Derby curse struck Manchester United again as Manchester City beat them 2-1, completing a historic double over their more prestigious rivals. Before the match, their was speculation that City fans might ruin the day for the Red Devils by not observing silence to the Munich Air Disaster, but it was the City players who turned out to be the spoilers-in-chief. United played poorly from the start, and City duly punished them when Darius Vassell scored from a slick counter-attack. Benjani then compounded United's misery, as he diverted Petrov's great cross into the net. United improved in the second-half, but City defence stood strong until Carrick managed to score at the depth, but the goal proved to be mere consolation.

This match showed that United are a man short up-front and Sir Alex Ferguson's decision of not signing another striker in January might continue to haunt him for the rest of the season. Moreover, Giggs and Scholes are no longer fit to be first-team regulars. Against tough opposition, Sir Alex must play Anderson and Hargreaves in midfield.

In the second high-profile match, Liverpool managed to hold Chelsea to a draw at Stamford Bridge. It was a fairly tight game as both teams looked fairly matched. Cropuch did get three oppurtunities to score, but failed to make anything of them. Chelsea's best chance went to Ballack, but his volley missed the post by inches. At the end of the day, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was quite happy with a point, with Chelsea manager left to rue the fact they failed to close the gap on Manchester United.

This weekend's big winners were Arsenal, who beat Blackburn rovers 2-0 in the Monday night encounter to increase their lead at the top of the table to an impressive 5 points. Senderos opened the scoring for the Gunners with a well-placed header from an Eduardo corner. Arsenal were far from their best, and Blackburn threatened to equalise for most of the game but they wrer unable to breach Arsenal's solid back-line. Finally, Adebayor scored in injury-time to make the game safe.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa underlined the fact that they are serious about snatching the fourth-spot away from Liverpool as they thrashed sorry Newcastle 4-1. Th Magpies were quite good in the first-half and deservedly took the lead when Owen scored from a Milner cross. But Villa turned on the style after rthe break as Bouma and Carew scored to put them in the driving seat. Carew went on to score two more to heap more pressure on Kevin Keegan and send most of Villa Park into jubilation.

In other matches, portsmouth performed a smash-and-grab at the Reebok to beat Bolton, Tottenham continued thier revival to earn only their second away win of the season at Pride Park, Aliadiere scored for Middlesborough to hand them all 3 points against Fulham at the Riverside to push them further away from the relegation zone, Sunderland won yet again on their home soil against Wigan, Birmingham gained a valuable point at Upton Park in a match they were unlucky not to win and Reading's woes increased as they went down at Goodison Park

Here are all the results from the weekend:


Manchester United 0-2 Manchester City
Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool
Arsenal 2-0 Blackburn
Aston Villa 4-1 Newcastle United
Bolton 0-1 Portsmouth
Derby 0-3 Tottenham
Middlesborough 1-0 Fulham
Sunderland 2-0 Wigan
West Ham 1-1 Birmingham
Everton 1-0 Reading

Although Arsenal are 5 points ahead of their rivals, the season is far from over with 12 games and 36 points left to play for. Many people are suggesting it's Arsenal's title to lose now, but they have to still visit Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and you can never write off Manchester United and Chelsea. Whatever happens, this season's title race promises to be one of the best ever.

When Kevin Keegan took over at Newcastle United about 3 weeks ago, he was labelled a Messiah by the Geordie fans, thinking that he will bring instant success to the club. But since then events suggest that Keegan's time at St. James Park may already be ticking down.

The first blow to Kevin Keegan's second reign came when Alan Shearer, the Geordie hero, refused a accept a role at Newcastle. Most fans wanted Shearer to become Keegan's assisstant, or take any role in the back-room staff or the board. But Keegan was unable to do so. Many fans suspect this happened because of some animosity between Shearer and Keegan. to compound the fans' misery, Shearer said that Newcastle is not the only club he would like to manage.

The second blow was Jonathan Woodgate's refusal to come to Newcastle. Keegan needed sound central defender badly, and Woodgate was the likely signing. And Newcastle even had their bid accepted by Middlesborough. But Woodgate snubbed Newcastle, signing instead for rivals Tottenham. Moreover, Keegan failed to make any notable signings too.

The single-most incident that undermined Keegan was the board's appointment of Dennis Wise as director of football, without Keegan's approval. Signals coming from Newcastle suggested they wanted to appoint a director of football, and chairman Mike Ashley and Chief Executive Chris Mort duly did so when they appointed Wise to take up the post. The board said that Wise's job is to look after the transfers, not to interfere in the first team affairs. This move led Keegan declaring he is still incharge of the first-team too and insist Wise will appoint to him. But past evidence incidents Chelsea and Tottenham suggest that the appointment of director of football leads to friction between him and the manager as each one tries to interfere in each other's job. This unsettles the team and ultimately leads to the manager being sacked. This can happen to Keegan too.

To add to these events, Newcastle's on-the-field performance has remained woeful. Thay are winless under Keegan, drawing one and losing three of the four games they have played. Owen's goal in the last Newcastle match was the first the Magpies have scored in about 700 minutes. The defence remains as poor as always with the strikers seeming totally incapable of regaining their scoring touch. If their form does not pick up quickly, they could find themselves fighting relegation.

