SERVICES

Tuesday April 19, 2011

Gunners' Hopes Fading

Birmingham City 2 Sunderland 0

Birmingham City midfielder Sebastian Larsson netted on his 100th Premier League appearance to help ease his side's relegation fears and drag Sunderland into the survival dogfight.
Larsson broke the deadlock shortly before half-time and then leading scorer Craig Gardner's ninth goal of the campaign wrapped up victory.
The result means City have leapfrogged over the Black Cats and increased the pressure on manager Steve Bruce, who spent six years in charge at St. Andrew's.
Larsson may be out of contract in the summer but he produced a committed and inspirational performance and left the pitch to a standing ovation with three minutes remaining.
Injury-decimated Sunderland have now managed to collect only one point from the last nine matches.

Blackpool 1 Wigan Athletic 3

Wigan Athletic moved out of the relegation zone and pushed Blackpool into it with a comfortable victory at Bloomfield Road.
Hugo Rodallega put the visitors ahead early on by nutmegging Matt Gilks and Charles N'Zogbia made it 2-0 in first-half stoppage time.
Mohamed Diame sent in the third via a deflection off Neal Eardley midway through the second period, rendering DJ Campbell's late reply for the Seasiders a mere consolation.
The result means the Latics, who started the day bottom of the table, leapfrogged Blackpool into 17th place.

Everton 2 Blackburn Rovers 0

Second-half goals from Leon Osman and Leighton Baines plunged Blackburn further into relegation trouble.
Steve Kean's lacklustre Rovers side, now without a win in nine matches, struggled to contain Everton at Goodison Park and were punished when a deflected Osman shot went in after 54 minutes.
The visitors hardly tested home goalkeeper Tim Howard and Baines put the match beyond them with a 75th-minute penalty after Phil Jones fouled Seamus Coleman.
The match went exactly to the form book with Rovers having failed to win away since December.
The result left them in a perilous position just above the relegation zone while Everton, extending their unbeaten run to seven, moved within a point of sixth-placed rivals Liverpool.

West Bromwich Albion 1 Chelsea 3

Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea players showed they are still determined to fight for the Italian with a crushing victory at West Bromwich Albion.
After Peter Odemwingie had given Albion a 17th-minute lead, the Blues replied with three first-half goals from Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard.
If Chelsea and Ancelotti are to finish the season with little more than a consolation of a Champions League place for next term, then they are going about it the right way.
Ancelotti's side have now lost just one of their last 11 matches in the Premier League, winning eight of those, to cut the gap to Manchester United at the top of the table to eight points.
This was also Chelsea's 14th consecutive top-flight victory against the Baggies, bringing to an end the unbeaten six-match run enjoyed by Roy Hodgson since he took over the managerial helm at the The Hawthorns in February.

West Ham United 1 Aston Villa 2

Gabriel Agbonlahor propelled Aston Villa towards safety and edged West Ham United towards relegation with an injury-time winner at Upton Park.
The Hammers had taken the lead inside two minutes with a strike from Robbie Keane but Villa wrestled back control with Darren Bent's header shortly before the interval.
West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green pulled off a string of top-class saves to keep his side in the game but Villa snatched a deserved victory with a header from substitute Agbonlahor in added time.
Villa's victory moved them up to ninth in the table on 40 points, seven clear of the drop zone, while Avram Grant's struggling side slipped deeper into trouble.
The Hammers have five matches left to save their season. The next two are away at Chelsea and Manchester City.

Arsenal 1 Liverpool 1

Arsenal saw their title hopes all but extinguished after Dirk Kuyt secured a point for Liverpool with a last-gasp penalty just moments after Robin van Persie's own spot-kick had looked enough for victory.
The Gunners - now six point points behind leaders Manchester United having played the same number of matches - had plenty of possession and hit the bar in the first half through Laurent Koscielny, but were unable to make their dominance count until deep into eight minutes of stoppage time when van Persie crashed home a spot-kick.
However, Liverpool - who had earlier seen captain Jamie Carragher carried off following a nasty clash of heads - snatched a point with the final kick of the match after Emmanuel Eboue had pushed Lucas Leiva.