The Big Gap

For most of this season, it has looked like it may well be the one where the 'Big Four' are finally broken into. Manchester United lost five league games before Christmas for the first time in years, Chelsea have been solid yet defensively unimpressive in several matches and Liverpool have been on a truly horrendous run of form losing twelve games in all competitions, and finding it nigh on impossible to string more than two wins together. As for Arsenal, well they've performed very well, but let's be honest, with their final league positions in the last 4 seasons reading 4th,4th,3rd and 4th and no trophies since Patrick Vieira was captain, they weren't exactly formidable anyway. Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa have been touted as the trio to do it and their players and form have been impressive in patches. Yet look at the league table tonight and you will see Arsenal, Chelsea and United over 9 points ahead of this 'threatening' trio and the much-derided Anfield outfit just one point off 4th, despite the fact they've been playing so badly for so long. The 'Big Four' may not be getting much better, United look distinctively less lethal without a certain Portuguese player, Chelsea are aging, Arsenal still look a bit lightweight both in defence and at centre-forward and Rafa's squad's frailties are under more scrutiny than ever, but the truth is, they're still miles ahead of the others. City can throw all their Arab's money at the squad and hire whichever managers they want and it does look like they will make the break-through soon enough, but not just yet. Liverpool are still in touch despite their recent form and if they string some results together which SURELY they have to now, they will achieve that 'Guaranteed' fourth place and Champions League qualification. The squads of the big four have the experience and depth which keeps them ahead of the pretenders. You can't buy a whole squad who have been swimming in the deep end of Europe's Elite tournament for most of the past decade in one go. City are trying but it will take time, Villa are going about it slowly under Martin O'Neill, building on each season with shrewd, usually British acquisitons, and Spurs are somewhere in between the two. But no matter how bad the 'Big Four' have become this season, it appears the gap had become so big, that it's going to take the most heroic of efforts for any team to break into their ranks and start to contest titles and Champions League's on a regular basis...

The Magic of the FA Cup is Well and Truly Still Intact

Wow. Did Leeds United, the team ranked 45th in the English league system really just beat the reigning champions and last year's European Cup finalists Manchester United at Old Trafford? Yes, they did. And how? With a lot of passion, brilliant tactics, a fresh on-form striker in the shape of Jermaine Beckford and the luck to catch United having a very, very bad day at the office. The visitors capitalised on some below par defending from a clearly shakey Wes Brown, who had only found out he was playing when Nemanja Vidic pulled up injured in the warm-up, and Beckford made no mistake in putting the ball in the back of the net. Then the visitors defended with the confidence of a team with the best league record in England this season, albeit playing in the third tier against opposition far inferior to their Manchester arch-rivals. United's frontline, made up of the anonymous £30 million man Dimitar Berbatov and the strangely misfiring England striker Wayne Rooney, just could not muster a reply, and even when Michael Owen, a man who scored more Premier League goals in the past decade than anyone bar Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane, was introduced from the bench he missed a clearcut chance of his own. The home team which included such experienced pros as Gary Neville, Brown and later Ryan Giggs as well as promising youngsters of the calibre of Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck and Fabio Da Silva were simply not up to the task and were deservedly turned over by a well-organised Leeds outfit under the astute management of Simon Grayson. The yorkshire men deserved their day in the spotlight, reminding many of the glory days of 2001 when they ventured into the semi-finals of the Champions League with David O'Leary's team which included Mark Viduka, Rio Ferdinand and Harry Kewell. Times have changed for the worse since but if they carry on with the form shown so far this season, it won't be too long before they are back in the Premier League, where they surely belong. As for the Red Devils, it looks like it might be back to the drawing board for Fergie, who only spared substitute Antonio Valencia from criticism after the match, and threatened to make wholesale changes to the team for the Carling Cup semi-final with Manchester City, which has now unfortunately been postponed due to the snow. If United are to land a record nineteenth league title come May, or reach a third consecutive Champions League final, Berbatov, Owen, Brown and the rest need to seriously get their act together...