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Winners
The 41,686 In Attendance At Stamford Bridge
Eight goals, three red cards, last-minute drama and the game of the season.
Manchester United
So that's how a table-topping team wins in the north-east against relegation candidates without four (or more) first-teamers.
"I said earlier in the season that I think this is one of my strongest squads and I think the players are proving that at the moment," remarked an understandably smug Sir Alex before leaving Wearside.
The only surprise is that the champions are only a single point clear at the top of the table having won 14 of their last 16 matches.
Roy Keane
'Sir Alex: Learn to lose, Roy' announced the backpage of the Daily Mirror on Boxing Day morning.
How generous of Sir Alex to then supply his former protégé some extra practice.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Long-range goals - and the latest was his 15th goal in 13 matches - has replaced the step-over as the Manchester United winger's trademark.
Just imagine what a player Ronaldo will be when the critics are finally sated by the regular deliverance of an end product...
Fernando Torres
A couple of Derby supporters sitting directly behind the home goal and clad in black and white were so overcome by the sublime quality of Torres' goal that they instantly burst into applause when the Spaniard scored.
Tim Cahill
Everton's most important player and the best player outside of the top four.
Having missed the start of the season through injury, Tim Cahill returned to action on October 25. In the fourteen matches that have followed since, Everton have been defeated just once (at Old Trafford on Saturday) and the Aussie has scored eight times.
In the ten league matches the Toffees played without their talisman, they were defeated five times.
Tottenham Hotspur
The return of Ledley King, whose appearance against Fulham was his first of the season, is another reason to believe that, although Tottenham are in a worse position than they were expected to be at the start of the season, they are actually in a better state to finish the campaign with a piece of silverware.
Tom Huddlestone
But Huddlestone is a difficult player to champion due to the suspicion that he could be a very good player and isn't particularly bothered that he isn't.
Reading
Enjoying the benefits of a settled line-up, the Royals are now a healthy eight points clear of the relegation zone and have just four less than they did at this stage last year. Second Season Syndrome must be a trivial affliction then.
Ryan Taylor
Both of the Wigan full-back's Premiership goals have been free-kicks in 1-0 wins over Newcastle.
Steve Bruce
Of Wigan's total of 16 points from 19 matches, half have been collected in the five matches in which Bruce has been charge.
Alex McLeish
And of Birmingham's total of 18 points from 19 matches, seven have been collected in the five matches in which McLeish has been charge.
It is a sad indictment of professional footballers in general that they are so consistently able to improve their performances whenever the arrival of a new manager puts their continued employment in jeopardy.
Drawers
Portsmouth
While the post-match conference on Sky Sports gave full licence to Jamie Redknapp to defend his defensive father by arguing that Arsenal require a second striker, the summary neglected to mention there is a similar debate being conducted amongst the Pompey support who, although appreciative of their side's efforts, are increasingly perplexed at Redknapp senior's refusal to deploy a second striker on home turf.
There is, as Redknapp junior maintained, no obligation to entertain. Likewise, Pompey are entitled to regard a point against a team with title-winning aspirations as a respectable return. But the excuses for negativity can only stretch so far - and it reached breaking point long before Arsenal travelled south. Outside of the Redknapp household, the 'what did Arsenal expect?' brigade will fail to find many additional recruits on the south coast after Pompey functioned in precisely the same manner against Everton and Tottenham earlier this month. Goal-shy tedium has become the norm at Fratton Park. Pompey haven't scored in front of their own support for 88 days and have failed to find the target in six of their past seven home matches.
Protesting too much, Arry hailed the stalemate as a "great result, a terrific result" but it only deserved such an accolade if your allegiance was with Manchester United. Portsmouth's inability to score at home is proving their undoing - and has proved so before. When Arsenal travelled to Portsmouth on the final day of last season, there was little reason for the home support to cheer as another stalemate cost the club their first-ever qualification for Europe.
Losers
Sam Allardyce
2007 has been Allardyce's Annus horribilis. It began with his Bolton side in third place before a dismal run of four wins in eleven hastened the acceptance that club and manager had gone as far as they could in combination, and it ends with Allardyce on the brink of dismissal at Newcastle with his reputation as an innovator in tatters.
There are many who will delight in seeing Allardyce fail. Significantly, many of them are regular residents of St James' Park.
Weighed against the argument that Newcastle require stability is the crushing disappointment of performances and results. As unedifying as the gross humiliation of collecting just a single point in two games against Derby and the limp capitulation at Wigan is a long-ball style of play that makes a lie of Allardyce's promise that he is capable of providing a varied style of play. If he cannot transform himself, what chance the transformation of Newcastle?
