With only 11 rounds of games to be played in England’s Premier League Manchester United are keeping up the pressure on neighbours Manchester City and are not letting them get more than two points ahead at the top of the table. On Saturday City beat second from bottom Bolton 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium, but then on Sunday United travelled to White Hart Lane and beat third placed Spurs 3-1.
But the big news from the weekend was that Chelsea’s mega rich owner Roman Ambramovich lost his patience with manager Andre Villas-Boas and sacked him after the 1-0 away defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. The Blues have been inconsistent this season and in recent weeks it looked like the Portuguese manager had lost the dressing room. At 34 years of age Villas-Boas is only a year or two older than Chelsea’s senior players, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole. Ambramovich has now promoted assistant manager Robert di Matteo to the hot seat at Stamford Bridge until the end of the season. He will be hoping that the change of manager will help Chelsea keep in touch with London rivals Arsenal and Spurs and secure a lucrative Champions League place at the end of the season. Arsenal, who kept faith with their manager Arsene Wenger when they were going through a bad patch, are now only four points behind Spurs after winning 2-1 at Anfield on Saturday. That defeat saw Liverpool drop to seventh place in the table. After moving out of the relegation zone the week after they sacked Mick McCarthy, Wolves dropped back into the danger zone after a 5-0 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Celtic, despite only drawing 1-1away to Aberdeen on Saturday, stretched their lead over Rangers at the top of the SPL to 21 points. The ‘Gers went down 2-1 at home to Hearts.
