Football Weekly: Guts and goals galore in the fight for the title

With just two weeks left of the Premier League season, it’s still all to play for at the top. Chelsea went goal crazy (again) to stay in control, but Manchester United put in a gut-wrenching performance – at least for Patrice Evra and Nani – to beat Tottenham Hotspur to stay in the hunt. James Richardson and his Football Weekly chums are here to analyse it all.

Spurs remain favourites to finish fourth – especially now Manchester City’s Champions League aspirations are held in the hands of the finest goalkeeper in the Faroe Islands – but Aston Vila are still in with a shout, and could Liverpool sneak into fourth after all? Merseyside’s Gregg Roughley tells us how it is (la), and John Ashdown urges a bit of caution wihout resorting to the words ‘calm’ or ‘down’.


Rafa Honigstein
brings us news from Germany, where Bayern Munich face an injury crisis ahead of the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with Lyon, and Hamburg travel to Fulham in the Europa League with a new manager and a leaky defence. Meanwhile Sid Lowe gives us the skinny on Barcelona’s plans to beat Internazionale, and Atlético Madrid’s chances of keeping Liverpoool quiet at Anfield.

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James RichardsonBen GreenRaphael HonigsteinJohn AshdownGregg RoughleySid Lowe

Aston Villa v Chelsea: David Pleat’s tactical analysis

For all their spirit and bravery, Aston Villa could not create the chances to threaten Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal at Wembley

Shape

Martin O’Neill went for two flank players, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing, on the wide Wembley pitch. Gabriel Agbonlahor and John Carew carried their team’s goalscoring hopes and Stilian Petrov and James Milner occupied central midfield. Refusing to succumb to the temptation to play a three-man midfield was a brave move that the manager hoped would give his side a better chance of scoring. He would have been expecting his centre-backs, Richard Dunne and James Collins, to block, mark and cover better than they had in the recent 7-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge. Crucial to this game would have

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The best images from Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Villa at Wembley