Sunday January 11, 2009 14:51
English Premier League Saturday Review
Posted by The Soccer Blogger as English Premiership
The early kick-off on Saturday saw a Midlands derby between Aston Villa, who are trying to break into the “big four” and West Bromwich Albion, who are trying to fight their way out of the relegation zone. However it was Villa who won 2 - 1 and in doing so claimed third place in the English Premier League ahead of Manchester United who play Chelsea on Sunday in the weekend’s main fixture. In another top versus bottom clash, Stoke did move out of the relegation zone with a 0 - 0 tie against first-place, but a very under par, Liverpool.
The former West Brom captain Davies was constantly booed by the visiting fans at Villa, but silenced them briefly in the 19th minute after Gareth Barry crossed a ball from the right which found him all alone for a header that beat Carson.
Villa then doubled their lead four minutes before halftime. Gabriel Agbonlahor ran onto a pass from Barry and was unchallenged as he cut into the penalty area. He fired a shot from an angle which deflected off Carson, who spent last season on loan at Villa, and squirted under him over the line for an own-goal.
Aston Villa headed into the half-time break with a 2-0 lead but James Morrison then scored four minutes into the second half to give West Brom some encouragement but they could’t turn their pressure into another goal.
Villa are now on 39 points, which is one more than Manchester United, although they do have games in hand. Villa are also unbeaten in nine league games as Martin O’Neill’s side seeks to finish in the top four to claim a berth in Europe’s Champions League. If they keep this form up though, they could do even better.
Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov said after the game. “We’ll take every game as it comes. We are in a very good position.”
One of the teams Aston Villa are trying to knock out of the top four are Arsenal who left it late to beat Bolton 1 - 0. In the other games Everton defeated Hull City 2 - 0, Newcastle tied West Ham 2 - 2 and Middlesbrough and Sunderland played a 1 - 1 draw.
Portsmouth vs. Manchester City and Fulham vs. Blackburn both fell victim to the very cold weather currently hitting the UK and were postponed due to frozen pitches.
Manchester United will regain third place later today if they don’t lose at Old Trafford to another Title contender Chelsea. In the other Sunday game, Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham visit Wigan and Steve Bruce.
The result of the day was probably at Stoke, as they pulled themselves out of the bottom three with a home draw against the league leaders Liverpool. Stoke now have 21 points and jump a place above Tottenahm into 17th place, while Liverpool moved four points ahead of Chelsea before their games at Man Utd. It could have been 6 points clear for Liverpool but the more the game went on the less likely it looked that they would secure another away win.
It was not a good performance from the leaders and it might have been a lot worse when Stoke’s Rory Delap hit the underside of the crossbar from close range in the first half. Then Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross did put the ball in the net in the 31st minute, but it was disallowed for offside. Although Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard did twice rattled shots off the post in the second half.
After the game Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez, said, “It was a difficult game. When you can’t control the game, you find it hard to win.” Can’t really argue with that. Although Benitez could probably hear the laughter of Alex Ferguson and the rest of the Utd team all the way from Manchester after the Spaniard’s rather strange little diatribe on Friday against the Utd manager.
Arsenal moved level on points with Manchester United with its home win over Bolton, though the Gunners have played three more games. Second- half substitute Nicklas Bendtner scored in the 84th minute as Arsenal extended its unbeaten run to eight matches overall.
Marouane Fellaini and Mikel Arteta had the goals as Everton won for just the third time at home this season. The victory lifts the Toffees into sixth place with 35 points. There was some bad news for Everton and Fellaini though. He picked up his 10th yellow card of the season , which is good going by anyone’s standards. That’s a booking every two games. Anyway, as a result Fellaini will miss both Merseyside derbies at Anfield taking place this morning. Firstly in the league and then in the 4th Round of The FA Cup.
Andy Carroll’s goal in the 78th minute gave Newcastle the home draw with West Ham. Newcastle’s Michael Owen opened the scoring in the 19th minute and Craig Bellamy tied it 10 minutes later. Carlton Cole then put West Ham ahead in the 55th minute.
Kenwyne Jones’s goal with eight minutes remaining gave Sunderland the away draw with Middlesbrough. Afonso Alves scored just before halftime for Boro.
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
Loading ...
Related Posts
Tags: arsenal, Aston Villa, Barclays Premier League, chelsea, English Premier League, Everton, Liverpool, man utd, Premier League, Premiership