Are United back on track? What's wrong at City? We review the weekend and pick our star team.
Team of the Week
Title race heating up
Are Manchester United back in the title race? Probably, although how good they had to be to defeat Arsenal 1-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday is clear. United's defence was excellent, but in the second half in particular they gave too much of the ball to Arsenal, and in some respects were just lucky that the visitors didn't do a great deal with it. One imagines that they will have to play much better in order to retain their title, but on a day when two other theoretical title contenders lost limply, perhaps just enough will be, well, just enough.
As for Arsenal, they lost, they didn't play well, their deficiencies are there for all to see, but in the last week they have played Liverpool (with Suarez and Sturridge), Borussia Dortmund (with Robert Lewandowski) and Manchester United (with Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney) and gained six points while only conceding one goal. It's not exactly a huge surprise therefore, that many Gooners appear to be relatively upbeat.
Read why a defensive lapse and Olivier Giroud's poor performance proved costly for Arsenal here
Man City unconvincing favourites
At what point do Manchester City fans start getting concerned? "I really cannot believe that we lost this match," Manuel Pellegrini said after the game. "I think that Sunderland won the match without the possession in the 90 minutes, but football has these things. They scored a goal because our defenders had a gap between them and it was the only chance they had to score."
It's all very well trying to write the 1-0 defeat to Sunderland off as a freak, a one-off and don't worry we'll be fine next time, but this is now a habit for City. Add Sunderland to Aston Villa and Cardiff as the underwhelming defeats that leave their away record reading P: 6, W: 1, D: 1, L: 4. That draw, incidentally, was at Stoke.
They only lost five games in the whole of their title-winning season in 2011/12, and while in this season when the title race is so very open they might have a little more wiggle room in that respect, they are already six points behind the league leaders, and Arsenal's defeat at Old Trafford would have doubled the vexation after this most inexplicable of defeats.
It's becoming a pattern for Manchester City fans. At home, City are brutal - five wins from five, 20 goals scored, just two conceded. But on the road they seem to be putting in exactly the same performances - ponderous, little creativity and with often glaring weaknesses at the back. That Phil Bardsley - Phil Bardsley! - was given so much time and space to pick his spot should be enormously concerning.
Sunderland revival
Whatever Gus Poyet is doing at Sunderland, we're now getting into the territory where it's something more than 'not being Paolo Di Canio'. There are still quite clearly big problems at Sunderland, and they're still second-bottom with just seven points from 11 games, but the improvements are there for all to see.
The defence is tightening up for a start. Sunday was their first clean sheet of the season, and came after two games in which they'd only conceded one. That might not seem terribly special, but when the previous eight games had seen 20 goals fly in, you can definitely file this one under 'getting there'.
"They deserve all the credit - they're the ones we had on the pitch," said Poyet after the game. That may be so, but these were the largely the same players that Di Canio had running around like circus clowns, carrying buckets that initially appeared to contain water, but in fact were full of glitter.
Chelsea fortunate
Chelsea needed a Ramires tumble to scrape a 2-2 draw at home to West Brom. Somehow Andre Marriner was convinced. It's become common to say that mistakes are fine - because, after all, everyone makes mistakes. However, if nothing else it's deeply troubling that a referee - apparently one of the best in the land and one that was standing only a few yards away at the time - can be so easily fooled by a not-particularly subtle con-job.
It's not even that Jose Mourinho seemed to think that Steven Reid being in the way as Ramires lurched to one side and cannoned into him was worthy of a penalty that was uncomfortable, but that Mourinho had, only a month or so ago, declared he disliked diving and would punish any of his players that engaged in the dark arts. Being one-eyed about these things and adopting a 'win at all costs' mentality is a hallmark of all the top managers, but it only highlights the pitfalls of setting yourself up as a pious moral arbiter about it beforehand.
There are also issues for Mourinho to address. Had it not been for the penalty, the post-match discussion would surely have centred around Petr Cech inexplicably allowing Stephane Sessgnon's dribbler of a shot to squirt under his body. By rights, that should have been the decisive moment of the game. With Thibaut Courtous starring for Atletico Madrid, Cech's long-term future at Stamford Bridge must be in doubt.
Ashley Cole is another Chelsea stalwart not enjoying the best of times. One omission from the first team looks like a rest. Two in a row looks like a drop. Or, at best, a kick up the backside. Mourinho's comments after the game would suggest the latter. He said: "Ashley is a top professional, he is a fighter. He has to work hard, to fight hard because the place (in the team) is his place."