These incidents suggest that Keegan's second tenure as magpies manger may well be short-lived. I can see him not being in-charge come next season. Although in my opinion, Mike Ashley should stick with Keegan, allowing him to start the next season as manager. Until then Keegan will be able to assemble a squad that he likes and prepare them thoroughly. If Keegan till well into next season, only then he will be able to know the correct answer of the question; 'Has Keegan still got what it takes to lead Newcastle to glory?'

On Sunday a British tabloid reported that Newcastle are preparing a bid for Manchester United's Micheal Carrick. The report went on to say that Carrick is Keegan's top transfer target, and owner Mike Ashley is ready to spend 18 million pounds to land the Newcastle-born midfielder. But I think this report is based on pure speculation rather than concrete facts.

However, if Newcastle DOES manage to lure Carrick to the Tyneside, it will be a great signing for them. The Newcastle team is in free-fall right now and they need new blood desperately. Carrick is a sort of a player that can instantly shore up the midfield and bring creativity in a side that seems utterly incapable of finding their way to goal, even at home. Moreover, he can also play in a defensive role and his tackling has improved immeasurably.

But I don't think Sir Alex Ferguson will be willing to part company with Carrick, even for 18 million pounds. I know that many of United's fans are annoyed with Carrick's inconsistency and want him to be sold as soon as possible. I admit that he is inconsistent, but still, he is a very useful player to have in your squad. When he is at the top of his game, he can dictate a game with ease, spraying passes all over the field that are simply unstoppable. Furthermore, Scholes can't play forever and Hargreaves is very injury-prone. That leaves us with Carrick as the only alternative to partner Anderson in midfield apart from Fletcher, who is not frankly good enough to play first-team football (although his commitment is highly commendable). United should only sell Carrick if, and when, they sign another quality midfielder or any youngster gets promoted to the first-team.

Carrick to Newcastle is a move that has as much chance of materialising as Newcastle finishing in the top six this season. I for one see Carrick remaining at Old Trafford for the foreseeable future.

Newcastle have announced that Kevin Keegan will be their new manager,who is making a dramatic return to management after leaving manchester city in 2005.He is already being regarded as a messiah by the geordie fans. Personally,I think his appointment is a good move by the club as they could not have found any better candidates for the job other than keegan.Also,I think keegan will be able bring some stability to the club and rujuvenate the side. Now I can see Newcastle making a decent finish to the season.Reaction to this remarkable news is certain to follow over the next few days.

On Saturday, Manchester United faced managerless Newcastle at Old Trafford. Before the match, I had a feeling that United were playing against the Magpies at just the right time. This is exactly what happened as United notched up an incredible 6 goals a woeful Newcastle defence.

Sir Alex fielded his best available eleven players. Rooney and Tevez started upfront, Giggs and Ronaldo took their positions at either wing and Carrick partnered Anderson in midfield. in defence, O'Shea replaced the suspended Wes Brown.

The Manchester United players took a while to get going which resulted in a goalless first-half. Despite dominating possession, they failed to create many clear-cut chances, making the Newcastle defence look unusually good. United had two good penalty shouts, but I can't blame Rob Styles for not giving them. It was Newcastle who were most hard-done by, as Owen's strike was ruled out due a wrong offside flag.

And Newcastle were made to rue the mistake by the assisstant referee as United turned on the style in the second-half. The Magpies defence was ripped apart countless times, and they had no answer to Man utd's passing and movement. Ronaldo scored from the free-kick to open up the flood-gates.Soon after this,calamitous defending by Jose Enrique and Shay Given allowed Tevez to score an easy goal.A simply sublime foer-man move led to united's third,with Ronaldo showing excellent skill and composure to control Tevez's pass and bury it into the net.Ferdinand volleyed in the fourth,scoring a goal any striker in the world would be proud of.Even after this,United kept up the pressure and Ronaldo got his first-ever hat-trick for the red devils as a deflection carried his shot past Given. Tevez rounded the scoring,when the linesman correctly judged that his shot crossed the line.Alan Smith did not agree,and the ref gave him a straight red when he foolishly confronted the referee.

Man Utd scored six when they could easily have scored beyond ten.Newcastle cleared the ball off the line four times and I lost count of united'ds total Goal scoring oppurtunities. Towards the end of the match,it was like men against boys,professionals against amateurs and a Premiership club against a pub team. Such one-sided matches are rare,and you really enjoy if the dominating team is the team you support.

Needless to say,Ronaldo was absolutely brilliant in the match,taking his tally of goals to 22 for the season.Also,it is good to see that Tevez's finishing is up to the mark.It is interesting to note that Roonry failed to score,but I think he will go on a scoring run soon enough.All in all,it was an awesome,breath-taking display of beautiful football by man utd.(That which othe football owners and managers crave for,most notably, Roman Abramovich).

As far as Newcastle is concerned,they need to appoint a manager as soon as possible and bring in a few players in the transfer window. If they don't improve their game, I think they have an outside chance of being relegated.

To cap off a wonderful weekend for United, Arsenal vould only manage a draw against Birmingham. (I think that the Gunners took Birmingham lightly, and missed their defensive stalwart Toure, who has gone for AFCON). After this performance, United should be able to hold on the first spot for some time, if not until the end of the season.