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Tuesday October 6, 2009
Chelsea Go Top After 2-0 Victory Over Liverpool
Manchester City 3 West Ham United 1Manchester City's sublime start to the season continued last Monday night with Carlos Tevez doing the damage against former club West Ham United. City's fifth win out of their opening six matches represented their best start since 1961, but it is the here and now that Blues supporters are more interested in. Two Tevez goals and a first-half free-kick from Martin Petrov scarcely did justice to their dominance. West Ham were second best for much of the match, even though Carlton Cole did score an equaliser, and on this evidence they will not be the last as City seem to have found an irresistible mix of brilliant attacking play and solid defending. Bolton Wanderers 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2Tottenham Hotspur's long-standing jinx at the Reebok Stadium continues but at least manager Harry Redknapp saw his side get some reward for a battling display. Twice behind in an open match, they secured a point thanks to a goal from Vedran Corluka in the 73rd minute. Tottenham went into the match without a win in nine attempts at the ground and then got off to a terrible start. Ricardo Gardner opened the scoring in the second minute and that could have been the cue for another bad day in Bolton. Instead Tottenham regrouped and equalised 30 minutes later through Niko Kranjcar. Even though Kevin Davies equalised they refused to lie down. Burnley 2 Birmingham City 1Burnley extended their 100 per cent home record to four matches with victory over Birmingham City at Turf Moor. Steven Fletcher's first Premier League goal in the 53rd minute broke the deadlock and defender Andre Bikey opened his account for the club nine minutes later. Midfielder Lee Bowyer spurned Birmingham's best chance in the first half when he missed an open goal from four yards before Sebastian Larsson curled home a consolation free-kick in the fourth minute of stoppage-time. It was Burnley's first home victory over Birmingham since April 1976 and, having not yet conceded at Turf Moor this season, they are now unbeaten on their own territory since 28th February. For Birmingham, however, it was a fourth defeat in five league matches. Hull City 2 Wigan Athletic 1Goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Geovanni helped Hull City claim a vital win over Wigan Athletic. The pair both struck in the second half of a scrappy Premier League contest at the KC Stadium to end a poor sequence of results the Tigers. Substitute Scott Sinclair headed an 87th-minute reply for the visitors but Hull held on through five minutes of injury time. It was only the Tigers' second win of the league campaign, their first for six weeks and just their third in 30 outings since last December. The result also marked a dramatic reversal of fortunes for both clubs, with Hull having been thrashed 6-1 at Liverpool last week while Wigan pulled off a shock win over Chelsea. Wolves 0 Portsmouth 1Hassan Yebda lifted some of the gloom surrounding Portsmouth as his first half goal earned them their first Premier League win of the season against Wolves at Molineux. The on-loan Benfica player struck after 20 minutes to end a run of seven successive league defeats for Paul Hart's side. They went into the match on the back of the worst top-flight sequence of results at the start of a campaign since Manchester United in 1930. But Pompey deserved their first success of the campaign and Wolves boss Mick McCarthy's claim his side were facing "their most dangerous game of the season" proved well founded. Yebda, a French-born Algerian international, impressed in midfield while Tommy Smith was always a handful for the Wolves defence and worked tirelessly. Wolves struggled to find any rhythm despite the promptings of Matt Jarvis in the centre of the park. Manchester United 2 Sunderland 2"The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher's dogs. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player. He was needing a rest. It was ridiculous."
Two weeks after Michael Owen's last-gasp winner against Manchester City, Anton Ferdinand could not get out of the way of an off-target effort from Patrice Evra to grab United a point and deprive the Black Cats of their first Old Trafford win since 1968. Sunderland were the ones who adapted to the blustery conditions quicker. Indeed, it could have been argued United did not adapt at all. Rare are the times an opposition goalkeeper comes to this ground and gets through an entire half without having to make a save. But this was one. Craig Gordon did make one meaningful intervention, diving low to cut out John O'Shea's curling cross. Apart from that, the Scotland keeper was redundant. Anton Ferdinand, the one member of his family to start after brother Rio was consigned to the bench by Sir Alex Ferguson, produced an effective central defensive performance alongside the equally impressive Michael Turner. Yet even they must have been surprised by how little they had to do. Arsenal 6 Blackburn Rovers 2Cesc Fabregas produced a virtuoso display as Arsenal saw off the challenge of Blackburn Rovers at the Emirates Stadium, where Theo Walcott marked his return from injury with a late strike. The Gunners captain had a hand in all but one of the six goals, getting on the scoresheet himself during the second half as the home side recovered from going behind after just four minutes when Steven Nzonzi headed Rovers into a shock lead. Arsene Wenger's young side once again showed their character to recover and record a third successive Premier League victory, a sixth in all competitions, which reduces the deficit on the sides above them and with the benefit of a match in hand. Before kick-off visiting Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was given a warm reception by the Emirates Stadium faithful, the Barcelona forward having admitted he would one day love to return to his old club in some capacity - perhaps even as Wenger's eventual successor. Everton 1 Stoke City 1Everton's run of five successive victories came to end when a defiant Stoke City stole a point from a physical battle at Goodison Park. The Toffees may have been feeling the effects of their long haul to Belarus on Thursday, but they were nowhere near their usual combative self. Stoke took the lead five minutes after the break when Robert Huth headed home his first goal for his new club - but stand-in skipper Leon Osman lashed home a fine equaliser five minutes later. West Ham United 2 Fulham 2Junior Stanislas came off the bench to save West Ham United from defeat against 10-man Fulham with an equaliser two minutes into added time. West Ham were cruising at the interval after Carlton Cole's header earned them a deserved lead and Fulham had South African midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi sent off on his full debut. The Hammers lost all composure after the break and their defensive frailties were exposed as Danny Murphy drew Fulham level from the penalty spot before Zoltan Gera slotted home a far-post volley. It was more through luck than judgment that Stanislas earned the point, with a strike that deflected off Aaron Hughes to beat Mark Schwarzer. Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0Second half goals from Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda gave Chelsea a deserved victory over Liverpool and put them two points clear at top of the League. The France international struck first in the 60th minute when he finished off a sublime low cross from Didier Drogba as Chelsea defied their critics with a performance of grit and quality. Substitute Malouda sealed the win in injury-time when he slid home another low cross from Drogba. |
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