LONDON — Although there are still three games to play in the English Premier League, Saturday’s results strongly suggest that the battle at the top between Manchester United and Chelsea is over.

The day started with ManU holding a slender three-point lead over Chelsea. But the key games seemed to favor Chelsea, playing at home against surely beatable Bolton, while ManU was on the road at fourth-place Everton.

The simultaneous kickoffs ensured an afternoon of swaying fortunes. At half time, things looked good for Chelsea, which was leading 2–1, while ManU was losing 0-1 at Everton. Five minutes into the second half, it got better, as Everton doubled its lead over ManU. But that was as good as it was going to get for Chelsea.

Within four minutes, Bolton put a damper on Chelsea’s euphoria by scoring to tie the game, and then came an avalanche of bad news from Everton, as ManU staged an amazing recovery with a four-goal onslaught to overwhelm Everton.

It was a triumphant Saturday for ManU, which ended the day with its lead increased to five points, and a disaster for Chelsea, whose coach Jose Mourinho admitted that its chances of winning the Premier League had now almost vanished.

But not its chances of exacting revenge from ManU. The two clubs meet on May 19 in the F.A. Cup final — a major event on the English calendar, but not really the one that would compensate Chelsea for losing out in the EPL.

The biggest prize remains the European Champions league — and with both ManU and Chelsea still alive in separate semifinals, there is a clear chance of their clashing in the final.

The second leg of Chelsea’s semifinal with Liverpool will be played today at Liverpool’s famous Anfield stadium. Chelsea holds a 1–0 advantage — the score of last week’s first leg game at Chelsea — but the weekend’s events have definitely favored Liverpool. Not least because of fatigue. On Saturday Chelsea, with its full team on the field, ran itself into the ground trying, and failing, to secure the win over Bolton that would keep its EPL hopes alive.

But Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez chose to rest virtually all of his first team players. The game against Portsmouth was duly lost 2–1, but that hardly mattered as Liverpool has no chance of winning the EPL. Its eyes were on the European title, and tonight Benitez will send out a fully rested team to overturn Chelsea’s lead.

Chelsea’s problems — fatigue and the daunting task of playing before England’s noisiest and most intimidating fans — were added to over the weekend when its Portuguese center back, Ricardo Carvalho, injured his knee and is unlikely to play at Anfield. His absence is a serious one, as Chelsea has no specialist replacement for that position. The Ghanaian midfielder, Michael Essien — who did not play in the first leg — will likely switch positions to fill in.

All is not gloom for Chelsea. That 1–0 lead is not as fragile as it looks, because of the “away goal” factor. Should the teams end up tied on aggregate score, then the first tiebreaker is goals scored on the opponent’s field. Liverpool, having failed to score at Chelsea last week, cannot win on that tiebreaker. But Chelsea can — if it scores just one goal at Anfield tonight, then Liverpool will have to score three goals to win the series. That is not likely against Chelsea — which has the best defensive record in the EPL: in 18 away games, it has conceded just 12 goals.

Tomorrow night, in the other Champions League semifinal, ManU takes on AC Milan in Milan. Away goals may well be the crucial factor in this series as well, because Milan scored twice in Manchester last week. ManU won the game 3–2 — thanks to a superb last-minute goal from Wayne Rooney — but its lead is vulnerable. A 1–0 win for Milan would tie the aggregate score, but the Italian club would progress into the final because of those away goals.

Both of Milan’s goals in Manchester were scored by its Brazilian midfielder, Kaka. It was a timely reminder to ManU that its repeated claims that its Portuguese star, Cristiano Ronaldo, is “the best player in the world,” and that its English forward, Wayne Rooney, is not far behind are open to challenge. Kaka showed that he too has a claim on that best-in-the-world crown with a wonderful display of subtlety, skill, and speed that caused many a problem for the ManU defenders.

This looks like a game tailormade for the traditional Italian strengths: airtight defending, allied to the ability to launch deadly counterattacks. Possibly. But Milan has its own problems: It is an aging team, particularly in defense, where all the key players are 30 or older. The inspirational captain, Paolo Maldini, is 38 and is nursing a knee injury that may keep him out of tomorrow ‘s game.

Against the aging Italian defenders, ManU offers the exuberance of the youthful Ronaldo and Rooney. Rooney, who has had a fitful season for United, appears to have regained his scoring touch at exactly the right moment for United’s European ambitions. It is a precariously balanced game for both teams — a situation nicely summed up by ManU coach Alex Ferguson: “It will not be easy in Milan, but I think we will score over there, with the speed of our team. But Milan know it will not be easy for them either.”

The much anticipated — in England, at least — final between ManU and Chelsea is but one of four possible finals. If experience is to be the deciding factor, then we should expect a final between Milan (a six-time winner of the trophy) and Liverpool (five previous wins). Manchester has won twice, while Chelsea has neither won nor even been in the final.

All that we know for certain is that one of the European finalists will be an English team, either Liverpool or Chelsea. Milan stands in the way of a first-ever all-English final. But in this age of global soccer, even that would not be what it seems, for all three English teams feature a majority of non-English players in their starting lineups.

pgardner@nysun.com