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Tuesday November 9, 2010

The Gunners Shoot Blanks

Bolton Wanderers 4 Tottenham Hotspur 2

Tottenham Hotspur, conquerors of Champions League holders Inter Milan in midweek, had to settle for second best at the Reebok Stadium despite a rousing comeback.
Trailing 3-0 they scored twice in the last 11 minutes thanks to Alan Hutton and substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko.
However Martin Petrov stepped off the bench to seal Wanderers' victory in stoppage time with a fine solo effort.
Tottenham have never achieved a league victory at the ground and manager Harry Redknapp will wonder how they failed to build on their famous win in midweek.
Certainly they missed Rafael van der Vaart and Aaron Lennon, who are both suffering from hamstring injuries.
But Bolton were good value for their victory with Kevin Davies scoring twice, once from the penalty spot, and Gretar Steinsson also on target.

Birmingham City 2 West Ham United 2

West Ham United surrendered a two-goal lead to claim a share of the points with Birmingham City.
The bottom-placed Hammers looked set for a first away success of the campaign after Frederic Piquionne and Valon Behrami had put them in command.
But City substitute Cameron Jerome and Liam Ridgewell salvaged a point for Alex McLeish's side.

Blackburn Rovers 2 Wigan Athletic 1

Blackburn Rovers substitute Jason Roberts netted a cool 66th-minute finish to seal the points at Ewood Park.
Morten Gamst Pedersen had put Rovers in front eight minutes earlier when his free-kick from the byline eluded everyone in the box and curled into the top corner.
And despite Charles N'Zogbia reducing the deficit for Wigan Athletic with a 74th-minute free-kick, the visitors failed to muster another chance to snatch a vital point.

Blackpool 2 Everton 2

Blackpool's Marlon Harewood was denied a late winner as the Premier League newcomers fought out a thrilling draw with Everton.
The Seasiders substitute put the ball in the net in the closing minutes at Bloomfield Road but was frustrated by an offside flag.
Blackpool twice led an end-to-end encounter after goals from Wales pair Neal Eardley and David Vaughan but Everton hit back through Tim Cahill and former Blackpool loanee Seamus Coleman.
Everton created the better chances throughout but Blackpool may feel they could have prevented either of their goals and will bemoan the late offside decision.

Fulham 1 Aston Villa 1

Centre-half Brede Hangeland earned Fulham a point with a last-gasp equalizer at Craven Cottage.
Marc Albrighton's 42nd-minute strike looked to have given Aston Villa a vital win when he latched on to a sensational cross-field pass from Barry Bannan to finish in style.
But Hangeland rose highest to head home a free-kick from Danny Murphy with just seconds remaining.

Manchester United 2 Wolves 1

Park Ji-sung struck a stoppage-time winner to give Sir Alex Ferguson a perfect 24th anniversary present as Manchester United manager.
It was perhaps a fitting way for Ferguson to celebrate his milestone given the number of times his side have snatched victory in such a manner.
Mick McCarthy will not be the last manager to thrash about in frustration after United old-boy Sylvan Ebanks-Blake had looked to have snatched a deserved point for his team, cancelling out Park's opener in the first half.
However Park's run into the penalty area in the final seconds went unchallenged and he found the bottom corner of the net.

Sunderland 2 Stoke City 0

Record-signing Asamoah Gyan paid off a sizeable instalment of his £13m-plus fee with a match-winning double for Sunderland against 10-man Stoke City.
The Ghanan international struck after nine minutes and, after Steed Malbranque had missed a first-half penalty, added a second four minutes from time to help ease the pain of last weekend's 5-1 defeat by Newcastle United.
But in the meantime, Stoke were denied what they felt was a certain penalty for handball after Lee Cattermole smuggled Kenwyne Jones' header off the line and then had skipper Ryan Shawcross sent off for two bookable offences inside three minutes.

Arsenal 0 Newcastle United 1

Andy Carroll made headlines as his goal gave Newcastle United a shock 1-0 win over title-chasing Arsenal at Emirates Stadium.
The England Under-21 striker has been tipped to feature in the senior squad for the friendly with France later this month.
However, under the close eye of watching England coach Fabio Capello, the Newcastle number nine headed in what proved to be the winner at the end of the first half.

West Brom 0 Manchester City 2

Mario Balotelli netted twice before being sent off as Manchester City secured a 2-0 win at West Bromwich Albion to ease the pressure on their manager Roberto Mancini.
Balotelli opened the scoring in the first half having combined with City skipper Carlos Tevez, who was back in the team following his two-match injury lay-off.
The Italian striker then converted David Silva's cross soon after to give the visitors - defeated in their last three matches - a two goal advantage.
Balotelli's afternoon took a turn for the worse after the break, though, when he was red-carded following a tangle with Youssouf Mulumbu, who was also sent for an early bath after scything down Tevez late on.

Liverpool 2 Chelsea 0

Fernando Torres produced a striker's masterclass to score twice as Liverpool inflicted only a second defeat of the season on League leaders Chelsea.
The Spain international has a liking for playing the Londoners at Anfield, as his six goals in five matches against them at home shows.
Chelsea were heavily linked with a summer bid for Torres but it never materialized and manager Carlo Ancelotti said he did not need to buy the striker as he was satisfied with his own forwards.
However, Torres was more than happy to give a display of his quality to the Blues boss, whose side had conceded only three goals in 10 league games prior to kick-off.