Buzzin Football

A return to winning ways for Liverpool and the continuing good fortune of Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea last night, keeps the pressure on leaders Manchester United in the Premier league title chase this morning. United are a comfortable four points ahead of their rivals with a nice cushion of two games in hand. It is hard to see United slipping up but non the less it is imperative that Chelsea and Liverpool take nothing less than maximum points from the remaining games if they are to remain a threat.

Sir Alex Ferguson is not getting carried away and has reminded his players of the situation in La Liga, where runaway leaders Barcelona have seen an eleven point advantage suddenly reduced to just four points in a two week period. The Catalan team have continued to produce the dazzling football that had hauled them apart from the rest but that has simply not been enough in recent games.

A thrilling 4-3 loss to Atletico Madrid at the weekend follows a 2-1 loss to bottom of the table Espanyol and a draw with Real Betis. Second placed Real Madrid have not just taken advantage of the Barcelona hiccup, but have also thrashed Betis 6-1 and beaten Espanyol away 2-0 in that same period.

Despite the awful display from Real Madrid in the Champions league clash with Liverpool, they are currently the in-form team in Spain and for the first time this season the pressure is on Barcelona and their rookie manager Pepe Guardiola and it will be interesting to see in particular how Guardiola copes with the problem.

In the meantime in the Premiership the only way for Chelsea or Liverpool to take advantage, should United slip up, is to follow the example of Real Madrid in making sure that they do not lose any more points themselves.