Chelsea and Liverpool shared top spot at the start of a weekend that saw them face tricky matches against teams with aspirations to break the big four cartel. At Stamford Bridge, the leaders overcame Aston Villa comfortably, a team who had taken four out of six points from them last season. First half goals from Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka saw the hosts cruise to a 2 – 0 victory and maintain their position as Leaders of the Pack on goal difference.
At the City of Manchester Stadium, Liverpool overcame a two-goal deficit at half-time to win 3 – 2 and stay in touch with Chelsea. Stephen Ireland gave Manchester City the lead in the nineteenth minute, an advantage doubled four minutes before the break by Garrido. Ten minutes into the second half and Fernando Torres pulled one back but still Liverpool toiled. Their lucky break came with the dismissal of Zabaleta, reducing City to ten men with a quarter of the match remaining. The Reds took just six minutes to take advantage when Torres grabbed his second of the afternoon but they had to wait until two minutes into stoppage time before Dirk Kuyt stole in for the winner and wheeled away to strains of ‘Smoke on the Water’, practising for this year’s Dutch Air Guitar championships. Robbie Keane Watch: Still not as valuable as the Mickey Mouse version and largely as effective in the goalscoring stakes.
Having won their previous match at The Emirates, Hull City travelled to White Hart Lane to take on shambolic Spurs and emerged with all three points thanks to a superb Geovanni freekick, curled into Gomes net on nine minutes. Third place and no signs of the nosebleeds ending such is the rarified heights to which they have climbed. Tottenham continue to be laughed at by everyone with the comedy not just limited to events on the pitch. Juande Ramos received a vote of confidence from Daniel Levy whom nobody trusts so Ramos ought really to be digging out his passport to get the next flight home.
Manchester United seem to have awoken from their slumbers, their 2 – 0 victory at Ewood Park seeing them climb quietly up the table following an indistinguished start. Not that the victory was without controvesy, Blackburn Rovers aggrieved that Wes Brown’s opener on the half-hour was allowed to stand despite Vidic’s baulking of Rovers keeper Jason Brown in the build-up. Wayne Rooney lumbered up for the upcoming internationals with a second on sixty-four minutes.
Sunderland came within seconds of sending Arsenal to consecutive Premier League defeats at The Lido, sorry, Stadium of Light. Robin van Persie had a perfectly good goal erroneously ruled out by the officials, especially the Assistant Referee who could not possibly have seen whether or not the ball was out before Theo Walcott crossed. Grant Leadbitter robbed Alex Song of the ball with four minutes to go before Cesc Fabregas headed home in the deep end to salvage a 1 – 1 draw.
At Goodison Park, Everton raced into a two-goal lead against Newcastle. Mikel Arteta broke the deadlock on seventeen with a penalty before Fellaini doubled their advantage with thirty-five minutes played. Joe Kinnear’s expletive quota was ready to go into overdrive at the interval and having left his seat in the Director’s Box, he missed Steven Taylor’s injury-time goal, cursing no doubt a ban not served from four seasons ago. The air turned as blue as Everton’s shirts when he retook his seat for the second half, finding he had missed Damien Duff’s equaliser in the 2 – 2 draw.
West Ham United had been riding on the crest of a wave since Gianfranco Zola’s arrival but Gary Megson’s Bolton side cried, “Surf’s Up”, first and raced into a thoroughly deserved two-goal half-time lead with goals from Kevin Davies and Gary Cahill thanks to some slapstick goalkeeping from Robert Green. Carlton Cole pulled one back with twenty minutes to go but the 3 – 1 win was confirmed for The Trotters with Matt Taylor’s stunning freekick four minutes from time.
At The JJB Stadium, ninety minutes of tedium was broken with one minute to go by Jeremie Aliadiere stole the only goal of the game to give Middlesbrough a 1 – 0 win over Wigan which was the same scoreline that West Bromwich Albion beat Fulham by at The Hawthorns, Roman Bednar breaking the deadlock one minute past the hour mark. At Fratton Park, Stoke City’s woes continued as they slumped to a 2 – 1 defeat against Portsmouth. Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe scored for the home side, sandwiching Fuller’s strike for The Potters.
