Antipathy is the only word that comes to mind when two great clubs perform like neither one cares and nothing is on the line. This is what we were given at the Emirates as Arsenal and Chelsea, dare I say battled, to a 0-0 draw.
A month ago, it looked like Arsenal was going to run away with the title with little hope of anyone given chase. It only took the month of December for it all of it to come crashing down and there are still two matches left before we can close the book on a dreadful run of form. At the end of November, Arsenal sat four points ahead of Chelsea and seven points in front of Liverpool. Now they sit tied with Liverpool in points, but behind them in goal differential.
Chelsea can’t claim much glory over the month of December either. Though they have managed to drop less points over the same span, their style of play and the inconsistency in the line ups from game to game are not giving most fans a warm, fuzzy feeling for the New Year. Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, said after the match "It is a unique situation, an unbelievable championship because we are all there.”
Mourinho is correct. There are five teams within two points of the top spot but that is because the other teams have now caught and passed them not because everyone is playing at a high level.
There is a word that is thrown around quite a lot; mostly in the US, and that word is “parity”. It means “the quality of being similar or identical”. Maybe that is what we finally have now in the Premier League. We have gone from the “big four” to now the “big eight or even ten”. This is good for those teams like Everton, Tottenham and Newcastle who always get close but never quite make it. This may be their year, funnier things have happened. Both Arsenal and Chelsea showed us that they are not that interested.
There is still a lot of football to go and some very good matches to close out 2013. Let’s hope that the top teams are willing to put forth more of an effort and show that they are truly contenders for the most prestigious league title in all of football instead of what we got yesterday.
Source: DSG
