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Sworn enemies were
forced to think the unthinkable in the Premier League on Saturday with
fierce foes cheering on hated rivals through gritted teeth.

Manchester City
fans endured the torture of hoping neighbours Manchester United win at
Old Trafford against Tottenham Hotspur, whose fans in turn were praying
north London rivals Arsenal beat City at the Emirates.

Chelsea, beaten at
Tottenham last week, would have been happy to see Spurs add United to
their list of illustrious victims at a crucial point in the
championship chase.

Liverpool’s red army, with their team in action at relegation-threatened Burnley on Sunday, hardly knew who to cheer or curse.

A victory for local foes United, particularly one taking them closer to the title, is rarely palatable on Merseyside.

But a win for
fourth-placed Tottenham, battling City for a place in the Champions
League next season, would have been another blow to Liverpool’s fading
hopes of returning to Europe’s elite competition next season.

“Today, I support
Arsenal,” declared one fan on the supporters forum on the Tottenham
website (www.tottenhamhotspurs.tv). “Hope they win, let’s pray.” “I
think ‘support’ is the wrong word,” wrote another. “I just want City to
lose”.

In the end, there
were mixed feelings. Arsenal drew, but ended up mathematically out of
contention for the title. Tottenham lost 3-1 but stayed fourth a point
ahead of City.

Few chances

The only clear
winners were the United crowd, whose team took a two-point lead over
Chelsea with two games remaining and enjoyed the discomfort of the
light blue half of the City.

With Tottenham
still to visit City at Eastlands and Arsenal’s title hopes all but
over, the focus on and off the pitch in Saturday’s late game was the
battle for fourth place.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger suggested City had played for a draw with the future fixture in mind.

“I believe they
made a different calculation. They think that if they get a point here
and beat Tottenham at home, they will get above them,” he told
reporters after the stalemate. “That is how I explain it.

“It was an
afternoon that I’m not used to because we created very few chances and
Man City didn’t create anything,” added the Frenchman.

“They were highly focused on defending well, they didn’t give us any space and we didn’t find the opening.

It was a locked
game basically.” Arsenal fans could at least amuse themselves, on an
afternoon full of changed loyalties, by booing their former favourite
Emmanuel Adebayor every time the City striker touched the ball.

By contrast,
defender Kolo Toure – who appeared after the match in an Arsenal shirt
after swapping with former team mate Abou Diaby – and ex-Arsenal
captain Patrick Vieira were cheered on their return.

Tottenham supporters could also feel gratified that, even if their
team had lost, their ex-marksman Dimitar Berbatov had at least fired
blanks against them.