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Tuesday February 23, 2010
Toffees Dent United's Title Hopes At Goodison Park
Wigan Athletic 0 Bolton Wanderers 0On Wednesday, Charles N'Zogbia hit the post as neighbouring relegation rivals Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers fought out a drab goalless draw. N'Zogbia went the closest of either side to settling a scrappy Premier League encounter after a smart run early in the first half. The point was enough to lift both struggling sides up places in the table - Wigan to 14th and Bolton 18th - but both may rue missed opportunities to break the deadlock in a match of few chances. Wigan manager Roberto Martinez again kept new signing Victor Moses waiting for his first start but did hand a full debut to on-loan Bolivian forward Marcelo Moreno. With in-form James McCarthy also proving his fitness to feature, Wigan hoped to take the match to their rivals but Bolton proved predictably dogged opponents. Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander offered a threat for Bolton up front but both were frustrated in their efforts. Everton 3 Manchester United 1After flattening Chelsea with a sucker punch on their last league outing, Everton completed a spectacular one-two to leave Manchester United's title challenge on the ropes. Just as they did against Carlo Ancelotti's men 10 days ago, David Moyes' team roared back from a goal down to register another famous win, which could have even greater consequences at the top given United are the ones playing catch-up. This time, young substitutes Dan Gosling and Jack Rodwell did the damage, Gosling bundling home Steven Pienaar's cross 15 minutes from time before Rodwell sent the home fans into ecstasy at the end. For Wayne Rooney, Everton's first victory over United - excluding penalty shoot-outs - for five years, and only their second in 32 matches, would have been particularly galling given his history, although for once, England's talisman failed to make much of an impact. Arsenal 2 Sunderland 0Theo Walcott may not yet have secured his seat on England's World Cup plane to South Africa. But he could hardly have turned in a better audition than the performance he produced in front of England manager Fabio Capello at the Emirates Stadium. Nicklas Bendtner scored the first-half goal and Cesc Fabregas the injury-time penalty which defeated a sterile Sunderland side but it was Walcott who produced the pace and the menace. At times it had shades of Zagreb 2008, the night Walcott scored a hat-trick against Croatia which set England on the right course in their World Cup qualifying campaign. There were no goals this time but if you want a winger to terrorize defenders, then Walcott in this mood does it better than most. But if Walcott was Arsenal's most lethal attacker, the other man who made the difference was Manuel Almunia. West Ham United 3 Hull City 0Goals from Valon Behrami, Carlton Cole and Julien Faubert gave West Ham United their second successive league victory and left nine-man Hull City in real trouble at the foot of the table. West Ham, who climb to 13th place in the table, were given a dream start by Behrami who combined with Guillermo Franco to fire past Boaz Myhill in the second minute. Myhill then kept West Ham at bay until the 59th minute when Cole got on the end of Faubert's pass to slide an angled drive under Myhill to make it two. Hull had Craig Fagan sent off for two bookable offences and captain Anthony Gardner stretchered off with an ankle injury after City had used up all three of their substitutes. Faubert made it three in the final minute with a rising angled drive to give West Ham back-to-back wins for the first time in the league since March 2009. Wolves 0 Chelsea 2Didier Drogba's double enabled Chelsea to move four points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League as they overcame Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Drogba ensured the Blues took advantage of United's 3-1 lunchtime reversal against Everton at Goodison Park with a goal in each half. It took his tally for the campaign to 25 in all competitions and earned Carlo Ancelotti's side only their second away win in their last seven league matches. Chelsea barely moved out of second gear for long periods ahead of Wednesday's Champions League tie with Inter Milan. But the quality finishing of Drogba was the difference between the sides and means the Blues are now favourites to take the Premier League crown with only 11 matches remaining. Petr Cech was the busier of the two keepers and made two crucial saves early in the second half when Chelsea held only a single-goal advantage. But Wolves' problem all season has been failure to take their chances, as demonstrated by their meagre goal tally of 21 - although Kevin Doyle again impressed as a lone striker. Portsmouth 1 Stoke City 2Stoke City substitute Salif Diao snatched a last-gasp triumph for the 10-man Potters as Portsmouth were plunged deeper into Premier League relegation trouble. Frederic Piquionne gave the home side the advantage after 35 minutes, but Robert Huth's header levelled matters five minutes after the break. Andy Wilkinson was sent off for the visitors after 73 minutes, but Diao netted at the death to maintain his side's unbeaten record in all competitions this year. Blackburn Rovers 3 Bolton Wanderers 0Blackburn Rovers deservedly saw off Lancashire rivals Bolton Wanderers to claim a second successive home victory in the Premier League. Nikola Kalinic gave Rovers the lead their first-half dominance merited three minutes before the interval. And substitute Jason Roberts and defender Gael Givet struck in the second half to ensure Bolton, who threatened only sporadically, remain in the relegation zone - to the glee of a 23,888 crowd at Ewood Park. Aston Villa 5 Burnley 2Stewart Downing scored his first brace of Premier League goals for Aston Villa who put a poor first-half performance behind them to overwhelm Burnley at Villa Park. The Clarets took a shock 10th-minute lead through Steven Fletcher and all Villa could muster before half-time was a fortuitous equaliser from Ashley Young. But four goals in 13 minutes after the break from Downing (two), Emile Heskey and Gabriel Agbonlahor kept Villa on course for a Champions League spot before Martin Paterson's late consolation. In contrast, Burnley have now lost six of their last seven league matches. It was just the tonic Martin O'Neill's side needed at the start of a massive week with an FA Cup fifth-round replay against Crystal Palace on Wednesday and the Carling Cup final next Sunday against Manchester United at Wembley. Villa had only scored three goals in their previous seven league matches but still carried too much firepower for Brian Laws' side, who remain in the bottom three. Burnley have still only taken one point on their travels and have now conceded 43 goals in the process. Fulham 2 Birmingham City 1Bobby Zamora fired a dramatic late winner as Fulham came from behind to edge a scrappy Premier League match with Birmingham City. Watching England manager Fabio Capello had left before Zamora struck a magnificent free-kick in the 90th minute to claim his 15th goal in 32 starts, provoking chants of "Bobby for England" - but the Italian will have been impressed by his display. Momentum has gathered behind calls for Zamora to be selected by England and this strike will have improved his chances. Manchester City 0 Liverpool 0The eagerly-awaited top-four showdown turned into a stifling draw between Manchester City and Liverpool at Eastlands. Gripped by the fear of losing, the north-west rivals did not manage a shot on target during the first half and only threw off their shackles in a search for victory in the final 15 minutes. But even the introductions of Craig Bellamy and Fernando Torres failed to lift the match from its stalemate. Pepe Reina's smart save to deny Emmanuel Adebayor represented the biggest thrill of a miserable afternoon. Given the scrap now taking place for that coveted fourth Champions League spot, a sense of trepidation could have been forgiven. What was less easy to ignore was the patchy passing, the lack of adventure and the limited vision. The sight of Steven Gerrard and Maxi Rodriguez running into each other on one Liverpool attack just about summed the whole thing up. Wigan Athletic 0 Tottenham Hotspur 3Unsettled striker Roman Pavlyuchenko gave Tottenham Hotspur an unexpected boost at Wigan Athletic and lifted them into fourth spot in the Premier League table as he stepped off the bench to score his first league goals of the season late in the match. The win was just the result Tottenham were hoping for and Jermain Defoe, who scored five goals against Wigan earlier in the campaign was also on target. |
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