In PL shock, it's Manchester in first -- City, not United

Voracious Manchester City defender Micah Richards (left) was one step ahead of United's Carlos Tévez. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

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It's the same old, same old in the English Premier League standings: Manchester first, Chelsea second. But, much like the closing moments of The Sixth Sense, with an exciting new twist: It's Manchester City -- not United -- that leads the way.

Sven-Göran Eriksson's new-look City team has three wins in three matches, including a 1-0 victory over United at the City of Manchester Stadium last Sunday thanks to a 25-yard curler from Geovanni. With reference to ruddy-faced United manager Alex Ferguson's rising blood pressure, English tabloids termed the result "Swede 1, Beetroot 0."

United dominated possession, but its final ball was often astray, the team clearly missing Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. New signing Carlos Tévez huffed and puffed, but when he missed from two yards in the 90th minute; it rounded off a frustrating day for him spent largely in the back pocket of City center back and man of the match Micah Richards.

Combining the speed of Justin Gatlin and the strength and battle of Floyd Mayweather -- take it from ol' Team Limey -- this boy is going to be world-class. Already on the English national team at age 19, Richards was England's star performer in its 2-1 midweek friendly defeat to Germany, and looks set to replace Gary Neville as first-choice right back.

But back in EPL play, United left Eastlands with just two points from three games, in 16th place and to ironic chants of "Going down" from the jubilant City faithful. No one doubts United will regroup and contend for the title, but a victory at home to Spurs this weekend now seems a must.

Meanwhile, City travels to Arsenal, where a win will surely spark dreams of a challenge for the top four. But with the bookies pricing a City win at 9-to-2, more likely is post-match talk of a top-half finish and challenging for a UEFA Cup place.

Chelsea is in second place with seven points after taking the luckiest of lucky points home down the M6 highway from Anfield. Liverpool took the lead with a classy far-post finish from man of the match Fernando Torres, who ghosted past Tal Ben Haim to create the opportunity. But Chelsea equalized when referee Rob Styles erroneously awarded a penalty to Florent Malouda, who ran into a faultless Steve Finnan.

Twelve minutes later, Styles made a second blunder when he clearly showed a second yellow card to Michael Essien without dismissing the Ghanaian. After the match, Styles claimed he was reiterating the yellow just given to John Terry, but was later suspended from refereeing duties for one game.

Last season, Rafa Benítez had all the menace of a cuddly elementary-school teacher, but with his new goatee, the Liverpool manager now looks like an insalubrious nightclub bouncer -- so much so that when he fumed about the "invisible penalty," Team Limey quaked at the back of the press conference, not daring to mention that Liverpool's winning goal against Aston Villa the previous week arose from a dubious free kick.

This week the English media has been surprisingly sympathetic to the plight of Spurs manager Martin Jol. Normally the press pack bays for blood, but with Jol having taken Spurs to successive fifth-place finishes, it was considered to be lacking common decency when Spurs "didn't" try to replace him with Sevilla's Juande Ramos so early in the season.

At least that's what the club maintains in its statement that "no individual was or has been offered the position of manager/coach at this club while that position has been held by Martin Jol." However, Ramos tells a different story, announcing that "they made an excellent, dizzying offer, but I'm under contract and my decision is to fulfill it."

Sevilla looks set to qualify for the Champions League group stages, and continuing the development of the UEFA Cup holders is probably a more attractive future than reading Ledley King's doctor's notes, especially since days after he "didn't" have talks with Spurs, Ramos' salary at Sevilla reportedly rose from $1.6 million to $3 million. Coincidence?

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