The real feature of the week: the big derby games on the weekend included Landon Donovan’s first Merseyside Derby at Anfield and a pivotal Gunners-Blues encounter at Stamford Bridge.

With Liverpool and Everton near the top of the current form table with both having won 14 points from their last 6 games, the confrontation at Anfield, the 213th edition of the Merseyside Derby, promised to be a memorable one. What fans will remember about this one was Kuyt producing the match winner, his 50th goal for the Reds, in the 55th minute after Liverpool went down to ten men in the 34th with a straight red to Kyrgiakos for a two footed challenge. There were hard challenges all over the pitch especially in the opening half with three yellows shown and the red. Everton will be disappointed they didn’t do better with the man advantage for almost an hour but Donovan did produce another good display. The Toffees finished with ten men as well with Pienaar seeing his 2nd yellow just a few seconds ahead of the final whistle. The 1-0 victory propells Liverpool to 4th in the table.

On Tuesday Chelsea travelled to Hull to cash in their game in hand and stretched their lead at the top to 2 points over Man United with a disappointing 1-1 draw. Hull did well challenging the leaders all over the pitch taking the lead from a Mouyokolo header off a Hunt corner in the 30th. Drogba would get the leaders level in the 43rd from a free kick and Hull held on for the point thanks to the stellar work in goal by Myhill (7 saves on the day).

Also on Tuesday FA Cup action saw two lower division clubs claim Premier League scalps as League Two Notts County produced a 2-0 victory at Wigan while Crystal Palace defeated Wolves 3-1 at Selhurst Park.

On Wednesday two EPL clubs in dire need of a win faced off as Fulham entertained bottom side Portsmouth in West London. Fulham has hit the skids with 5 consecutive defeats and a punishing injury list that has 6 of their first choice 11 unavailable. The depleted side was enough to tough out a win on the home ground via Jonathan Greening’s first for Fulham (74) and the 1-0 victory.

On Friday John Terry’s woes came to an end of sorts as the FA confirmed he has now lost the captaincy of the national side. The turmoil for Terry is probably not over but the hope is that it will have much less impact on the Three Lions as they prepare for the World Cup. Let’s hope that is the case.

Meanwhile Spurs travelled north for their FA Cup replay at Leeds for another episode in the Jermaine Beckford show. Would Spurs crash out at the hands of League One Leeds? There would be no miracle this time as Jermain DeFoe notched a hat trick to carry the day in a 1-3 win for Spurs. Tottenham will face Bolton in Round 5.

The Gunners, coming off a thrashing at home by United, faced a showdown at Stamford Bridge in a big London Derby that could rearrange the top of the table. Chelsea is one of only two clubs (Man City is the other) that have not lost at home this season while the Gunners lead the league in scoring (60). The match is one of those “somethings gotta give” affairs and is sure to please fans of soccer everywhere. The setup aside, a result here for Arsenal could also put Man United back on top.

Man United claimed top spot ahead of the Chelsea-Arsenal clash with a 5-0 victory over Portsmouth with three of the goals of the OG variety after Rooney’s 23rd of the season opened the scoring (40). The other clean goal on the day came from Berbatov (62).

Their hold on the top spot wouldn’t last however as the Blues, behind a brace from Drogba dismissed the Gunners handily. Drogba opened the scoring in the 8th minute banging in the headed pass from John Terry. Just 15 minutes later Drogba’s brilliant strike added the second for the 2-0 win that puts Chelsea back on top with a 2 point margin over United.

The Gunners may still sit 3rd in the table but if they don’t get back on track soon they’ll fall into the bunch battling for 4th. The loss at Stoke in the FA Cup has now grown to a winless run of 4 for Wenger. Even more worrisome for Gunners fans is that over the last 3 in the league they have managed only 1 goal, that despite being the highest scoring team in the EPL. The message there is that they have come off the tracks lately and in this match at the Bridge their usual fluid attacks were what fell apart instead of exposing the defense. The Gunners became a team suffering from that terrible disease of one too many passes making them look pedestrian at best and all too easy pickings for the Chelsea defenders.

In one of the contests for the final Champions League place Spurs entertained Aston Villa at the Lane in a head-to-head battle of two of those engaged in the fight for 4th. Could Villa rise to the occasion and in the process let their fans know they really intend to finish higher in the table than their 6th placed spot of the past two seasons? Or would Spurs reignite the intensity and drive that was a part of their early season? Would Keane’s departure cost them or would it allow the unsettled Russian, Roman Pavlyuchenko time to get his head back in the game? Spurs have been “soft” at times at White Hart Lane so the mission for Harry is to get all his guys on the same page for this one. Spurs have been frustrated more than once this season by superb goal keeping by their opponents and with Friedel in the net for Villa you have to wonder if it would happen again. It did as Friedel was spectacular making 4 brilliant saves in the opening half as the Spurs launched 33 shots (only 5 of them on goal) in the game. In the end the two claimants on the final CL place cancelled each other out in the scoreless draw.

With the other teams involved in the tight tussel for 4th Man City travelled to Hull for a match that could have put them in that CL spot with two games in hand depending on the results in the Merseyside Derby and at the Lane. With that possibility in mind you would have thought they would have been more than ready for the Tigers. They weren’t and Hull outhustled them all over the pitch and Jozy Altidore was impressive putting Hull on top in the 31st minute with his first goal for the Tigers. Boateng’s blast from the top of the area made it 2-0 Hull (54) before Adebayor pulled one back five minutes later for the 2-1 final.

Burnley won again at home 2-1 over West Ham on a match winning free kick from debutant Danny Fox after the opener from Nugent (14) while Bolton and Fulham finished a dour contest in a scoreless deadlock. A Kenwynne Jones header (64) earned a point for Sunderland in a 1-1 draw with Wigan and Stoke thumped Blackburn 3-0 to continue their unbeaten run in 2010.

B’ham went down 1-0 to Wolves on Kevin Doyle’s goal in the 43rd and looked on their way to a defeat at home in a 2nd City derby at St Andrews. On came 36 year old Kevin Phillips (63) who scored two goals in the final ten minutes to rescue the victory. The match winner in the 85th was a gem taking the ball down off his chest and the terrific volley all in one fluid motion made you forget his age.

The coming mid-week has a full slate of games (Round 26) and with Arsenal’s current dip in form Liverpool’s visit to the Emirates will be closely watched even by neutrals. Meanwhile Chelsea travels to Everton and United visits Aston Villa in the headline matches, all of those on Wednesday.