Bookmakers swing towards Gunners

Arsenal have kicked ahead in the Premmier League title race.

Arsenal have kicked ahead in the Premmier League title race. The Gunners lead Manchester United by five points and Chelsea by eight with 12 rounds to go. Because FA Cup and Champions League games follow, that lead will remain for close to two weeks at least and could give Arsenal a psychological advantage.

8220;Five points in front, we8217;re not going to believe we have no chance,8221; said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose team beat Blackburn 2-0 Monday to move to 63 points from 26 games. 8220;We believe we have a chance to do it, but we8217;re conscious as well that we have to keep our humility, our team spirit and the way we want to play the game. We have to focus on that.8221;

The Gunners go to Manchester United in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday and a victory would be another major blow to the Red Devils, who lost 2-1 at home to Manchester City on Saturday.

Arsenal still have Manchester United and Chelsea to play away from home. The Gunners were held 2-2 at home by Man United in November, but beat the Blues 1-0 a month later.

Bookmakers William Hill now have Arsenal as a strong 4-7 favourite to win the title. Defending champion Manchester United is at 2-1 and Chelsea, which won five league games in a row before drawing with Portsmouth and Liverpool, is 6-1.

Before United lost to City on Sunday, Ferguson8217;s team was still the favourite, but the defeat prompted bookmakers to swing towards Arsenal even before the Gunners kicked off against Blackburn.

Argentina on top

ARGENTINA stayed atop the world rankings for the fifth straight month in the list released by FIFA Wednesday. With few matches played by the top teams over the past month, Greece8217;s rise of one place to 10th was the only change in the top 10. Brazil, Italy, Spain and Germany rounded out the top five places, followed by the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Netherlands and Greece.

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There was plenty of movement lower down after the African Cup of Nations, with tournament host Ghana becoming the continent8217;s highest ranked team by rising 29 places 8212; the most of the 207 teams in the rankings 8212; to 14th after reaching the semi-finals. Egypt improved to 29th from 35th after successfully defending their title, with runner-up Cameroon up eight spots to 17th.