Arsenal have moved to the top of what increasingly looks like a new three-team league in English football comprising Arsene Wenger's team, champions Manchester United and big-spending Chelsea.
A gulf in financial resources and talent in depth has propelled those clubs into their own masterclass, polarizing the English game as never before between the haves and have nots.
Fittingly, Arsenal's 1-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers on Sunday rounded off a weekend in which each of the Big Three enjoyed a night at top of the pile.
PHOTO: AP
Chelsea set the pace with their fans approaching the weekend relishing the prospect of an easy win over Bolton Wanderers on Saturday to keep the club bought in July by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich out in front.
Instead, Saturday night celebrations belonged to United after Britain's richest club beat rivals City 3-1 in the Manchester derby and Chelsea conceded a last-minute own goal by John Terry to lose 2-1 at home to Bolton.
United's spell at the summit lasted only until Sunday, when Rovers were beaten by the fluid attacking football of an Arsenal side who hope to be in a new ?500 million (US$873.7 million) stadium in a few years' time.
With Arsenal top on 38 points followed by United (37) and Chelsea (36), the other 17 clubs can only observe a title race in which the best sides are disappearing into the distance.
Three weeks ago, the fourth-placed team -- then Charlton Athletic -- were nine points adrift but the gap has since widened to 11 points.
Fulham manager Chris Coleman, whose side still occupy that fourth place despite Sunday's defeat at Leeds United, had highlighted the new order in English football nearly a fortnight earlier after a creditable 0-0 draw at Arsenal.
"There's a league outside the top three," Coleman said. "We're fourth now so we're top of our own league and, considering what people were expecting us to do, that's a fantastic achievement."
Money and the resulting strength in depth has set the top three apart from their would-be rivals.
Chelsea's have already spent ?111 million on players since Abramovich arrived, a spree that is likely to continue in the January transfer window, to almost produce a new team.
As a result, they were able to field the likes of Hernan Crespo, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and 1998 World Cup winner Marcel Desailly in a midweek League Cup victory at Reading.
Arsenal's promising young reserves were good enough to annihilate Wolves 5-1 in the same competition, though United's second string lost to West Bromwich Albion.
By contrast, clubs such as Liverpool pin their hopes on a few top players -- Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Harry Kewell -- in an unremarkable squad, while Newcastle United's prospects are similarly tied to those of talismanic skipper Alan Shearer.
But domestic results are not the only common thread tying together three elite clubs with ambitions on the European stage.
The top spot in England changed hands just days after Arsenal, United and Chelsea all emerged from the first stage of the Champions League as winners of their respective groups.
English football once prided itself on being more unpredictable than many European leagues where, year after year, the same two or three clubs would challenge for honors.
With the new arrival of Abramovich's millions, the upper echelon of Europe's richest league now looks destined to become almost exclusive.
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