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Tuesday February 11, 2009

Villa Move Into Third After Hull Hold Chelsea At Home

Manchester City 1 Middlesbrough 0

Craig Bellamy's 51st-minute strike proved enough to guarantee Manchester City three points against Middlesbrough at Eastlands.
City new boy Shay Given was also in top form, producing four magnificent saves to deny Afonso Alves and ensure the hosts recorded a deserved win.
It means Boro have now gone 13 matches without a win and remain in the bottom three, facing a desperate battle to avoid the drop.

Blackbun Rovers 0 Aston Villa 2

Goals from James Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor secured a vital victory for Villa to raise their hopes of a place in the Champions League.
Milner made the breakthrough in the 26th minute and Agbonlahor sewed things up on the stroke of full time.
It meant a seventh successive away win for Villa - an all-time club record - and an indication of their progress under manager Martin O'Neill.

Chelsea 0 Hull City 0

Chelsea's fading title aspirations sustained another massive blow as they failed to overcome hard-working Hull City at Stamford Bridge.
Luis Felipe Scolari's side have now dropped 16 points at home this season and after Aston Villa's win at Blackburn Rovers, they slipped into fourth place in the Premier League.

Everton 3 Bolton Wanderers 0

For Brazilian Jo, this was the perfect day. Manchester City's £19m signing has failed to impress at Eastlands, culminating in his deadline day move to Everton.
City manager Mark Hughes may well watch this performance by the gangling striker and blink in disbelief - he won a first-half penalty, slotted home by Mikel Arteta, before scoring a wonderful goal three minutes after the break.
Then in injury-time he was given the chance to wrap home his second from the spot as Everton rounded off a great week which has also seen them knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup.
Everton have now reached the 40-point mark, losing just three of their last 20 matches, while this success enabled them to complete a league double over Bolton Wanderers for the second season in succession.

Sunderland 2 Stoke City 0

Strikers Kenwyne Jones and David Healy plunged 10-man Stoke City deeper into relegation trouble.
Trinidad and Tobago international Jones struck with a 77th-minute header and substitute Healy added a second in injury time.
Referee Rob Styles failed to spot substitute Danny Pugh handling Steed Malbranque's 39th-minute header on the line, denying the Black Cats a penalty and sparing the defender a seemingly inevitable sending-off.
But Ricky Sbragia's men, who were denied a derby victory at Newcastle last weekend by a controversial penalty decision, were not to be denied and, after Matthew Etherington had been sent off for kicking out at Danny Collins, they finally made the pressure tell.

West Bromwich Albion 2 Newcastle United 3

Newcastle United overcame the enforced absence of manager Joe Kinnear as an inspired display from Damien Duff helped them to achieve their first win in seven League matches.
Chris Hughton was in charge of the Magpies after Kinnear had been taken to hospital on Saturday morning as a "precautionary measure" after feeling unwell at the team hotel.
But goals from Duff, Peter Lovenkrands and Steven Taylor helped lift some of the gloom surrounding Newcastle and sent bottom placed Albion hurtling closer to the relegation trapdoor.

Wigan Athletic 0 Fulham 0

Wigan suffered a frustrating goalless draw at home to Fulham after being severely handicapped by having to make all three of their substitutions in the first half because of injury.
The hosts lost midfielders Antonio Valencia and Michael Brown in the 19th minute and then saw striker Mido limp off three minutes before the interval.
So when the time came in the second half to freshen things up all manager Steve Bruce could do was shuffle his players around into different positions and formations to try to make a breakthrough.
A draw may have extended their unbeaten home run to eight matches, stretching back to October 26, but that provided little consolation.
Fulham, without an away win all season, had the better chances and if anyone should have won it was probably them.

Portsmouth 2 Liverpool 3

Fernando Torres came off the bench to score an injury-time winner against Portsmouth and send Liverpool (temporarily) to the top of the League.
Torres only came on with 15 minutes to go and by that time his side were chasing victory after David Nugent's opener had been cancelled out by Fabio Aurelio.
The Spanish striker then set up Dirk Kuyt before heading home in stoppage-time.
It proved to be a masterstroke for Rafael Benitez to leave Torres on the bench - but it was the closest of calls.

Tottenham Hotspur 0 Arsenal 0

Ten-man Arsenal battled to earn a point as the north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur ended goalless at White Hart Lane.
Winger Emmanuel Eboue saw red after picking up two yellow cards in the first-half, while the Gunners also had to cope with the loss of striker Emmanuel Adebayor who pulled up with what looked like a serious hamstring problem.
Robbie Keane had led the Spurs attack on his return from Liverpool, and went close with a header.
Alex Song fired wide from a corner to miss the best chance for Arsenal, who had new signing Andrey Arshavin on the bench.

West Ham United 0 Manchester United 1

A rare right-footed goal from Ryan Giggs and a 13th consecutive League clean sheet were enough for United to reclaim the top spot.
Van der Sar never looked in serious danger of being denied a British record for not conceding a goal that now extends to 1,212 minutes.
But United looked equally unlikely to score either until Giggs stepped inside Carlton Cole, burst into the box and thrashed home a shot that was enough to end West Ham's impressive eight-match unbeaten run at Upton Park and edge closer to retaining the title.