AVB feels the heat as Glen Johnson downs Chelsea

ANOTHER weekend of Premier League action has, almost, come to an end with Manchester City still unbeaten and five points clear of their local rivals, United, at the top of the table.

Newcastle remain in third despite their first defeat of the season, but they are now nine points behind City. Beneath the Magpies are four teams all tied on 22 points. Chelsea, Spurs (who play tonight), Liverpool and Arsenal are shaping up for an enthralling Champions League dogfight, although they are already 12 points off the leaders.

Here's what the fans will be talking about this morning:

IS AVB REALLY TOO EXPENSIVE TO FIRE?
Andre Villas-Boas has reason to worry: two successive home defeats, three losses in four games and the worst start to a season by a Chelsea manager in the Abramovich era are likely to mean that the trigger-happy Russian owner is reaching for his pistol. AVB pretended not to be concerned, and told reporters: "[Abramovich] didn't pay 15m euros  to get me out of Porto and another fortune to get me out of Chelsea." However, he knows as well as anyone that Abramovich is not too fussed about money and during his time at the club has completely failed to understand that a manager needs to be given time to build his own team. It is telling that seven of Chelsea's starting XI on Sunday dated back to the Mourinho era, it suggests that the club is stuck in a timewarp because it has concentrated on marquee signings and the boss has never been given the chance to rebuild the team from the ground up.

JOHNSON SENDS A REMINDER
Old players often come back to haunt a club, and before the game on Sunday everyone was talking about former Liverpool stars Fernando Torres and Raul Meireles who now play for Chelsea. But both of them were left on the bench and in the end it was a Chelsea old boy who stole the show. Glen Johnson, who was deemed surplus to requirements by Jose Mourinho in 2007, burst into the Blues box in the dying minutes to slot the ball home and inflict another defeat on Chelsea. It also served to remind everyone that he is England's first choice right back, despite the emergence of Kyle Walker and Chris Smalling and the impressive form of Micah Richards.

WHEN IS A CORNER NOT A CORNER?
Without doubt the strangest goal of the weekend came in Blackburn's 3-3 draw at Wigan, when Rovers scored from a corner after Morten Gamst Pedersen dribbled the ball from the flag before firing in a low cross for Junior Hoilett score. The run of Pedersen appeared illegal, but it transpired that the officials were under the impression that Yukubu had earlier given the ball the faintest of touches, meaning that it was in play when Pedersen arrived. TV replays appeared to suggest that Yakubu had failed to touch the ball, however. All in all it was a bemusing passage of play, and one that makes you realise that for an apparently simple game football has plenty of rules.

ARSENAL BECOME A ONE-MAN BAND
Arsene Wenger may be committed to the Gunners, but Arsenal fans may be more concerned about the future of Robin Van Persie after he propelled his side to a fifth straight league win with yet another brace of goals. The Dutch striker now has 15 goals this season and 31 so far this calendar year. The Gunners have scored 25 times in the league this campaign, and 13 of them have been provided by Van Persie. Theo Walcott is the second highest scorer at the club with four goals so far this season, while Van Persie's strike partners, Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh have three goals between them. Arsenal may be recovering after their poor start to the season, but if RVP picks up an injury things could go belly up pretty swiftly.

CITY STILL UNBEATEN
As most people expected Manchester City ended Newcastle United's unbeaten run at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. However, the Toon gave it a good go and proved that their league position is not undeserved. However, City took the spoils thanks to two penalties, scored by Mario Balotelli and Sergio Aguero and another goal from barnstorming right back Micah Richards.  City's run of 11 wins and a draw from their first 12 games is a Premier League record, but Roberto Mancini has been playing down talk of emulating Arsenal's "invincibles" and surviving the whole season unbeaten. However, City have already survived their toughest away game of the season at Old Trafford (they won 6-1) and could be set for a record-breaking run. ·