Liverpool 0-1 Manchester United. So I'm watching this match and the FIFA Club World Cup title game on split screen, and I'm switching back and forth between the two. For whatever reason, this regular season domestic league game felt bigger somehow. Sure, the Boca Juniors fans were rowdy and Kaká was playing at an otherworldly level, but there was an intensity in this rivalry that surpassed the club world championship. You could hear it in the crowd -- perhaps because the crowd mics in Japan weren't turned up as high as the crowd mics in Anfield -- and you could see it in the players on the field.Especially Carlos Tevez, who dominated this game while his beloved Boca was being dominated in Japan. Tevez found his way into the box on a brilliant corner kick play by the Red Devils at the end of the first half. Ryan Giggs sent it wide to Wayne Rooney, who sent it into the box and found Carlos Tevez to the left of the entire Liverpool defense. That proved to be all Man U needed, as all of Fernando Torres' many attempts went wide, and no other Liverpool player could get past the Red Devil backline.
The win was enough to knock the Reds back into fifth place. (For now.) But would it be enough for Man U to reclaim the Premier League lead?
Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea. Not quite. If the Liverpool-Man U game was intense, this London derby was ferocious. You've never heard a play-by-play announcer use the word "argie-bargie" to describe the on-the-pitch action in your life. Spot fires and yellow cards broke out everywhere as the Blues attempted to use hard tackles and physical play to disrupt the Gunners' flowing, quick-passing style of play.Toward the end of the first half, though, John Terry got stepped on and had to leave the game. That's when the Gunners fired, and of course, it was a former Chelsea player that did it. William Gallas took advantage of a rare Petr Cech miscue on an Arsenal corner kick and headed in the opening goal.
Terry wouldn't be the last player to leave injured. Arsenal's Emmanuel Eboue had to be carried off on a stretcher after what may have been a concussion. The good news for Gunners supporters, though, was that Robin Van Persie stepped in to replace him, though he wasn't able to generate any additional offense. He didn't need to, though, as Manuel Almunia kept the Blues out of his goal with some pretty remarkable saves.
So the day ended in England with Arsenal still on top of Man United by a point, with Chelsea six points behind the Gunners and Man City seven points behind. Liverpool still has the game in hand, of course, but little by little, it's the other teams in red that are starting to make the Premier League a two-horse race.
