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Tuesday May 4, 2010

It's In Chelsea's Hands Now...

Birmingham City 2 Burnley 1

On-loan Birmingham City striker Christian Benitez scored his first home goal as Alex McLeish's side topped the 50-point mark with victory against relegated Burnley.
The win preserved City's eight-month unbeaten record at St Andrew's and they are on course to finish in the top 10 after being written off in pre-season as relegation certainties.
An own-goal from Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen broke the deadlock and Benitez's moment of glory came four minutes before the interval to wrap up the points. Steven Thompson scored a late consolation for the Clarets. Birmingham, who ended an eight-match run without a win, effectively made sure of top-flight football for another year a couple of months ago.
A mixture of experience - as epitomised by Barry Ferguson and Lee Bowyer - and players unproven at Premier League level, like defenders Roger Johnson and Scott Dann, has been the bedrock of their success.
But Burnley, who were promoted alongside them from the Coca-Cola Championship, have much rebuilding to do this summer to make an instant return to the Premier League.

Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 1

Manchester City set up a winner-takes-all midweek showdown with Tottenham Hotspur after finishing off the Champions League hopes of another of their rivals at Eastlands.
Carlos Tevez's penalty and a smart finish from Emmanuel Adebayor gave City the upper hand against a tired-looking Aston Villa side before Craig Bellamy applied a late coup de grace.
Aston Villa's own hopes of joining the elite in Europe, rekindled by a superb run in April, had been raised when John Carew struck first for the visitors but their challenge fizzled and then died out as the home side, brilliantly marshalled by Patrick Vieira, dominated.

Portsmouth 3 Wolves 1

Portsmouth ended a season to forget at Fratton Park with a performance to remember as they won their final Premier League home match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The south-coast club have lurched from one financial crisis to another which eventually resulted in administration and the docking of nine points and, ultimately, relegation.
However the beleaguered Pompey faithful at least had something to cheer about as Wolves were comfortably beaten.
Aruna Dindane - whose French parent club Lens have agreed to let him play in the FA Cup final without triggering an appearance-related clause - fired the home side ahead on 20 minutes, before Kevin Doyle bundled home an equaliser.
However, Pompey went into half-time ahead following John Utaka's 20-yard effort and a well-crafted third from Michael Brown after 67 minutes sealed victory.

Stoke City 0 Everton 0

Everton's hopes of a Europa League slot are over even though they stretched their unbeaten run to 10 Premier League matches, equalling a club record.
They thought a victory had been secured in the 72nd minute when Phil Jagielka found the net but his effort was ruled out.
That came after Rory Delap missed a good chance for Stoke side-footing the ball wide with only goalkeeper Tim Howard to beat.

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Bolton Wanderers 0

Tottenham Hotspur took one more step towards Champions League qualification with a narrow win over Bolton Wanderers thanks to a superb strike from Tom Huddlestone.
With seven minutes of the first half left, the midfielder picked up Benoit Assou-Ekotto's pass to hammer a 22-yard strike past Jussi Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal.
Bolton spent most of the match on the back foot thanks to the pace and agility of Gareth Bale, who put in yet another outstanding performance for the north London club.
Spurs can now go into Wednesday's crunch match at Eastlands full of confidence, knowing that a win over Manchester City would guarantee them Champions League football for the first time in their history.

Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2

Chelsea edged closer to the Premier League title with a crucial victory over Liverpool at Anfield.
An error by Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard handed Didier Drogba a simple opening goal in the first half and Frank Lampard added a second after the break.
The result ensured Chelsea remained in pole position to win their first championship for four years but also finally put paid to the Merseysiders' hopes of securing Champions League football next season.

Fulham 3 West Ham United 2

Fulham's marvellous season continued with a 3-2 home win over West Ham United. Clint Dempsey opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time and an own goal by Carlton Cole put them 2-0 ahead shortly after the restart.
Cole redeemed himself when he headed West Ham back into the match, but Fulham substitute Stefano Okaka put Fulham 3-1 in front from close range in the 79th minute.
An injury-time goal from Guillermo Franco was of little consolation to the visitors.

Sunderland 0 Manchester United 1

Portugal international Nani ensured the race for the Premier League title will go down to the wire as Manchester United edged past Sunderland.
Hours after Chelsea had established a four-point lead over United with victory at Liverpool, United once again reduced it to just one, courtesy of Nani's 28th-minute strike.
They will now head into next Sunday's final-day showdown with Stoke City at Old Trafford knowing that effectively only a win can give them a 19th league title, and even that will not be enough if the Blues beat Wigan Athletic at home.
Sir Alex Ferguson and his players left the north-east at least having given themselves a chance on an afternoon when they could have made things much more comfortable for themselves with striker Dimitar Berbatov passing up a hat-trick of glorious opportunities.
However, the manager's record of never having lost to a team managed by former United defender Steve Bruce remained intact, and while there is hope, he will not give up on the big prize.
Sunderland signed off their home campaign with a committed display in front of a crowd of 47,641, but on an afternoon when Fabio Capello's representatives were at the Stadium of Light, England hopeful Darren Bent had little opportunity to stake his claim for a seat on the plane to South Africa.