Manchester United Slip Up Again as Big Four Look to Close the Gap

Manchester United's defeat at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday highlighted two things. Firstly that no matter how much the media might speculate, Arsene Wenger's job is as safe as houses. Secondly that Manchester United's grip on the Premier League title is loosening by the week.

The cutting edge has certainly gone from United's attack that's for sure. The lack of a final ball in the United side was as evident to see as was Arsenal's ruthless finishing at the other end, as Samir Nasri converted his chances with the quality you'd expect from a 12 million pound player.

What has been evident to see is that United have slipped behind their "Big Four" rivals so much that they look well off the pace already this season, not on points necessarily but by how convincingly they pick up their wins.

Injuries haven't been kind to them in fairness, but every side gets them, and you could debate the loss of Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Fernando Torres is greater than most United players, especially with their strength in depth.

Chelsea's free flowing football is to be admired. After two years of sitting on 1-0 leads, Luiz Felipe Scolari has brought some freedom to the side which has brought about heavy wins over Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

Liverpool have bought about some of the constancy that saw them as proper title contenders in the mid 90's. And without talisman Torres for most of the league campaign their start has to be commended.

Arsenal of course have had a difficult time of it recently, but class is permanent and their win yesterday shows they are still a team with plenty to show this season. People saying it's a three-horse race already are very naive.

United, even with 21 points from 11 games, haven't got going at all. Their other league defeat at Liverpool was one of the poorest performances from a Ferguson team seen in recent years and since that game the team seemed to be on the up.

Without sounding too down in the dumps, it's just one win from four for the reigning champions and goals hardly flowing through the side.

The up side for the Old Trafford club is they have now played all three of their main rivals away from home in the opening 2 1/2 months of the season. They can get their heads down and concentrate on the rest of the league as the rest of the "Big Four" take points off each other.

The side can definitely improve that's for sure, and that's just as well as they can ill afford many more slip ups as the Premiership enters the holiday period.