Arsenal Lose Face in Premiership Title Race

When Chelsea drew 1-1 with Blackburn, many people started writing them off. After a 5-0 thumping of Portsmouth and a 7-1 humiliation of Aston Villa, they have proven now that they are absolutely not out of it.

Manchester United however, having regained top position in the league table are proving how reluctant they are to relinquish their lead.

Witness their 3-0 win over Fulham (themselves flying high after their 4-1 win over Juventus), a 2-1 win over Liverpool in which they made the Merseysiders look very ordinary, and todays comprehensive 4-0 win over Bolton. Man Utd are certainly not giving up their own title bid.

Chelsea are good, no doubt, as are Man Utd. Are they so good that they can easily brush aside equally tough teams while Arsenal struggle to deal with 'minnows'?

Tough Teams

Arsenal, however, in the face of increased pressure from Man Utd. and Chelsea in the race for the title, have struggled for form.

A battling 2-1 win over Hull was followed by a tough 2-0 win over West Ham (at home, when most expected them to win easily). This latest setback, the 1-1 draw with Birmingham today, see them sidelined in the title race.

The last three matches have something in common, apart from grit and determination from Arsenal. The opposition teams have played very hard; some would say rough, against an Arsenal side deemed by many in the press to be 'fragile.'

Watching the match today against Birmingham, one could be forgiven for believing that the world was against Arsenal.

The performance by the referee, Howard Webb, was abysmal, failing to stop an alarming amount of niggling fouls by Birmingham and disallowing an Arsenal goal that TV commentators claimed should have stood.

Arsenal themselves started sluggishly, and throughout allowed Birmingham space on the ball. At times Arsenal dominated and could have scored two or three more goals on another day.

This wasn't to be their day, however. Despite a stunning Nasri goal, some equally stunning misses cost Arsenal dearly.

Finally, two minutes into added time a schoolboy mistake by Sagna, followed by an equally silly mistake by Almunia, gave Birmingham the undeserved equaliser.

That Wenger didn't see fit to play Eduardo, after all the hype about his return, was a surprise.

Moving Song into a centre-back position whilst Silvestre didn't even feature on the bench was another unusual move, one that surely spells the end of Silvestre at Arsenal.

Given Up

Many Arsenal fans are not giving up the title race, and with six matches to go, quite rightly. However Man Utd moved four points clear at the top of the table with +11 goal difference, and Chelsea moved three points clear with +13 goal difference.

The stunning goal difference is equivalent to an extra point in the race for the title, since either team, if finishing equal on points would beat Arsenal.

It may not be time to "press the panic button" but it's certainly time to inject some realism into the Arsenal fans expectation. The only way to approach the remaining six games is to continue trying to win one game at a time.

Realism, however, means facing the facts as demonstrated during the last week. Chelsea and Man Utd have the skill, determination and desire to win. Doubt has been cast however this weekend over the skill, determination and desire of Arsenal.

Bad luck this latest result may have been, but winning teams make their own luck. If Arsenal had put away more of their chances, they would have won the game regardless of the fouling of Birmingham or the ineptitude of Howard Webb. That, in the final analysis is what makes a winning team.