Prior to this week, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea were top of the table seven points clear of Liverpool and nine points clear of Manchester City. But their divisive manager claims that Man City are still the favourites to win the title. Mourinho believes they will leapfrog his team to the top spot on goal difference if they won their three postponed games. Mourinho may be spot on, but the English press and pundits are saying he was playing mind games to put pressure on both his rivals, Man City and Liverpool. It seems doubtful at this point that Man City is in shape to compete for the Premier League title. They were knocked out from both the FA Cup and the European Champions League competition at the hands of Wigan and Barcelona respectively this week. Even though Man City were both desperate and determined to put an end to their disappointing results when they travelled to Hull City to meet Egypt's Ahmed El-Mohamadi's tigers in the opening game of the competition's week 30, they still failed to clinch a victory. However, the game started in the worst way possible as skipper and influential defender Vincent Kompany was shown the red card in the 10th minute for bringing down goal-bound Nikica Jelavic as he went through on goal. Chelsea fans were surely delighted to see City reduced to 10 men that early in the game, but David Silva had another say as his stunning effort put City ahead only four minutes later. Hull City and Mohamadi fought hard searching for an equaliser and came close on more than one occasion until Eden Dzeko killed off the game in the last minute as he scored the second goal for City and the first for himself in the league in nearly two months. As City won, Chelsea knew they had to collect maximum points against a resilient Aston Villa side. However, this did not go according to plan as Chelsea suffered a shocking 1-0 defeat and finished the game with nine men as their Brazilian stars, Willian and Ramires, saw red cards in the second half to cap off a miserable night for the league leaders who now hope to see City slipping in one of their three in hand games. So far, Egyptian super star Mohamed Salah continued watching the whole game from the bench as Mourinho has preferred to play the more experienced Willian or Schurrle for the time being. The defeat was Chelsea's first in the league in more than three months since they lost to Stoke City 3-2 away from home. The following day saw the surprising title chasers Liverpool shock their biggest rivals in English football Manchester United as they defeated them by three goals to nil in a one-sided affair that saw the home side chasing shadows for the entire 90 minutes. In Spain, there was no stopping Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo as they recorded a vital away win over Malaga by a single goal scored by the mercurial attacker who seemed to be more determined than ever to guide his side to the league title at the expense of Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Ronaldo's only goal at Malaga put immense pressure on Atletico Madrid who played later the same day at home against Espanyol. Diego Costa and co had to win to make sure they stay in the title race as any wasted points in coming weeks can decide the league title. The team was in less than top form but Costa followed Ronaldo's example and saved his team as he scored the only goal of the game in the start of the second half to ensure his side stays only three points behind their rivals. Barcelona were even more pressured the following day as they played hosts to Osasuna, burdened by the knowledge that both their title rivals collected maximum points this week. However, this pressure seemed to have little effect on the Catalans as they played arguably their best game of the season and managed to destroy the visitors with an emphatic 7-0 win. Messi was at his very best as he notched an impressive hat-trick, while Iniesta, Tello, Sanchez and Pedro scored the other four goals to ensure they stayed in the title race with 10 games to go. In Germany, boredom reigns supreme as Bayern Munich is simply running riot in their quest of retaining the title. This week they faced third-placed Leverkusen at home, while second-placed Dortmund faced Monchengladbach at home also. Dortmund suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of the visitors as their slow start to the game saw them trailing a 2-0 goal lead and even though they managed to score a consolation goal against the 10-man Gladbach, they could not find an equaliser and were left to rue a shocking start to the game. Later in the same day, Leverkusen knew they were facing the impossible task of travelling to Munich aiming to pull off the surprise of the season and go back home with the three points. On the other hand, a win for Bayern Munich would see them go 23 points clear of Dortmund, which honestly would make little difference as the title is already theirs. Bayern were not as emphatic and deadly as they can be but still managed to win by two goals to win. As much as 23 wins and 2 draws out of the 25 games they played this season in the league so far can only be viewed as astonishing achievement. They can even better this achievement if they managed to go on undefeated till the end of the season, which is the main aim of the players according to star player Franck Ribery, who said the idea of finishing the season undefeated was a tremendous motivation for the players. In Italy, Juve extended their lead at the top of the table as they defeated Genoa with a single goal scored by Andrea Pirlo in the last minute of the game after Buffon saved a penalty a few minutes before that. Second-placed Roma and third-placed Napoli will play later this week as they try to strengthen their place at the top of the table hoping Juve will slip in coming weeks.