All the problems he inherited are still in working order. But added into an already toxic mix has been a series of baffling team selections and formations. At Bolton, Allardyce liked to plead over-achievement. At Newcastle, with the players he has at his disposal, seven wins in nineteen games is unacceptable under-achievement. Tellingly, chairman Chris Mort announced in November he was loathe to sanction a new spending spree because of the deficiencies of those players Allardyce brought in during the summer. Why, in other words, risk more good money going after bad?
Once matches are consigned to memory, football is all about opinion. If it is the opinion of Mort and owner Mike Ashley that Allardyce, who was appointed by the previous regime, is not the man to take forward then the club would be better served by a quick resolution rather than the misguided pursuit of stability for stability's sake.
Ashley watched the defeat at Wigan from the away end and would have heard better than most the cacophony of booing that greeted the final whistle (edited out of the MoTD highlights, presumably to save Alan Shearer from the arduous task of climbing off the fence). The reaction of the home support to another defeat, against Chelski on Saturday, may prove the final straw.
"I'm not happy to have my future in their hands," said Allardyce after defeat at Wigan. Unfortunately for him, his destiny is in their hands.
Petr Cech
A goalkeeper should not be judged on the number of great saves he pulls off but the number of avoidable mistakes he makes.
Cech, no longer the best goalkeeper in the world on account of that measuring guide, has made two howlers in three matches. But for the cost of those errors, Chelski would be just a solitary point behind Arsenal.
Chelski
Their unbeaten home run remains intact but a draw at Stamford Bridge constitutes a mini-defeat.
Seven points adrift of top spot, they will complete the busiest period on the football calendar without their talisman and captain, possibly Frank Lampard, definitely the suspended Ricardo Carvalho and Cashley Cole, and that sinking feeling that they are slipping out of the title race at the half-way stage of the season.
Arsene Wenger
A draw at Portsmouth was neither a bad result nor a good result for Arsenal. Ambiguous but acceptable, it was also the identical result to the one achieved at Fratton Park by Manchester United and Liverpool earlier this term.
Yet it was not an impressive evening for the Arsenal manager whose tactical shortcomings were once again apparent. Arsene Wenger's complaints about Portsmouth's negativity would have possessed some validity if only he hadn't deployed his side in precisely the same 4-5-1 formation as their hosts. The Frenchman's reluctance to field a second striker as a companion to the isolated Emmanuel Adebayor grows more perplexing - and frustrating - with every passing week.
In fairness, Wenger has voiced his concerns that Nicklas Bendtner is too similar to Adebayor to be his ideal partner, but, having admitted he erred in packing the midfield against Manchester United almost two months ago, how could Wenger fail to appreciate the lesson of Tottenham this week when Bendtner's belated introduction rectified another fitful performance? Given even less time against Pompey, the striker's cameo coincided with Arsenal's only genuinely threatening period in the match.
Wenger's myopia hasn't cleared up, it's just found another blurred reality.
Johan Djourou
The level of anxiety at Arsenal over Kolo Toure's month-long summons to the African Nations Cup will have been ratcheted up a notch or two in recent weeks. Although Wenger has confirmed he will call back Djourou from Birmingham as cover, he will be fully aware that the defender has rarely impressed during his loan stint. Djourou's mistake against Bolton, casually throwing in the ball for Nicolas Anelka to pounce, was precisely the type of match-scenario mistake that his five-month sojournment was supposed to eradicate.
His demotion to the bench on Boxing Day, to watch Brum record only their second clean sheet of the season, was as deserved as it was foreboding for both player and permanent employers.
Freddie Ljungberg
In terms of career choice and the work he has produced since, the £3m transfer of Freddie Ljungberg from Arsenal to West Ham in the summer, complete with a parting shot at the Gunners' perceived lack of ambition following the sale of Thierry Henry, surely represents the worst deal of the year.
Darren Bent's £16m transfer rivals the folly of Ljungberg's move across London but leaving Charlton for Tottenham was an upgrade and, in any case, time remains on the 23-year-old's side. In comparison, time has not been kind to Freddie. The sharp pace on which his game was based - note the past tense - has been blunted and as a consequence the goals, which once made him one of the league's most valuable players, have dried up. Yet to score for his new employers, his goal at Manchester City in May 2006 is his only Premiership strike in over two and a half years.
Fulham
Awful. Martin Jol reportedly rejected an overture from Fulham last week because he feared the Cottagers' 'squad may not be strong enough to avoid relegation from the Barclays Premier League this season.'
One sympathises with the Fulham chief executive on the other end of the phone when Jol delivered his unarguable riposte.
