More than 3 points apiece

The top two teams took the spoils at the weekend and although the 3 points are probably not crucial, the future suddenly looks a lot bleaker for the vanquished teams. Liverpool find themselves 10 points off the pace and still seemingly incapable of taking points off their main rivals.

Meanwhile Chelsea have medium term injuries to their captain and their leading goalscorer. Add Carvahlo's absence to this and suddenly Chelsea look like they might struggle. My personal opinion has always been that Grant couldn't bring the title to Stamford Bridge anyway, but this will make it much harder for him.

The games themselves were interesting for very different reasons. Manchester United got their tactics spot on. Liverpool played a high tempo, pressing game and Man U gave away territory but took the sting out of Liverpool's attack. Aside from a couple of self induced mix ups in the Man U defence Liverpool never really looked like scoring. The Man U approach was all about not losing this game, but a part well worked and part fortunate set piece won them it. It looked to me as if Liverpool could play on for another hour without scoring.

Personally I think the quality of Man Us defending will be the key factor if, as I expect, they retain the title.

At The Emirates a very cold evening was warmed up by a pretty hot tempered game. Eboue and Terry were the main culprits in an overly physical first half. Both players could have seen red on another day, but I think the ref got it about right in that respect. The first half didn't bring us much in the way of chances and if anything Chelsea had the better efforts. I doubt we'll see a mistake like that from Cech for some time, but at least Arsenal took full advantage of the rare act of charity.

We've all seen the second half, but I think it's worth saying that a somewhat depleted Chelsea team did a good job of taking the game to Arsenal and created enough chances to have got an equaliser. Having said that Arsenal could and should have added a second and third goal themselves as well. Such profligacy will cost them on another day.

The injuries will probably mean that Chelsea take little solice from the game, but I thought they acquited themselves very well against a near full strength Arsenal team.