Advantage United, just, but Arsenal are still gunning for it while Chelsea get the blues - Martin Lipton on how the title race is shaping up

By Martin Lipton in Mirror Football Blog

Published 11:48 22/03/10

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Advantage United, just. But the momentum is surely as much with Arsenal and it is only Chelsea who are losing their sense of direction.

A weekend of frenzied action and controversy left the shape of the title race looking subtly but unquestionably different.

And as the battle for the crown enters the finishing straight, there can be no doubting that it is United and the Gunners who are heading for home, with Carlo Ancelotti and his Blues starting to run on empty.

In other circumstances, earning a draw at Blackburn would not be a calamity, especially as that point was gained without Petr Cech, Ashley Cole and Michael Essien and despite the loss of Branislav Ivanovic.

But after the Champions League debacle at the hands of Jose Mourino and Inter Milan, Ancelotti's side needed to show the response of potential champions.

Instead, for the first time since the opening week of the campaign, Chelsea find themselves in third and knowing that they are beginning to lose control of their future.

Of course, if Chelsea win their seven remaining fixtures, including that April 3 trip to Old Trafford, they will still be champions.

That, however, is an increasingly big and doubtful "if".

The reaction of the Chelsea players at the final whistle signaled that change in mindset.

There was no triumphalism, no celebrations to mirror those after the February 2005 win at Ewood that told the Chelsea players they would finish as the Kings of English football.

This was a team whose body language and postures were at the other extreme - deflated, diminished, desperate.

In the space of a few days, Cheslea have gone from a fluent, determined, expectant side to one that is stuttering and stumbling, looking for excuses.

There were none to be found at Ewood.

What made it worse was that Blackburn, for 45 minutes at least, were simply awful and even when they pressed higher up the pitch in the second period, it was all huff and puff, with no finesse.

Yet that was enough to ease Chelsea out of their rhythm and equilibrium, with Ancelotti conceding his team had lost their "composure" under fairly modest pressure, paying the price when El Hadji Diouf rose above the pathetic Paulo Ferreira to nod home the equaliser.

The most stark statistic, though, exposed the problem. Between the sixth minute, when Didier Drogba scored, and the 87th, when the African's snap-shot was turned round the post, Rovers keeper Jason Brown made just one save, a regulation stop from Florent Malouda's drive straight at him.

Not good enough, certainly not for a side fighting for supremacy, and suddenly Chelsea appear to be on the edge of the precipice, their season in serious danger of disappearing into the abyss.

Contrast that with their two rivals, and while Arsene Wenger's attempted block on his players talking about their looming clash with Barcelona is frankly bizarre - they can't pretend the games aren't coming, twice in the space of seven days, and pretty soon too - the title mood music from both Old Trafford and The Emirates is right.

United's dogged but deserved win over Liverpool keeps them with their noses in front and they remain very much masters of their own destiny, even if they have a potentially tricky run-in.

Winners over course and distance, seeking a record fourth straight crown, United still have to also juggle the demands of what they expect to be four extra European ties between now and the end of April, nine games in the space of 32 days starting at Bolton on Saturday.

But there comes a point where the momentum takes over, where the lure of the prize is greater than the pain required to achieve it and at this stage United appear to be living that experience.

Of course, as Chelsea will tell you, it only needs one game, one error, one goal, to alter everything, to disrupt and destroy the glory cavalcade and if United do suffer that blip, Wenger's men are showing they can conquer.

Since those back to back defeats by United and Chelsea in the heart of bleak midwinter, Arsenal have reeled off six straight wins, a maximum points haul that makes them the form team.

Should United and Chelsea share the spoils on Easter Saturday, two more wins against Birmingham and Wolves would put the Gunners - at worst - trailing only by virtue of a rapidly narrowing goal difference margin, with five games to play.

Wenger will hope the loss of the suspended Thomas Vermaelen at St Andrews - where, of course, Arsenal mentally lost the title in the wake of Eduardo's horror broken leg two seasons ago - will not compound his frustrations over the Belgian's weekend red card.

For now, though, unless Chelsea can dig deep and find the self-belief which appears to have deserted them, it is looking like the old rivals back trading blows, two men in pursuit of one prize. Wenger vs Fergie. Again. Fantastic.

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