Pete Gill
The 41,686 In Attendance At Stamford Bridge
Eight goals, three red cards, last-minute drama and the game of the season.
Manchester United
So that's how a table-topping team wins in the north-east against relegation candidates without four (or more) first-teamers.
"I said earlier in the season that I think this is one of my strongest squads and I think the players are proving that at the moment," remarked an understandably smug Sir Alex before leaving Wearside.
The only surprise is that the champions are only a single point clear at the top of the table having won 14 of their last 16 matches.
Roy Keane
'Sir Alex: Learn to lose, Roy' announced the backpage of the Daily Mirror on Boxing Day morning.
How generous of Sir Alex to then supply his former protégé some extra practice.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Long-range goals - and the latest was his 15th goal in 13 matches - has replaced the step-over as the Manchester United winger's trademark.
Just imagine what a player Ronaldo will be when the critics are finally sated by the regular deliverance of an end product...
Fernando Torres
A couple of Derby supporters sitting directly behind the home goal and clad in black and white were so overcome by the sublime quality of Torres' goal that they instantly burst into applause when the Spaniard scored.
Tim Cahill
Everton's most important player and the best player outside of the top four.
Having missed the start of the season through injury, Tim Cahill returned to action on October 25. In the fourteen matches that have followed since, Everton have been defeated just once (at Old Trafford on Saturday) and the Aussie has scored eight times.
In the ten league matches the Toffees played without their talisman, they were defeated five times.
Tottenham Hotspur
The return of Ledley King, whose appearance against Fulham was his first of the season, is another reason to believe that, although Tottenham are in a worse position than they were expected to be at the start of the season, they are actually in a better state to finish the campaign with a piece of silverware.
Tom Huddlestone
But Huddlestone is a difficult player to champion due to the suspicion that he could be a very good player and isn't particularly bothered that he isn't.
Reading
Enjoying the benefits of a settled line-up, the Royals are now a healthy eight points clear of the relegation zone and have just four less than they did at this stage last year. Second Season Syndrome must be a trivial affliction then.
Ryan Taylor
Both of the Wigan full-back's Premiership goals have been free-kicks in 1-0 wins over Newcastle.
Steve Bruce
Of Wigan's total of 16 points from 19 matches, half have been collected in the five matches in which Bruce has been charge.
Alex McLeish
And of Birmingham's total of 18 points from 19 matches, seven have been collected in the five matches in which McLeish has been charge.
It is a sad indictment of professional footballers in general that they are so consistently able to improve their performances whenever the arrival of a new manager puts their continued employment in jeopardy.
Drawers
Portsmouth
While the post-match conference on Sky Sports gave full licence to Jamie Redknapp to defend his defensive father by arguing that Arsenal require a second striker, the summary neglected to mention there is a similar debate being conducted amongst the Pompey support who, although appreciative of their side's efforts, are increasingly perplexed at Redknapp senior's refusal to deploy a second striker on home turf.
There is, as Redknapp junior maintained, no obligation to entertain. Likewise, Pompey are entitled to regard a point against a team with title-winning aspirations as a respectable return. But the excuses for negativity can only stretch so far - and it reached breaking point long before Arsenal travelled south. Outside of the Redknapp household, the 'what did Arsenal expect?' brigade will fail to find many additional recruits on the south coast after Pompey functioned in precisely the same manner against Everton and Tottenham earlier this month. Goal-shy tedium has become the norm at Fratton Park. Pompey haven't scored in front of their own support for 88 days and have failed to find the target in six of their past seven home matches.
Protesting too much, Arry hailed the stalemate as a "great result, a terrific result" but it only deserved such an accolade if your allegiance was with Manchester United. Portsmouth's inability to score at home is proving their undoing - and has proved so before. When Arsenal travelled to Portsmouth on the final day of last season, there was little reason for the home support to cheer as another stalemate cost the club their first-ever qualification for Europe.
Losers
Sam Allardyce
2007 has been Allardyce's Annus horribilis. It began with his Bolton side in third place before a dismal run of four wins in eleven hastened the acceptance that club and manager had gone as far as they could in combination, and it ends with Allardyce on the brink of dismissal at Newcastle with his reputation as an innovator in tatters.
There are many who will delight in seeing Allardyce fail. Significantly, many of them are regular residents of St James' Park.
Weighed against the argument that Newcastle require stability is the crushing disappointment of performances and results. As unedifying as the gross humiliation of collecting just a single point in two games against Derby and the limp capitulation at Wigan is a long-ball style of play that makes a lie of Allardyce's promise that he is capable of providing a varied style of play. If he cannot transform himself, what chance the transformation of Newcastle?
