Strange alliances and strange results

With the Arsenal in apparent irrepressible form and looking to open a big gap at the top of the English Premier League table, there were strange alliances ahead of last weekend’s round of games. You had my Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur all hoping Manchester United would avoid a loss at the very least when they hosted the Gunners in the headline fixture at Old Trafford on Sunday.

As it turned out, however, while these pre-season title contenders got their wish, it came after some of them had registered strange, if not outright shocking results. Although West Bromwich Albion had won away to United and held the Arsenal at home, no one would have expected them to be the first team to defeat Jose Mourinho in a home league match and yet only a late dubious decision prevented that from happening.

Mourinho must be the only person in the world who believes, that is if he really does, that the decision by referee Andre Marriner to award a penalty to the Blues was right. If you make such a game-changing decision so late in the match, you just have to be sure and Marriner only helped the Portuguese tactician maintain his record. Other than that, it was important for a title-chasing team to avoid a second consecutive loss.

For City, you had to expect them to beat a Sunderland side struggling to get out of the relegation zone even allowing for the away problems facing Manuel Pellegrini’s side or the fact that the Black Cats have the Citizens’ bogey side. It is amazing that this was fourth consecutive 1-0 victory for Sunderland over City at the Stadium of Light. You cannot understand how some things happen in football, but there it is.

You would also have expected Spurs to have enough at the White Hart Lane to dispose of Newcastle United despite their impressive 2-0 win over Mourinho’s Chelsea at St James’s Park the previous week, but failure to score enough goals continues to be the undoing of Andre Villas Boas’ men who have scored a paltry nine league goals from 11 games this season. Only the bottom two sides have scored less than that.

Only my Liverpool benefited from events at Old Trafford because they moved to within two points of the league leaders while banishing the demons of their capitulation at the Emirates in their last outing. Luis Suarez joined teammate Daniel Sturridge and City’s Sergio Aguero at the top of the league scorers’ table despite missing the opening five fixtures due to suspension. The Uruguayan is in such sensational form.

But the biggest winners are, without doubt, United because they moved three steps on the table and to within five points of the Arsenal. That puts them firmly back into title contention. What makes the weekend results more significant to the Red Devils is the fact that they would have beaten the Gunners and only find themselves on position seven had the other three teams won their matches. That is how tight it is at the top.

I must point out that I do not like the international break. Even where there are no injuries, having players scattered all over the world does not help in maintaining the team’s momentum and my Liverpool have not managed this sort of disruption very well this season so far. To make matters worse for me, the Flames, or whatever is left of them, are not involved in any way. It is like we have given up on the game.