Chelsea on the slide: United must not get complacent, are City the biggest threat?..

With Chelsea losing against Arsenal on Monday night and with United winning 2-0 against Sunderland on Boxing Day, the festive season has, so far, gone well for Ferguson. United take on Birmingham City at St Andrews tonight; the leaders have a two point advantage over neighbours Manchester City and Arsenal.

City take on Aston Villa at Eastlands later this afternoon and if they win and United fail to take at least a point from tonight's clash with Birmingham, City will head into 2011 as league leaders. The jury is still out on City's chances of winning the title, but they could yet prove to be United's biggest challengers.

Big spending Manchester City will continue to be a talking point, but at the beginning of the season, Chelsea were tipped heavily to retain the title, and after getting off to a flying start the West London club looked like a good bet, however, following the recent axeing of coach Ray Wilkins, Chelsea have stumbled badly. It would be a mistake to write off Chelsea, because they haven't been playing as badly as their results would appear to indicate.

With Chelsea dropping points and with the emergence of City along with Spurs, it is turning out be a fascinating season, despite the fact that the Premier League has undoubtedly lost some of its shine.

While United's results have been very good, the level of performance hasn't always been what we the fans (aka spoilt bast*rds) have become accustomed to down the years; the reason for this is quite simple: Ferguson failed to replace Ronaldo and Tevez, then factor in the recent Rooney saga, and it's quite easy to see why United do not pose the same attacking threat of two seasons ago.

A week ago, Ferguson admitted that he didn't know how his team has remained unbeaten, it was an honest and fair comment to make because United have been lucky in some games this season, but in football you make your own luck and winning instills confidence as well as self belief.

United appear to have the momemtum and so it is vital they maintain it, especially with Chelsea dropping points. With the very real danger of stating the bleeding obvious, United must continue to take maximum points over the coming weeks, if they do that, they will continue to pile on the pressure which has been steadily building on our main rivals.

With United currently looking like a good bet to win back the title, many expert pundits are talking about what could be the beginning of the end for Chelsea's ageing squad and quite possibly for manager Carlo Ancelotti too; that situation should serve warning to United because with all in the garden looking rosy right now, we cannot afford any complacency, because if that happens City and Arsenal are well placed to take advantage.