Twisted.

The premiership run-in has never been this intriguing since the premiership rose from the ashes of the barclays league.

Today,the red devils arrived at ewood park with loads of arrogance peppered with a sense of foreboding.They were lucky to avoid defeat as Roque Santa Cruz reminded them that the league was not over yet.

A lot of people have written about the relative run-ins of both title contenders;but I feel chelsea have got a job to do first on the bridge if they are to make the permutations endure beyond next weekend.

Arsenal has surrendered a 12-point lead to the red devils in a run-in before...so fergie knows exactly how cruel the last set of games can be to complacent souls.Left to old trafford fans,the team from the north were already champions-elect since beating wenger's men at old trafford couple of weeks ago. Fergie has been doing his utmost best to dampen expectations..but the incurable inflated egos of MAN UTD fans worldwide typically show no let off until deflated in decisive fashion.

Man-utd winning the title would not be a headline....but surrendering the title in the last 2 games would certainly leave a ripple effect.

Looking at the lurking champions league games in mid week,I suspect Man-Utd would emerge the more tired of the 2 title contenders just by virtue of their different styles of play.

Man-utd run a lot with power over 90 minutes and come up against another flair team in Barca who by the way now have all their flair players back: deco,ronaldinho,messi,eto'o...only krkic and henry are doubts after the weekend liga games. The likes of ronaldo and rooney surely cannot be as fresh on saturday after running all tuesday.

Chelsea on the other hand play a more possessive kind of football and rely heavily on strong midfield display to wear teams down.Liverpool are very similar.I cannot imagine that chelsea would mind this tie very much..plus they get to stay in England while Man-Utd hop on a flight to spain.

This season has shown enough twists and turns already though to prove that logical analyses like this one count for absolutely nothing once the ref blows the whistle...it's why we all follow the game innit?...let the games begin!!