Sky Sports Soccer Sunday - 0 January 0

This Sunday we sent engineers and equipment to Stamford Bridge and White Hart Lane, rigging receive equipment at both locations ahead of the helicopter flying overhead to capturestunning helicopter pictures from a bird's eye view at both grounds for kick off and half time.With just over half of this seasons fixtures played, all four of the teams in action were looking likely to secure themselves a place in Europe 2013/14. Manchester United were a comfortable 7 points ahead of last season's champions Manchester City, whilst Chelsea were seemingly unchallenged in third place, leaving Tottenham and Arsenal were battling it out with Everton for the fourth and final Champions League place.

On site at both stadiums the weather seemed to be holding off, until around 9am when a grey snow cloud blanketed the vast majority of London. It was then that it really started to fall, dramatically decreasing the likelihood of the helicopter taking flight. Regardless of the heavy snow, our engineers proceeded to rig the equipment in case of an unlikely weather change.

At Chelsea the receive equipment was hurled up three ladders by the engineers to the roof at the North East corner of the stadium, where the Matthew Harding Stand meets the East Stand. At Tottenham the receive equipment was rigged at ground level at the far end of the OB Compound due to the fact that the roof was deemed unsafe for work. Both of these receive locations ensured full line of sight whilst the helicopter was overhead, to heighten the chance of perfect, unbroken pictures.The helicopter was scheduled to fly until the very last minute, but unfortunately, due to the adverse weather conditions and low clouds, it eventually had to be called off. The decision not to fly was made after the kit was rigged and tested, and Broadcast RF had already made sure that everything was ready should the flight have gone ahead.

Chelsea dominated the first half of the first half against arsenal, with Juan Mata netting his 14th goal of the season in all competitions after less than 15 minutes had been played, before veteran Frank Lampard stepped up to score a very controversial penalty after Ramires went down in the box seemingly easily. The tides did seem to turn after the break, but Theo Walcott's goal was not enough to rescue a point from the current European Champions. Chelsea's victory kept them safely situated third in the league, behind the truly dominant Manchester rivals City and United.

There was still a glimpse of hope that the weather would clear in time for kick off at Tottenahm, but the snow started to fall even heavier, and again, the helicopter didn't fly.

At White Hart Lane, Premier League leaders Manchester United were looking to ensure that they didn't let slip of their 7 point lead of their closest rivals Manchester City, but in their way stood a team who haven't lost in seven matches in all competitions since 9th December against Everton at Goodison Park. The visitors started stronger than the home side, and it wasn't long before they took lead thanks to a stunning header from Robin Van Persie. By shutting down Gareth Bale, Manchester United managed to hold off Spurs for the majority of the second half. That was, until, Spurs equalised through Clint Dempsey just seconds before the final whistle.

We're now eagerly awaiting the opportunity to be able to prove just how successful things would've been had the snow not fallen at such an inconvenient time.

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