Regardless, the two Premiership adverseries currently sit first and second in the league, after successful new years day exploits, Arsenal beating Chelsea 3-2, and Man Utd coming back froma goal down to beat Sunderland 2-1 at Old Trafford. Arsenal have gone from the sublime to the terrible, characterised by their demolition of Leeds at Elland Road, a ground where they've rarely come away with even a point. Compare this to the performance against Man Utd at Old Trafford. A fixture which could have put the Gunners 9 points ahead of their rivals and effectively expel Man U from the championship half way through the campaign. Despite early chances by Pires and Henry, the team from North London didn't seem to have their hearts in it, and were soundly beaten 2-0. Within a week, Arsenal's lead was cut to only a point ahead of Chelsea and Man U. But key defeats to both over the Christmas period, meant the current Premiership champions were able to stretch their lead to 5 points. Not bad for a team that's lost four league games in the first half of the season.

For Manchester United, their captain Roy Keane has been missing for much of the campaign, sent off against Sunderland for striking Republic of Ireland team mate Jason McAteer, he was then charged by the FA for bringing the game into disrepute after comments he made in his autobiography regarding Alf Inge Haaland. Keane's return coincided with consectutive defeats to Boro and Blackburn, and he is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury after only recently recovering from a operation on his knee.

Liverpool were destined to be the team of the season, at one point going 7 points clear at the top of the Premiership, that is until they suddenly started to lose to everyone in sight in a run which has now been their poorest since the 1920s, and seen them drop to 7th in the table, 12 points behind league leaders in Arsenal. And so, that run of shame in full: Newcastle 1-0 Liverpool, Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool, Liverpool 1-1 Blackburn, Liverpool 0-0 Everton, Sunderland 2-1 Liverpool, Fulham 3-2 Liverpool, Liverpool 0-0 Sunderland, Middlesbrough 1-0 Liverpool. Their last win in the league coming against bottom of the table West Ham on Nov 02. And as a sign of how bad things are, Liverpool currently sit two places and two points behind their closest rivals Everton!

Everton seem transformed this season under David Moyes, as the fans and media have immortalised new wonder kid Wayne Rooney, netting his first against goal against Arsenal, and picking up the young sports personality of the year award from the BBC. At their height Everton were unbeaten in eight, their scalps incluning Arsenal (2-1 at Goodison), and Leeds (1-0 away), a dramatic 3-3 draw against Newcastle, and a 0-0 against Liverpool which decided which of the two Merseyside clubs would finish higher over Christmas.

West Ham currently languish in 20th place in the Premiership, and look dead certs to go down, having picked up just 16 points, won only 3 games (1-0 against Fulham, 1-0 against Sunderland, and 3-2 against Chelsea) and none of them at home. In fact it soon became clear that things weren't right when the Hammers were beaten 4-3 at home by a disrupted Leeds team, led by under fire manager Terry Venables. With the transfer window now open, Glen Roeder has signed Lee Bowyer from Leeds in the hope he can help steer the sinking ship. But, having signed only a 6 month contract it would not be unthinkable that Bowyer would be looking for another club come the Summer.

The return of James Beattie has seen Gordon Strachan's Southampton side rise to sixth in the table, as the Saints seem to have made St Mary's more perlious than the Dell was for any visiting side. Beattie has already netted 13 goals this season. Relegation will be the last thing on the Saints mind this season, and along with Everton, a place in Europe next season, certainly wouldn't be out of the question.

Chelsea have been looking good. While the media fawned over Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool; Chelsea crept their way up the league to within a few points of the leaders. A real consisrancy seems to have taken hold, as Claudio Ranieri now almosy fluent in English, has been able to communicate with the players, and thus got the best from the likes of Zola, and Gallas. Gianfranco has been an inspiration this season, driving his team-mates on. The once highly rated partnership of Hasselbaink and Gudjohnsen has never clicked into gear this season, through injury and ineffectiveness of the two individual players, Hasselbaink especially hit a low at the start of the season. And so it has fallen to Zola as the key figure in the team.
Then Christmas came, and Ranieri made 6, 7, then 6 wholesale changes to the team, and Chelsea becane the same Chelsea of last season, able to raise themselves against the highest opposition one week, and then drop foolish points the next. But, it's still early days, and provided the Blues can turn their form around again, Chelsea can certainly be tipped for a Champions League birth.