If Manchester City cannot win the Premiership this season – boasting financial resources no other club in world football enjoys, having thumped their city neighbours 6-1 on their own patch and at stages led by five points ” then you have to wonder if they ever will.
Sunday's swing of the pendulum saw Manchester United assume the lead and they are not a club prone to letting titles slip at vital stages of the season. With 10 games left to play and having negotiated a supposedly tricky spell of fixtures, the title now looks to be Alex Ferguson's men's to throw away.
Wayne Rooney's excellent run of form continued with both goals in the victory over West Brom, while City were deservedly beaten by Swansea who continue to impress in their first Premiership campaign.
Below them, Spurs continue to undo all their good work of the first four months of the season, with a third successive defeat that means Arsenal can close the gap to a single point if they prevail against Newcastle in tonight's televised clash at The Emirates.
Spurs were insipid throughout their 1-0 reverse at Everton, with a display littered with five-yard passes just behind the target recipient; simple things which don't seem to mean much but which reveal a side desperately out of sorts.
For Everton's part, it was a fitting way to mark David Moyes„tenth anniversary as boss. His achievement is astonishing in an era when many top-flight managers don't even last a season (some don't survive a weather„season, let alone a football one).
Wolves fans must be longing for the hopeless displays that' marked the latter stages of Mick McCarthy's reign, given that under Terry Connor they are on a one-way ticket to Peterborough away next season. Their home defeat to relegation rivals Blackburn bore all the hallmarks of a side that has lost its rudder.
QPR were left bemoaning the goal that never was as they lost at Bolton, but the hard facts show that they sacked a manager to give themselves a better chance of survival when they were a point above the drop zone. They now find themselves in the bottom three and one point away from safety. The Hoops„loss could yet be Leeds United's gain.
In Spain, even if Barcelona's pursuit of Real Madrid is futile Lionel Messi continues to defy logic. Pele will never acknowledge anyone other than himself, but there is a tendency to never enjoy the here and now and to always make the past out to be incomparably better. One day we'll hopefully all be able to say we lived to watch the world's greatest ever player, because that is what he is.
