Arsenal falling, Aston Villa climbing

The normally unassailable Arsène Wenger has seen his reputation take a big hit from the media as Arsenal has struggled. Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Is Arsenal already out of the title race? Will Aston Villa beat it to fourth? And when do you choose to sack your manager? It's all in The Limey.

The Gunners have had a rollercoaster two weeks, starting with the roughing up they received at Stoke on Nov. 1, where they lost 2-1 and had no answer to Potters long-throw specialist Rory Delap. For the first time, the media turned against the usually untouchable Arsène Wenger, accusing him of stubbornness for sticking with his principles of not spending the cash for established players.

The press was even speculating that the Frenchman was on the verge of walking out. Wenger was an angry man, and his condition wasn't helped by a toothless 0-0 draw at home to Fenerbahçe in the Champions League four days later.

However, Wenger was temporarily allowed to be smug, and aimed a hearty "told you so" in the direction of the baying press pack after his side dispatched champions Manchester United 2-1 in Premier League play the following weekend, and his youngsters gave a full-strength Wigan Athletic side a footballing lesson as the Arsenal team, with an average age of 19, won 3-0 in the Carling Cup.

Wenger was brought back down to Earth this past weekend -- and the press were again baying at the angry Frenchman -- when Arsenal lost 2-0 at home to Villa. One more defeat in one of the upcoming matches against top two sides Liverpool and Chelsea will surely end Arsenal's already fading title hopes.

Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa sits on equal points with Arsenal and, based on present form, looks the most likely candidate to snare fourth place in the Premiership, and the final all-important Champions League place, away from Arsenal. Villa's style of play is refreshing and exciting to watch. The Villans are solid in the net with Brad Friedel, while center backs Martin Laursen and Curtis Davies are developing an impenetrable understanding. Meanwhile, English national-team youngsters Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor provide width, skill and pace down the flanks.

The Birmingham side is also developing a celebrity fan base that is the envy of the EPL, with Prince William, Tom Hanks and Ozzy Osbourne as fans. The club is on the verge of recruiting the most A-list of A-list fans: It hopes the club's American ownership and the presence of U.S. keepers Friedel and Brad Guzan in the squad will convince soccer dad Barack Obama that Villa should be his team.

Meanwhile, third-place Manchester United is also slipping behind Liverpool and Chelsea, but looks more likely than the Gunners to make up the ground on the top two with a game still in hand. The Red Devils recovered from the setback to Arsenal and succeeded where the Gunners failed: by repelling Stoke City's long throws and thrashing the EPL new boys 5-0 last weekend, thanks to two wonder free-kicks from Cristiano Ronaldo and a dream debut for 19-year-old Danny Welbeck, who rifled in a shot from 25 yards. Arsenal isn't the only side with burgeoning talent pressing to get into the first team.

But Liverpool and Chelsea continue to duke it out at the top of the pile. The strength of Liverpool's challenge will largely be dictated by the prowess of its strikers. Dirk Kuyt has found his form, and if (and only if) Fernando Torres can find fitness and Robbie Keane the back of the net, the Reds could be crowned champions. Even without the threesome having fully gelled, they're hanging onto Chelsea's coattails with an iron grip -- both teams are locked with 32 points apiece.

The Chelsea machine continues to steamroll on through EPL opposition with "Le Sulk" Nicolas Anelka in the form of his life, scoring eight goals in the past four games. Frank Lampard is on fire, pulling the strings in midfield and scoring the odd wonder-goal. Roman Abramovich may finally be falling back in love with his rich man's plaything, as Luiz Felipe Scolari has brought the elusive winning-with-style soccer the owner craved but didn't get under the José Mourinho and Avram Grant regimes.

Chelsea won't be adding the Carling Cup to its trophy cabinet this season, however, after a shocking defeat to Championship side Burnley. It was a rare taste of previous highs for the Lancashire club, which was League champion in 1960. But the town's 80,000 population can no longer, in this highly commercial age, sustain a team that can compete at the very top.

