Chelsea kept their title hopes on track by beating Manchester United 2-1. Both Chelsea and Manchester United are level on 81 points with only two games left. Michael Ballack scored his first just before half time with a brilliant header.
In the second half Ricardo Carvalho's sloppy back pass was picked up by Wayne Rooney and he smacked in the equaliser to put Manchester United in the driving seat.
Just as it looked as time was running out for Chelsea, in the 84 minute Michael Carrick handled in the area. Up step the cool head of Michael Ballack who's thunderous penalty sent the home crowd wild.
Manchester United threw everything at Chelsea, and the pressure nearly paid off. Both Ashley Cole and Andriy Shevchenko were force to make goal-line clearances.
Chelsea in the end deserved the three points, which has helped their title hopes. Will Manchester United hold their nerve or will they buckle under the pressure? We will just have to wait and see, as a neutral it makes for a really good finish to the season.
At 12:45 on Saturday (26/04/2008) all eyes will be on Chelsea as they kickoff the most important game of the FA Premier League against Manchester United. This is a must win for Chelsea and they might have to do it without Frank Lampard, who is currently grieving after the death of his mother.
Can Chelsea stop Manchester United from retaining the title? Personally I don't think so, I reckon the game is over hyped and I predict the final result will be a 1-1 draw.
However, I've been wrong on many occasions and it will probably be a blinding game with Chelsea overpowering Manchester United and winning 3-1. This would be the best result for all us neutral fans, who want the title to go right down to the wire.
Elsewhere Birmingham City have got to dig deep and beat Liverpool to have a chance of surviving the drop. Liverpool will probably field a weakened team, as they still have one eye of the Champions League Semi-Final, this wont help the other teams that are battling against relegation such as Bolton and Fulham. Liverpool will still have a lot of class on the pitch and I believe they will still be too strong for Birmingham City and I predict the score will be 3-1 to Liverpool.
The current bottom three looked doomed and I can't see Fulham or Birmingham City winning enough games to survive the drop, which is a shame, unfortunately three teams have to be relegated at the end of the season. Hopefully both of these teams will be strong enough to bounce straight back into the FA Premier League.
Arsenal yet again gave away a penalty just after taking the lead against Manchester United. For the second time in a week they surrender their lead and paid the price for not concentrating on defending, with Manchester United eventually winning the game 2-1.
After Emmanuel Adebayor had given Arsenal the lead, everything was looking rosy for Arsenal. Until William Gallas handled in the Arsenal box and the referee gave a penalty. Cristiano Ronaldo cooly slotted away the penalty, even though it had to be retaken.
Owen Hargreaves' free-kick won the game for Manchester Untied, and what a goal from 25-yards!
This result means Arsenal's title hopes are over and Manchester United are now six points clear at the top of the Premier League. This result doesn't help Chelsea's cause, as Avram Grant would have been hoping for a draw.
It's now a two horse race, between Manchester United and Chelsea. Chelsea need to apply the pressure and win at home against Wigan tomorrow (14/04/2008). I predict the score will be 3-0 to Chelsea, they should easily dominate the match.
Just goes to show that football is a funny old game, my predictions were completely wrong and the matches lived up to the hype surrounding them on what was billed as 'Grand Slam Sunday'.
With Manchester United beating Liverpool 3-0 and Chelsea beating Arsenal 2-1, Manchester United have now gone 5 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Manchester United's task was made easier with the Mascherano sending off, however Liverpool at this point were already 1-0 down. I believe that referees should continue this crack down on players using intimidation tactics. When I was a lad, I was told to accept the referee's decision and just get on with the game, as nothing could change their mind.
Players have to realise that they have to accept the referee's decision and any attempt to intimidate them will result in a yellow card. The top four clubs always think they can get away with this tactic. I hope the clampdown is not just a one off and referees continue to crackdown on this behaviour.
It looks like Arsenal are cracking under the pressure and don't seem to be able to grind out results. Whereas Chelsea are playing to their strengths and keeping their title hopes alive by leapfrogging over Arsenal to go second in the table. Drogba is on fine form and banging the goals in, along with Anelka up front, Chelsea have the impetus to challenge Manchester United.
Arsenal are by far the best passing team in the Premier League at the moment, but sometimes they try too hard to pass the ball into the back of the net. If Arsenal had followed Chelsea's example of root one football, then the outcome would have been different and the title race would be more interesting.
Liverpool's title race is all but over with the defeat to Manchester United, so they will have to settle for 4th place. Whereas Manchester United look like favourites to retain the Premier League, but then Chelsea and Arsenal aren't out of the race just yet.
This Sunday (23/03/2008) sees the top four Premier League football clubs do battle (Manchester United vs Liverpool and Arsenal vs Chelsea). These fixtures could make or break the season. With Manchester United currently leading the pack and sitting three points clear at the the top of the Premier League, but that could all change with a slip up against Liverpool and Arsenal defeating Chelsea.
So are these fixtures going to live up to the hype surrounding them, probably not, as they usually end up cancelling each other out and not making good viewing for a neutral fan. That won't stop me watching them on the box and hopefully enjoying a humdinger of a weekend.
Predictions
I predict that Manchester United will beat Liverpool 2-1 and Arsenal and Chelsea will cancel each other out resulting in a 1-1 draw.