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Tuesday March 8, 2011

Liverpool Clip Devil's Wings

Birmingham City 1 West Bromwich Albion 3

Roy Hodgson celebrated his first win as West Brom boss as Birmingham City suffered a massive Carling Cup hangover in the relegation battle at St. Andrew's.
Goals from Youssuf Mulumbu, James Morrison and Paul Scharner enabled the Baggies to leapfrog over their local rivals in the battle for survival.
All City could manage was a consolation effort from Jean Beausejour and they paid the price for some untypically sloppy defensive play.
The introduction of Albion striker Peter Odemwingie at half-time made a massive difference up front for the visitors and he was a constant threat.
But Hodgson has also made West Brom more difficult to beat after they had shipped goals regularly before his arrival.
Scharner produced a superb performance in the centre of the park while Steven Reid impressed at right-back and got forward to good effect.
Birmingham boss Alex McLeish will be hoping his side recover quickly from this setback otherwise their top flight status could be seriously threatened.

Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0

Arsenal were left frustrated in their quest to close the gap on Manchester United as Sunderland battled through a goalless draw at Emirates Stadium.
After Sunderland started brightly, the Gunners, who head to Barcelona on Tuesday for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, gained the upper hand, as Nicklas Bendtner's angled shot was tipped over by man of the match Simon Mignolet.
The crossbar saved Sunderland in the second half, while Andrey Arshavin might have been given a penalty and then had a goal ruled out for offside.

Bolton Wanderers 3 Aston Villa 2

Ivan Klasnic clambered off the Bolton's bench to snatch his side a stunning late win over Villa after Ashley Young's missed penalty cost the visitors dear.
Klasnic rammed home the winner four minutes from time to wrap up a stirring comeback from the home side, who twice battled back from behind to take the points.
But Villa were left to rue Young's saved 70th-minute spot-kick which had he converted would have put Gerard Houllier's men 3-1 up and surely home and dry.

Fulham 3 Blackburn Rovers 2

Fulham striker Bobby Zamora fired a 90th minute penalty to continue Blackburn Rovers' freefall down the Premier League.
Zamora, who missed last weekend's draw with Manchester City because of an ankle injury, stepped off the bench to drill home the winner after Grant Hanley had held back Aaron Hughes.
It was the England striker's first Premier League appearance since recovering from a broken leg sustained in September.
Twice Damien Duff gave Fulham the lead with two sweetly-struck goals, lifting his tally for the season to five, but twice Blackburn struck back.
Hanley fired the first equalizer in first-half injury time with a shot that took a heavy deflection off the head of Brede Hangeland.
Then it was Junior Hoilett's turn to reel in Fulham, capitalising on confusion in the home defence, before a late flurry from the home side saw the lead change hands for a final time.

Newcastle United 1 Everton 2

Phil Jagielka was the hero as Everton condemned Newcastle United to a fifth Premier League defeat of the season at St James' Park.
The central defender fired home from Leighton Baines' 36th-minute corner to complete a repair job after Leon Best had headed the Magpies in front 13 minutes earlier.
Leon Osman started the fightback when he levelled with 31 minutes gone after exchanging passes with the excellent Mikel Arteta on an afternoon when the home side struggled to find any real fluency.
Best thought he had snatched a point 12 minutes from time when he headed past keeper Tim Howard for a second time, but referee Howard Webb had spotted a push on Jagielka as the ball came across and disallowed it. Newcastle battled all the way to the whistle in a desperate attempt to rescue the match in front of a crowd of 50,128, but Everton were good value for their win with Arteta the architect.

West Ham United 3 Stoke City 0

West Ham hauled themselves out of the drop zone as Stoke City pressed the self-destruct button at Upton Park.
The Hammers made it back-to-back league wins for the first time in more than a year to stay on course to complete a great escape from relegation.
Demba Ba was gifted his fourth goal in just five appearances after a Stoke mix-up, the recalled Manuel da Costa made it 2-0 and Thomas Hitzlsperger smashed in a late third to inflict a club record sixth straight away league defeat on the visitors.

Manchester City 1 Wigan Athletic 0

Manchester City secured a narrow win at home to bottom club Wigan Athletic in a surprisingly close encounter at Eastlands.
Relegation battlers Wigan will consider themselves unlucky not to have earned a point from Champions League-chasing City, after a mistake from goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi gifted David Silva his first-half winner.
Substitute Conor Sammon then missed a chance for the Latics to grab a deserved point in stoppage time, with his shot rolling agonisingly wide of the far post.
Al Habsi's mistake allowed David Silva to grab a winner for the hosts with his fifth goal of the season that allowed them to profit from Arsenal's failure to beat Sunderland and close to within four points of the Gunners.

Liverpool 3 Manchester United 1

Liverpool's fully deserved victory over Manchester United at Anfield may not ultimately prevent their arch-rivals surpassing the Reds' 18 league titles at the end of the season.
It has, however, dented Sir Alex Ferguson's side's hopes of a straightforward run-in and at the same time restored some pride for the Reds after two defeats at Old Trafford already this campaign.
Dirk Kuyt grabbed the headlines with a first Liverpool hat-trick against United since Peter Beardsley's in September 1990, before Javier Hernandez headed an injury-time consolation - but there were many more who deserved the plaudits.
Tireless livewire Luis Suarez had a hand in all three goals while Lucas Leiva and Raul Meireles produced impressive midfield performances.
The afternoon was capped off with a long-awaited debut for £35m record signing Andy Carroll after more than two months on the sidelines with a thigh injury.
For United their second-choice central defensive partnership of Wes Brown and Chris Smalling, deputising for the suspended Nemanja Vidic and injured Rio Ferdinand, never looked comfortable on an afternoon when very few of visiting team reached anywhere near the exacting standards Ferguson demands.
They still remain top of the table, and it is difficult to bet against them being in that position come May, but two defeats in five days - having lost at Chelsea in midweek - leave plenty of questions to be answered.

Wolves 3 Tottenham Hotspur 3

Steven Fletcher rescued a deserved point for Wolves with a late equalizer in a pulsating match with Spurs at Molineux.
Kevin Doyle and Jermain Defoe shared four first half goals before Roman Pavlyuchenko looked to have wrapped up victory for Spurs.
But substitute Fletcher headed home the leveller in the 87th minute to earn his side a vital point in the battle for survival.
It also prevented Spurs from climbing above Chelsea into the fourth Champions League spot.