Title decided – It’s a two-horse race

TITLE-DECIDER? Well, September is a tad premature for such talk but Sunday's action at least decided one thing: that Manchester United won't be winning it.
As for the two genuine heavyweight contenders who topped the bill, Chelsea just might have opened up an eight-point lead but for a certain Frank Lampard. An authentic "of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world" moment.
Nothing can be called insurmountable in autumn but Chelsea are storming front runners and if they had got away with a second successive smash and grab raid, the psychological damage on City could have been huge.
Without a win in four games, already up against it in Europe and hamstrung by Financial Fair Play (FFP), the long race would have begun to look as if it belonged to one horse.
No longer "little" like last season, Jose Mourinho's thoroughbreds have bulked up with summer's wheeling and dealing and have become warm favourites. In stumbling contrast, City merely tinkered in the market and still couldn't avoid the shackles of FFP.
But thanks to the improbable intervention of a Chelsea legend and their own warrior spirit, City gave themselves a much-needed boost by forcing a draw.
After a late equaliser, it is always the team that has scored it that looks the happier, but if you'd asked Mourinho at the start if he'd take a draw, he would have shaken on it.
As it was, he was annoyed that his side – renowned curmudgeons for letting leads slip – had allowed a 10-man outfit to rob them of a potentially vital victory.
So who looks the more likely to prevail over the long haul? Based on what we've seen so far, Chelsea probably have the edge.
Mourinho had a season to see what he needed and, with some remarkable auctioneering skills, managed to rake in a massive £110m (RM583m) for David Luiz, Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba, Patrick van Aanholt and Kevin de Bruyne. In came Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa and Filipe Luis along with Thibaut Courtois returning on loan, and this has bolstered the side immeasurably and even made a small profit.
City meanwhile spent the bulk of their limited funds on a defender, Eliaquim Mangala, when another striker might have been the priority – especially when they were forced to sell Alvaro Negredo to avoid further FFP penalties.
They badly wanted Radamel Falcao but found their hands were tied. Indeed, you could say that the blue half of Manchester needed him more than the red half. Just as United would have been better off pursuing Mangala, who made an impressive debut alongside Vincent Kompany.
In terms of deciding things, unfortunately you cannot get away from feeling it is no longer the players who are having the final say. If City don't win the title, they'll blame the introduction of this nonsensical new law hatched in the UEFA offices by lawyers.
On Sunday both Manchester clubs were on the wrong end of some game-changing refereeing calls, especially United, and these were the league's top officials, Mike Dean and Mark Clattenburg.
How Louis van Gaal kept his cool over what happened at Leicester you can only put down to him realising that to blame Clattenburg would have been to let his own players off the hook.
His grace in defeat was extraordinary but you can bet those hapless defenders will pay for it in training this week. By all accounts, they've already sampled his hairdryer.
Still, that does not exonerate him from neglecting to bolster the backline while throwing the Glazers' cash around with impunity from the FFP rules. Mangala looked exactly what United need and failure to land the Frenchman – or even any other dedicated senior defender – could cost Van Gaal dear.
Anybody can spend money and if you buy enough big-name attackers, goals will come. They did at Leicester but three weren't enough when his defenders made his claim that United could win the title look even more absurd than it sounded after the win over QPR.
Van Gaal does not look like a man who will shirk a challenge and he's certainly given himself one with United's rearguard. If United continue to score, the players will get the plaudits, but if the defenders continue to concede, he will get the blame.
Right now he must be glad he has neither League Cup nor European commitments to distract from training ground drills. Said to be a manager who can improve players, he may still have his work cut out with what he's left himself at United.
Falcao looked what City need. The injury-prone Kun Aguero was ineffective after taking another knock on his knee and Edin Dzeko was not adroit enough to trick a Chelsea rearguard superbly marshalled by John Terry.
Had he been fit Stefan Jovetic would have surely have played at some point. At least the much-criticised Yaya Toure looked as if he had an appetite for more than birthday cake and had a better game, but the Ivorian is still some way short of the steamroller on skis that he can be.
To be fair, City tore at Chelsea early on, playing a high-tempo game they seemed to have forgotten, but the final pass eluded them. They will take heart, though, in the fact that their rivals' chief hitman Diego Costa, who met his match in Kompany, will not be available for more than one game a week. If City can somehow keep Aguero fit, they'll be in with a shout.
As well as ruling out United, Sunday's battle probably ruled out Arsenal and Liverpool too – this season the Premier League looks like a two-horse race – between a couple of big and powerful thoroughbreds in blue.