Watch Wigan Athletic v Liverpool on The Premiership Live this Saturday on RTÉ Two, 2.45pm-5.10pm. The FAI Cup final is also live on RTÉ Two and RTÉ.ie this Sunday from 2.55pm-5.30pm.
The 1-1 draw between Manchester United and Chelsea has confirmed the Premiership as a two-horse race, if it hadn't already been acknowledged. Chelsea will be the happier of the two after getting a draw at Old Trafford and it was a good result for them.
Beneath them, it has to be said that there is a lot of mediocrity in the Premiership. There really are a lot of very poor teams in it and, with Arsenal in transition and Liverpool being a huge disappointment to everybody, the top two have created a comfortable cushion between themselves and the chasing pack.
However, United don't have the strength in depth in the squad to maintain their lead and that may cost them dearly, because they don't have an alternative to Louis Saha, Wayne Rooney or Paul Scholes. If you look at United's bench, even against Chelsea, there was no-one there that could turn the game for them, whereas Jose Mourinho has the strength in depth that will probably make the difference at the business end of things.
Chelsea have a huge squad of international players, although they don't really have cover for Didier Drogba. The Andriy Shevchenko transfer has been a very expensive mistake by the look of it, while Michael Ballack hasn't really made an impression on the Premiership. Although he scored the winning goal against Bolton, he hasn't been an exciting player for Chelsea in the way he was with Bayern Munich.
Chelsea will probably get there but it will definitely be a non-vintage season.
Individually, the season has also been short on stand-out performers. Rooney has played brilliantly in spasms, but he didn't contribute very much against Chelsea when it really mattered.
I think the most interesting team have been Arsenal, who have so many brilliant young players but they are a year or 18 months away from delivering on what, at the moment, is only potential.
Thierry Henry has had a very poor season and has been very disappointing as captain of Arsenal, and there is no doubt that it has not been as good a season as many might have hoped. It has been a major disappointment for the fans because you want the top clubs contending but, if I'm honest, there has been an awful lot of rubbish so far, no doubt about that.
However, if you look at the league table, Liverpool and Arsenal are bang in there. They are only two or three points behind where they need to be in the top four and you would expect them to get stronger as the season wore and the likes of Portsmouth, Bolton and Aston Villa to fall away. It's still highly probable that the top four clubs will be the top four in the league, as you'd expect them to get the results needed in the second-half of the season. The Gunners were way down last year but they finished strongly to claim the final Champions League spot and I'd expect the same again this year. I couldn't envisage Portsmouth staying in the top four.
Looking to the Championship, I think Roy Keane has done very well so far at Sunderland. I saw them recently against Wolves and the team played well. They've got a good shape about them but I don't know if they have the quality of player required to get automatic promotion, so I think a play-off spot is the best they can hope for. The team tries to play football and Keane has been very impressive in his demeanour, both on the touchline and in what he has said about the game. I think he has made an impressive start and what he needs now is the money to buy three or four real quality players at that level and I would expect him to do very well next season.
Finally, I think Stephen Kenny's appointment as manager of Dunfermline Athletic is an exciting move for him and the game here. I think he did really well at Longford Town, Bohemians and especially this season with Derry City. It shows the possibilities for the top managers in the eircom League, and I believe the likes of Pat Fenlon and Damien Richardson could also manage in the UK. It's great to see that door opening up for managers who have delivered in the eircom League.
Eamon Dunphy was speaking to RTÉ Publishing's Shane Murray.
The Premiership, RTÉ Two, Saturday, 7.30pm-9.00pm. Repeated on RTÉ Two 1.40am-3.10am on Sunday morning.
