Premier League / Ralph Ellis / 10 November 2008 / 1 Comments

Struggling Everton have now won three in a row, Arsenal have gone from bad to sublime again and Tony Adams is all of a sudden looking the part. The only consistant thing in the Premiership at the moment are Anelka's goals, says Ralph Ellis.

A few days ago, at least according to the phone-ins, Arsene Wenger was a busted flush who didn't know what he was talking about any more. This morning, of course, he's back to being the professor.

So we can take notice of him when he says this could be the tightest Premier League title race ever - at least for today! Chelsea and Liverpool are setting the pace on 29 points each from 12 games, while Manchester United will stay on their coat tails and Arsenal, after that thrilling 2-1 win at The Emirates, are up there too.

But it isn't only among the big four that the competition is closer than it's ever been. By this stage of a season - with virtually a third of the games played - you can normally sort out the relegation issue to one club guaranteed to go down and another five in the mix. This morning there are just three points separating West Brom on the bottom from Fulham in the top half of the table. It's wide open.

At the top there were at least a few pointers over a rain-sodden weekend. Chelsea stood up to Blackburn in the Ewood Park puddles and were well worth their 2-0 win. And Nicolas Anelka helped himself to two more goals - admittedly knowing very little about the first of them as it deflected off his knee - to become the first player into double figures.

Yet curiously the Frenchman is NOT favourite to still be the top Premier League scorer when the season is over. He's currently [6.8], with Cristiano Ronaldo [5.7] and Fernando Torres [6.6] ahead of him. That's remarkable given that Torres has got only five so far in a campaign upset by injuries. Anelka's longer odds reflect the fear that when Didier Drogba is fit again he could be left out.

But Luiz Felipe Scolari's Chelsea no longer rely on looking long to Drogba when they are under pressure. They play instead into Anelka's feet. And why would a manager with the experience of Scolari - who doesn't seem to go in for rotating players for the sake of it - leave out a forward who was scoring so many goals? And if Anelka stays fit then what's to stop him helping himself to plenty more in a team that will always make chances? That makes [6.8] a blinding value bet at the moment.

At least Chelsea - and Liverpool who cruised to a 3-0 win over West Brom - are capable of putting consistent results together. Because outside of the big four nobody else is. Aston Villa had a massive chance to show their intention of breaking up the pack with games at Newcastle and at home to Middlesbrough in the same week. Instead Steve Sidwell's mistake that gifted Tuncay Sanli the second of two goals ensured their European contest result was "nil points"! And Hull's early season excitement is all over too as they lost at home to Bolton.

So if there's a trend from the weekend's results, it is that there are no trends! We all thought Arsenal were collapsing and then Sami Nasri's two goals helped them beat United. Portsmouth seemed to be struggling to come to terms with life under Tony Adams, but they went and won at Sunderland thanks to a late penalty by Jermain Defoe. Newcastle under Joe Kinnear were putting together a consistent revival, but lost 2-1 at Fulham. Until three weeks ago Everton were looking at a relegation fight rather than another attempt to qualify for Europe, but their 3-1 win at West Ham has lifted them to seventh. And Wigan continue to earn plaudits for how well they are playing, but couldn't get past Stoke in a 0-0 draw that was always guaranteed to be the last game shown on Match of the Day.

It all suggests that not even Tottenham's sensational run under Harry Redknapp can be trusted. They have now taken ten points from four games since Harry 'Houdini' walked into White Hart Lane, but the latest win relied heavily on the intervention of referee Mike Dean. He reduced City to ten men when they were a goal up. Spurs are now as long as [15.0] to go down, but it's a reflection of the state they were in that after such a rapid haul they remain just one point off the bottom.

Maybe the answer in this topsy turvy season is to keep laying whoever looks to be doing well.