Burnley's reward was a home quarterfinal against Arsenal, and with the Claret and Blues currently fourth in the Championship, this could be a season to remember for them. Another top-four club to fall in the Carling Cup was Liverpool, which exited 4-2 at Tottenham. It was rebounding Spurs' fourth win in a row, though days later, the run came to an end at Craven Cottage, where Fulham triumphed 2-1.

Nonetheless, Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy's decision to replace Juande Ramos with Harry Redknapp looks to have been successful. Five wins, a draw (4-4 away at Arsenal!) and a loss later, and Spurs, though still 19th in the EPL, are definitely looking up the table, and have strong positions in both the UEFA and Carling Cups.

But when should a manager be dismissed? Ramos had won the Carling Cup the previous season at Spurs, and in his previous post at Sevilla, the UEFA Cup and the Copa del Rey. Shouldn't such a record have bought a spell beyond October in his second season? Despite Spurs sitting rock-bottom, Ramos' reign might have been longer lasting had he not lost control of the dressing room.

"There were clearly some issues in the dressing room between the manager and some of the players," said Levy, before noting that "certain players were perhaps being more publicly vocal than you'd expect." Tellingly, the confidence, enthusiasm and drive seemed to have evaporated from the Spurs side.

And will Mark Hughes suffer the same fate at Manchester City? City has taken only one point from its past four EPL games and pressure is growing on the manager. Nonetheless, City Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak -- representative of multi-billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan -- has backed Hughes as the man who will choose how to spend January's sizeable cash injection.

But with City now arguably the richest club in the world, why not bring in a manager with a proven record at the highest level? Hughes, while once a world-class player, is still a young boss. His greatest managerial achievements are the FA Cup semifinals and a sixth-place league finish while at Blackburn, and almost taking Wales to Euro 2004.

Like with so many previous managers (e.g. Peter Reid, Brian Horton, Joe Royle and Stuart Pearce), City was hasty in sacking Sven-Göran Eriksson last summer. With the Abu Dhabi fortune behind it, City's potential as a club is world domination. Hughes has proved he can maneuver a club into the top six and, given time, will do so for City. If that's shown to be his limit, then, not now, is the time to replace him.

While some of Hughes' tactics have been questionable -- e.g. playing Vincent Kompany too deep in a midfield that lacks any other defensive bite, wasting Elano out of position, testing Micah Richards at left back and not being decisive in making early substitutions -- other factors have contributed to City's underachievement.

City has been unlucky -- red cards have cost points against Liverpool and Spurs -- games it were comfortably controlling and ahead in at the time, while own-goals, flukes and mistakes proved dear against Newcastle, Bolton and Hull. This bad luck is surely finite.

City also needs reinforcements. In center midfield, Dietmar Hamman, for all his guile, doesn't have the legs anymore, and Gelson Fernandes, for all his running, doesn't have the guile. Javier Garrido, while creative, shirks challenges at left back, and all three main center backs -- Richard Dunne, Richards and Tal Ben-Haim -- look out of sorts. Up front Jô, the $30 million Brazilian striker, is yet to settle, while Valeri Bojinov, who looked world-class in the preseason, is injured once again.

The January transfer window should resolve these issues -- and Hughes did buy astutely in the summer. Crucially, if the team retains the zip and enthusiasm that it, in contrast to Ramos' Spurs, currently possesses, expect a steady rise up the table in the new year. For Al-Mubarak, it will be just reward for being a measured man who showed wisdom and patience.

Any team in the bottom half of the table is in danger of slipping into the relegation zone, with 11th-place Sunderland only two points ahead of 18th-place Blackburn. Come the end of the season, City won't be there, nor will Spurs. Team Limey expects three from Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke and West Brom to be relegated. But watch out for Hull possibly falling from grace; its results and form are starting to tail off.