled well on the wing and has built up a rapport with Van Persie already, while Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey are capable of opening up most defences. Spurs have their very own “Van The Man”, in the shape of Rafael Van der Vaart who is just one shy of equalling the club record for scoring in the most successive premier league games (six) as well as laying on many goals as well. Emmanuel Adebayor’s scoring has tailed off since his initial three in the first two matches since he joined on loan from Manchester City but he remains a useful outlet and target man. And Gareth Bale and Luka Modric combine to make up around £70 million worth of creative quality. Chelsea, of the four, are the side with the least obviously totemic figure in an attacking sense currently, as Fernando Torres still hasn’t settled yet. However Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard are both proven goalscoring options and remain class acts despite a slight drop off from their absolute primes, while Daniel Sturridge shows plenty of promise and Juan Mata already looks a canny signing. At Liverpool, the prolonged absence(albeit with a brief return) of captain Steven Gerrard is somewhat made up for by the performances of the Kop’s newest icon, Luis Suarez.
At the beginning of the season, after two defeats and a goal difference of minus seven, it was thought that Spurs would finish in 6th place at best. However five wins in six league games have followed. A little later, Arsenal’s defeat away at Blackburn and at Spurs as well as that disastrous visit to Old Trafford left them in the bottom half of the table and pencils were being sharpened in readiness for Arsene Wenger’s managerial obituary. However seven wins in eight games in all competitions, capped off by the thrilling win at the Bridge have raised expectations in that corner of North London. Chelsea have been sucked into the pack by their most recent defeats and by virtue of their inability to keep a clean sheet in the league all season. Liverpool has been the most consistent team of the four this season, without the thrilling highs that the other three have shown but with the most clean sheets of the four and having mostly been in the 5th and 6th positions since the season’s beginning.
Quite what will unfold over the course of the season for the quartet is anyone’s guess as they continue to confound with their swashbuckling football and disregard for frugality. However with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal having played 10 games apiece and having 19, 18 and 16 points respectively, Spurs, with 19 points from their 9 games, have a chance to capitalise. In addition to their game in hand, their next six fixtures read: Fulham (A), Aston Villa (H), West Brom (A), Bolton (H), Stoke (A), Sunderland (H). Only one of these teams currently reside in the top half of the table, and that team is Aston Villa, in 9th position. At White Hart Lane that fixture would be seen as a potential three points by Harry Redknapp and his men and there is a real chance that these six fixtures could yield anything between twelve and the full eighteen points. In the same period of games, all three of the other teams play Manchester City, the current runaway leaders and Chelsea and Liverpool square off at Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool and Spurs, without the distraction of European football at the top table, have an opportunity to force Chelsea and Arsenal out of the top four by the end of the season for the first time in a decade, but there will surely be many more twists and turns in this story before that time. Did someone say Newcastle United......?!
Nick Rogerson
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