All the problems he inherited are still in working order. But added into an already toxic mix has been a series of baffling team selections and formations. At Bolton, Allardyce liked to plead over-achievement. At Newcastle, with the players he has at his disposal, seven wins in nineteen games is unacceptable under-achievement. Tellingly, chairman Chris Mort announced in November he was loathe to sanction a new spending spree because of the deficiencies of those players Allardyce brought in during the summer. Why, in other words, risk more good money going after bad?
Once matches are consigned to memory, football is all about opinion. If it is the opinion of Mort and owner Mike Ashley that Allardyce, who was appointed by the previous regime, is not the man to take forward then the club would be better served by a quick resolution rather than the misguided pursuit of stability for stability's sake.
Ashley watched the defeat at Wigan from the away end and would have heard better than most the cacophony of booing that greeted the final whistle (edited out of the MoTD highlights, presumably to save Alan Shearer from the arduous task of climbing off the fence). The reaction of the home support to another defeat, against Chelski on Saturday, may prove the final straw.
"I'm not happy to have my future in their hands," said Allardyce after defeat at Wigan. Unfortunately for him, his destiny is in their hands.
Petr Cech
A goalkeeper should not be judged on the number of great saves he pulls off but the number of avoidable mistakes he makes.
Cech, no longer the best goalkeeper in the world on account of that measuring guide, has made two howlers in three matches. But for the cost of those errors, Chelski would be just a solitary point behind Arsenal.
Chelski
Their unbeaten home run remains intact but a draw at Stamford Bridge constitutes a mini-defeat.
Seven points adrift of top spot, they will complete the busiest period on the football calendar without their talisman and captain, possibly Frank Lampard, definitely the suspended Ricardo Carvalho and Cashley Cole, and that sinking feeling that they are slipping out of the title race at the half-way stage of the season.
Arsene Wenger
A draw at Portsmouth was neither a bad result nor a good result for Arsenal. Ambiguous but acceptable, it was also the identical result to the one achieved at Fratton Park by Manchester United and Liverpool earlier this term.
Yet it was not an impressive evening for the Arsenal manager whose tactical shortcomings were once again apparent. Arsene Wenger's complaints about Portsmouth's negativity would have possessed some validity if only he hadn't deployed his side in precisely the same 4-5-1 formation as their hosts. The Frenchman's reluctance to field a second striker as a companion to the isolated Emmanuel Adebayor grows more perplexing - and frustrating - with every passing week.
In fairness, Wenger has voiced his concerns that Nicklas Bendtner is too similar to Adebayor to be his ideal partner, but, having admitted he erred in packing the midfield against Manchester United almost two months ago, how could Wenger fail to appreciate the lesson of Tottenham this week when Bendtner's belated introduction rectified another fitful performance? Given even less time against Pompey, the striker's cameo coincided with Arsenal's only genuinely threatening period in the match.
Wenger's myopia hasn't cleared up, it's just found another blurred reality.
Johan Djourou
The level of anxiety at Arsenal over Kolo Toure's month-long summons to the African Nations Cup will have been ratcheted up a notch or two in recent weeks. Although Wenger has confirmed he will call back Djourou from Birmingham as cover, he will be fully aware that the defender has rarely impressed during his loan stint. Djourou's mistake against Bolton, casually throwing in the ball for Nicolas Anelka to pounce, was precisely the type of match-scenario mistake that his five-month sojournment was supposed to eradicate.
His demotion to the bench on Boxing Day, to watch Brum record only their second clean sheet of the season, was as deserved as it was foreboding for both player and permanent employers.
Freddie Ljungberg
In terms of career choice and the work he has produced since, the £3m transfer of Freddie Ljungberg from Arsenal to West Ham in the summer, complete with a parting shot at the Gunners' perceived lack of ambition following the sale of Thierry Henry, surely represents the worst deal of the year.
Darren Bent's £16m transfer rivals the folly of Ljungberg's move across London but leaving Charlton for Tottenham was an upgrade and, in any case, time remains on the 23-year-old's side. In comparison, time has not been kind to Freddie. The sharp pace on which his game was based - note the past tense - has been blunted and as a consequence the goals, which once made him one of the league's most valuable players, have dried up. Yet to score for his new employers, his goal at Manchester City in May 2006 is his only Premiership strike in over two and a half years.
Fulham
Awful. Martin Jol reportedly rejected an overture from Fulham last week because he feared the Cottagers' 'squad may not be strong enough to avoid relegation from the Barclays Premier League this season.'
One sympathises with the Fulham chief executive on the other end of the phone when Jol delivered his unarguable riposte.
Pete Gill
