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Premier League: Europe Takes Heavy Toll on Manchester United and Arsenal as Chelsea Look to go Top
04/02/2010

A bruising week of Champions League football has left Barclays Premier League leaders Manchester United and third-placed Arsenal stripped of their star assets as Chelsea prepare for their crucial trip to Old Trafford.

Both Wayne Rooney and Cesc Fabregas received bad injuries during their sides’ respective clashes with Bayern Munich and Barcelona in mid-week, and though Chelsea are no longer involved in the competition, it is they who benefitted the most.

The Blues head to Old Trafford in the early kick-off on Saturday fresh from their 7-1 home thumping of Aston Villa last week – and Carlo Ancelotti will be further buoyed by the news that the hosts will be without their talismanic striker for the huge clash.

As such, Titanbet are offering odds of 2.80 on Chelsea emerging victorious from their trip to Manchester, with the hosts still slight favourites at 2.60 – though their £30m stand-in Dimitar Berbatov will have to put in a shift in order to justify those odds.

Arsenal, meanwhile, will be without their captain for their home tie with Wolves amidst fears that he may have broken his leg so – with William Gallas and Andrei Arshavin also out – it is a severely depleted Gunners side that will take to the field.

That said, if you are to play a team without a host of key players, you could do worse than drawing 14th placed Wolves at home and Titanbet clearly fancy Arsenal to overcome their difficulties and bag all three points after rating them at odds of 1.20.

Certainly this weekend’s top-of-the-table clashes will have a huge bearing on the destination of the title come May, but they will also serve as a reminder of the heavy cost pursuing trophies on multiple fronts has on a team’s ambitions for the season.