United top of the Christmas tree

Manchester leads the way at Christmas with United on top and City 4 points behind them. Since losing 1-0 at Norwich, the Red Devils picked up 5 straight wins including a 3-2 last gasp victory at Manchester City before drawing 1-1 at Swansea. City, who finished bottom of their Champions League group, dropped points in a 1-1 draw at home to Everton and played goalless matches at Chelsea and West Ham. Chelsea with new interim manager Raffa Benitez are in 3^rd place with a game in hand after returning from Japan (where they failed to win the World Club Cup) to annihilate Aston Villa 8-0, while Arsenal's topsy turvy season sees them in 4^th place after 3 straight wins including a 5-2 routing at Reading. The Gunners, who had earlier thumped North London rivals Tottenham 5-2, lost points at home in a 3-3 draw with Fulham and 2-0 defeat to Swansea. Everton, Tottenham and West Bromwich Albion are equal with Arsenal on points but behind them on goal difference. Liverpool may have drawn 2-2 at Everton and 1-1 at Chelsea, but they have been less than convincing at home losing 3-1 to Swansea and Aston Villa. Stoke and Norwich make the remaining top ten equal on points with Liverpool with the Canaries having registered 1-0 home wins over Arsenal and Manchester United. An inconsistent Swansea find themselves in 11^th spot followed by London teams West Ham and Fulham. Newcastle and Sunderland are dangerously close to the relegation zone with Aston Villa also going through worrying times. Southampton and Wigan are sharing the last relegation spot, with Queens Park Rangers (having recently elected Harry Redknapp as their boss) and Reading rooted to the bottom of the table.

Blue top

Six weeks into the English Premier League and the top of the table has a blue look to it, though it is the blue of Chelsea rather than reigning champions Manchester City followed by Everton. A 2-1 win at Arsenal strengthened Chelsea’s position at the top, with a goalless draw at bottom club Queens Park Rangers their only failure to win so far this season. Everton got off to a great start with a 1-0 victory over Manchester United and despite a 2-0 loss at West Brom and a 2-2 draw at home to Newcastle find themselves in 2^nd place after their recent wins against Swansea and Southampton. Manchester United and City are equal on 12 points with the Red Devils having suffered a rare 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham after a 2-1 win at 10-man Liverpool while City are unbeaten in the league but have dropped points in a 2-2 draw at Liverpool and 1-1 draws at Stoke and at home to Arsenal. Tottenham got off to a slow start losing 2-1 at Newcastle and only managing 1-1 draws at home to West Brom and Norwich but are in 5^th spot after wins over Reading, QPR and Manchester United. Like Tottenham, West Brom and West Ham are also on 11 points. The Baggies began win a fantastic 3-0 home triumph over Liverpool and sent Everton home 2-0 losers but were surprisingly beaten 3-0 at Fulham while the Hammers enjoyed a 3-0 win at home to Fulham after enduring their only loss by the same scoreline at Swansea. Arsenal, Fulham and Newcastle are on 9 points. The Gunners began their campaign with scoreless matches at home to Sunderland and away to Stoke before finding their scoring boots with 2 goals at Liverpool and putting Southampton to the sword 6-1 at the Emirates. A creditable 1-1 draw at Manchester City was followed by a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea while Fulham began with a sackful of goals scoring 5 without reply at home to Norwich before losing narrowly losing a 5 goal thriller at Manchester United, and Newcastle opened by beating their visitors from Tottenham 2-1 before losing 2-0 at Chelsea followed by a 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa and 2-2 draws at Everton and Reading with single-goal victory at home to Norwich sandwiched in between. Next in the table come Swansea, Stoke, Sunderland and Liverpool who after a shaky start which included a 2-2 home draw against Manchester City and 2-1 defeat to Manchester United gained some confidence with a 5-2 win at Norwich thanks to a hat-trick from Suarez. Aston Villa, Wigan, Southampton, Norwich and Reading make up the rest of the table with Queens Park Rangers sitting at the bottom having picked up only 2 draws at Norwich and at home to league leaders Chelsea.         

Blue heaven at last gasp

Manchester United picked up all 3 points on offer with a single goal at Sunderland and waited anxiously for the outcome of the match at Manchester City where the hosts fell 2-1 behind to Queens Park Ranger, who were a man short after the dismissal of Joey Barton, but equalised in stoppage time and scored the winner with virtually the last kick of the season to win the Premier League. Losers QPR, were also celebrating, after Jonathan Walters completed his brace with a penalty at home for Stoke to force a 2-2 draw and relegation upon Bolton leaving the Londoners with life in the top division. Tottenham defeated Fulham 2-0 at home, but Arsenal came from behind at West Bromwich Albion, who were managed by Roy Hodgson in his final match before taking on the England job, to win 3-2 and finish 3^rd guaranteeing a place in next season’s Champions League. Emersson Boyce scored twice for Wigan as they ended the season with a 3-2 home win over relegated Wolves while Liverpool lost 1-0 at Swansea in what turned out to be Kenny Dalglish’s last match in charge of the Reds, and Newcastle lost 3-1 at Everton. Chelsea beat Blackburn 2-1 at home while Aston Villa lost 2-0 at Norwich before parting company with manager Alex McLeish.

In Spain champions Real Madrid reached 100 points with their 4-1 win at home to Real Mallorca with Özil netting twice, while ten-man Barcelona salvaged a last minute 2-2 draw at Real Betis.

With one match remaining, Montpellier are a point away from winning the French league ahead of PSG while Dortmund, Ajax, Anderlecht and Porto have already won their respective leagues.