In the battle of Manchester, Roberto Mancini’s City, came out triumphant and worthy winners in this classic battle, reducing the lead at the top to 12 points. But it looks like United and Sir Alex Ferguson will prevail and pick up the title and win the proverbial war.

Man City’s Roberto Mancini and Man United’s Alex Ferguson square off

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As Mancini promised, City came out with guns blasting determined to prove that they are significantly better than the 12 point gap shows. City were the better side, from beginning to end, as they took the game to the league leaders. United were somewhat underwhelming, showing a distinct lack of real cutting edge when attacking, from either Robin van Persie or the returning Wayne Rooney. City got the deserved win, with the decisive goal coming from Sergio Aguerro in the dying moments. The ease of which City won the game, would certainly beg the question, what happened during the season.

Arsenal continued their push for the Champions league by staging a dramatic comeback in their win over West Brom, even though they went down to 10 men. Tomas Rosicky scored in each half as Arsenal withstood a West Brom fightback to move above Chelsea into fourth place in the Premier League. The Gunners have won six of their last seven league games and are in good position to secure that fourth place spot over rivals Spurs. For West Brom, although it was a loss, they remain in eighth place, and if they can hold on, it would be their highest Premier League finish.

Other champions league hopefuls Spurs and Everton played a riveting contest that ended in a 2-2 draw. Spurs went 1 up within the first minute, before Everton responded with two goals to take the lead. Spurs playing without stars Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon got strong performances from Moussa Dembele and a rejuvenated Emmanuel Adebayor. Spurs persistence paid off as they were rewarded with a tying goal late in the contest. The result keeps Spurs in 4th place but both 3rd place Chelsea and 5th place Arsenal have that crucial game in hand.

Aston Villa picked up the biggest most important result of the weekend as their 3-1 win lifts them out of the relegation zone and heaps pressure on Tony Pullis and Stoke City. The win will do wonders for Villa’s confidence and survival hopes, while Stokes fortunes are going in the opposite direction as they have won only once in their last 13 league games and find themselves just four points from the bottom three. Troubling times for the potters.

In this crucial relegation match-up Queens Park Rangers and Wigan had a thrilling encounter with Wigan stealing a point in the 94th minute. The point keeps QPR’s slim hopes barely alive, while for Wigan it puts them tied with Sunderland with 31 points. Sunderland with new manager Paolo di Canio in tow, put in a much more spirited performance, but it was not enough as they ran out 2-1 losers to Chelsea. For Sunderland after a poor run of form that cost Martin O’Neil his job, new man Di Canio has his work cut out to keep Sunderland up. It’s gonna take a lot more than spirit for a squad that’s evenly lacking talent.

For Reading with their loss to Southampton, it is all but confirmed mathematically that will be relegated and returning to the lower tier, while another good win for Southampton moves them closer to safety and vindicates the Southampton board for firing Nigel Adkins and bringing Argentina’s Mauricio Pochettino.