Nani leaves Spurs spitting feathers, City in turmoil

Chelsea are still five points clear at the top of the table after another weekend of non-stop action in the Premier League. There were wins for the Blues and their title rivals Arsenal and Manchester United, but new kids on the block Manchester City suffered a shock defeat.

Further down the table the vanquishers of City, Wolves, are still in the bottom three but Liverpool are now out of the relegation places. At the foot of the division West Ham are in danger of coming adrift.

NANI MAKES GOMES LOOK LIKE A 'NANAThere was little doubt about the biggest talking point of the weekend - Nani's goal for Manchester United against Spurs. The incident has divided opinion in pubs and offices up and down the country. But, writing in the Mail, former referee Graham Poll says that the official at the centre of the storm, Mark Clattenburg, was within his rights to give the goal. Gaffe-prone keeper Heurelho Gomes could turn out to be the fall guy. After all he was guilty of trying to take a free kick that hadn't actually been awarded some 10 metres away from where the offence (Nani's handball) had been committed and after the referee had told him to play on.

THE BIG GUNS LEAVE IT LATEThe big guns left it late to collect their points this weekend. Chelsea fell behind against Blackburn Rovers and had to wait until the 84th minute for Branislav Ivanovic to pop up and score his first goal for the club to seal their 2-1 win. On Sunday Liverpool left it even later before scoring the winner against Bolton. Maxi Rodriguez did the honours in the 86th minute. But it was Arsenal who really frayed the nerves of their supporters, only finding a way past the heroic Robert Green in the West Ham goal in the 88th minute, courtesy of a diving header from Alex Song.

ARE THE WHEELS FALLING OFF AT CITYAre Manchester City the new Liverpool? In recent seasons it was the Reds who would start the campaign full of hope and expectation, only for the wheels to fall off their title bid before the autumn was out. Of course, this season Liverpool are at the other end of the table, but in their absence Manchester City are the team that is flattering to deceive. There were some worrying signs for Roberto Mancini during his side's woeful loss to Wolves. City struggled badly without Carlos Tevez, and there seemed to be a distinct lack of team spirit among the millionaires in light blue. And if there is going to be some kind of a ruction you can bet Emmanuel Adebayor will be in the middle of it, and his stand up row with Vincent Kompany nicely summed up City's problems.

ARSENAL ON SONGA lot of people wrote Arsenal off before the start of the season, and then did so again when they lost to West Brom, but they are just about keeping pace with Chelsea and are ahead of Manchester United in the table on goal difference. Alex Song popped up with the winner against plucky West Ham to secure the Gunners another well-deserved three points on Saturday. With the Manchester derby coming up and Chelsea travelling to Anfield next weekend, the Gunners' main rivals could drop points, giving  Arsene Wenger's side the chance to make up ground on the leaders and establish themselves as serious contenders for the title.

HUGHTON PROVES HE IS THE BIGG MANLast week the talk in Bigg Market was that Chris Hughton was heading for the sack, but on Sunday he was the toast of Newcastle after masterminding his team's 5-1 demolition of local rivals Sunderland. Even more of a hero to Magpies fans was Kevin Nolan who scored a hat-trick as Newcastle ran amok at St James's Park. A shellshocked Steve Bruce, the manager of Sunderland, admitted afterwards that it was "my worst defeat as a manager. Probably in my career." Music to the ears of Newcastle fans.

BORING IN BIRMINGHAMIf there were fireworks going off in Newcastle on Sunday the Birmingham derby was a damp squib as the sides played out a dire 0-0 draw at Villa Park. In fact the only people who would have got any satisfaction from watching the match would have been Wolves fans, still basking in the afterglow of their win over Manchester City the day before. A goalless draw can hardly have been a surprise however. Villa have now gone 344 minutes without a league goal and Birmingham are hardly banging them in for fun. The weekend's results mean that the Birmingham mini-league is nicely poised, with Villa one point ahead of Birmingham, and Wolves a further two points behind.

THE ONLY WAY IS UP FOR LIVERPOOLLiverpool notched their first away win of the season to move out of the bottom three, and so tight is the league that their 1-0 victory over Bolton catpulted them to the dizzy heights of 12th. If they get another couple of wins under their belts the Reds could be challenging for Europe. As Roy Hodgson said after the win on Sunday: "We live in a world of euphoria or tragedy." ·