Just when you thought you were ready to anoint Manchester United as repeat champs, Sir Alex's men went down to a team who were supposed to be candidates for relegation.

Meanwhile, a squad many had written off (Chelsea) pulled out a late victory and one team I thought to be a sure bet for a place in Europe (Portsmouth) lost at home to one of the weaker sides in the Premier League. What gives here? Does my original thesis still hold or does everything get thrown out the window?

It still holds, baby. Yesterday was just a temporary blip, not a correction or even trend reversal (to borrow some financial lingo. Quite appropriate, given the amount of cash sloshing around the Premier League these days). Pompey are still Euro-worthy, they just need to find a way to score goals at home. That, and David James needs to forget about this bogus campaign for England and concentrate on the games he is paid to play now.

'So what did in Man United at Upton Park? Two things: complacency and Wes Brown, though not necessarily in that order'


Also in Portsmouth's favour is suspect competition for European spots: Everton did not impress me despite taking a first-half lead against Arsenal, and Aston Villa went down to Harry Redknapp's men earlier this month. The teams behind Pompey in the table are, with one exception (more on Spurs in a bit), decidedly mediocre.

West Ham are now ninth, for example -- with a game in hand to boot. (Show of hands: how many of you thought West Ham would ever see ninth place this season? If your hand is up you're either from the East End or lying. Or both).

Manchester City are obvious front-runners for fifth or maybe even fourth - stay tuned as they host Liverpool later today - but that leaves a handful of European spots, one of which Pompey certainly have the ability to claim for themselves.

So what did in Man United at Upton Park? Two things: complacency and Wes Brown, though not necessarily in that order. When teams play this many games in this short a time period, some strange stuff is bound to happen. It's hard enough for players to keep their focus when they're playing different competitions, i.e. in Europe versus domestically.

When it's this much action within one single league, complacency is bound to set in at some point. Exhibit A: Cristiano Ronaldo with the penalty kick gifted by Jonathan Spector's handball. ("Merry Christmas, dude!" said the Yank defender) I'm not entirely sure what Ronaldo was trying to do with that PK. Maybe experiment a bit with a new technique?

As for Brown, I have wondered for some time why Sir Alex keeps playing this guy. Darren Fletcher isn't much better, either. Surely United have somebody better to take those spots? If the Red Devils do not win the Premier League it will, in all likelihood, be due to the play of these two.

Spurs continued their winning ways (four goals from Dimitar Berbatov, whom I have started in my fantasy league team, thank you very much) albeit without an ability to play defence. Maybe Ledley King isn't England-worthy just yet. But hey, give Juande Ramos' side credit for playing entertaining football at least. Spurs move up to 12th with the victory.

Also give Chelsea credit for their victory over Newcastle, which I thought they clearly deserved. Avram Grant's side were the better team throughout the game and had the lion's share of possession (63%, according to ESPN Soccernet). If it hadn't been for Shay Given's heroics, Chelsea would have booked the victory much earlier. Still though, without Drogba and Terry, the Blues are simply not as good as the Gunners and Man United.

So yes, it's still a two-team race, at least with the teams in their current make-up. There are due to be changes, maybe even significant changes, in the January transfer window that could reshuffle the deck a bit. But until then, expect my patterns will hold.