The defending champions, Chelsea, bettered their lead at the top of the table, while the ‘blue’ half of Manchester crawled their way to the second position. Anfield was a stage for yet another upset while The Stadium of Light proved to be a deadly away fixture for another top team. Before the players head off for International Duty, this is briefly how the Premiership Weekend unfolded.
Same ol’ Arsenal at The Bridge!
Venue – Stamford Bridge
Result – Chelsea 2 – 0 Arsenal
‘As it happened’ – Arsenal, trying to prove a point against their London rivals, dominated most of the proceedings but failed to add a number to the scoreboard. Didier Drogba, who had scored 12 times in as many games against Arsenal, added one more to his tally of goals. The Gunners, without their inspirational captain, looked more positive than previous encounters with The Men in Blue, but failed to capitalize on chances. Chamakh, Nasri, Koscielny and Arshavin squandered their respective chances at giving Arsenal any hope at The Bridge.
‘You can’t miss this‘ – The finest moment of the match was Brazilian Alex’s free-kick which was a scorcher and easily the best goal of the weekend. The Arsenal wall was pierced easily while Fabianski’s full-length dive was quite pointless, such was the fury of the shot.
City riding high, building new castles!
Venue – The Manchester City Stadium
Result – Manchester City 2 – 1 Newcastle
‘As it happened’ – Carlos Tevez extended his goals tally for the season to four with a neatly taken penalty kick after a Mark Williamson foul. A few minutes later, The Magpies drew level with a Jonas Gutierrez goal. Though City struggled to create chances with their defensive mindset, a goal from substitute Adam Johnson was good enough to secure all three points for the home side. The win took the ‘Blue Half of Manchester’ to second position in the Premiership table.
‘You can’t miss this‘ – A crunching tackle from Nigel De Jong took out Hatim Ben Arfa in the initial few minutes of the game. De Jong, notorious for his ‘kicking’ skills, escaped without a caution. After some treatment on the pitch, the Frenchman was taken off the pitch in a stretcher. Though confirmed reports are yet to come, THT understands that the Newcastle star has suffered a broken leg.
The Roof falls down on United!
Venue – The Stadium of Light
Result -Sunderland 0 – 0 Manchester United
‘As it happened’ – Having already played and choked Arsenal, Sunderland had similar plans for Manchester United at their home turf. United fielded a starting line-up without Berbatov and Hernandez, much to everybody’s surprise. If The Black Cats had taken their chances in the first half, it would have been difficult for The Red Devils to come back with any points from The Stadium of Light. The best chance of the match came when Steed Malbranque was one-on-one with Van Der Sar, but the Frenchman shot straight into the onrushing keeper.
‘You can’t miss this‘ – A strange incident happened before the match started. A burst-pipe leak in United’s dressing room delayed kick off by 20 minutes. The leak resulted in the ceiling to collapse leaving the nearby fans go berserk.
Lost in a black pool of mud…
Venue: Anfield
Result: Liverpool 1 – 2 Blackpool
‘As it happened’ – Can it get worser? Liverpool, at their home dropped 3 points against newly promoted Blackpool and now floats at the top of relegation zone after 7 matches. Roy Hodgson’s side was easily tamed by the ‘minnows’ in the first half with a smart and disciplined brand of football. English Right-Back Johnson committed a frivolous mistake inside the penalty-box by bringing down Luke Varney. Blackpool captain Adam did the rest, ensuring an early lead. Varney added to Blackpool’s tally and Liverpool’s misery at the stroke of half-time. Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ headed goal from a Steven Gerrard free-kick in the second half wasn’t good enough to give The Reds any confidence in the league.
‘You can’t miss this‘ – Fernando Torres, Liverpool’s anchor-man, pulled out of the match in an early stage and has not been named in Spain’s squad for the latest set of qualifiers. With an injury to their most lethal front-man, it is a monumental task for The Reds to come out of their ‘current situation’. For Liverpool, the Premiership will resume with a Merseyside derby after the International break. It may just turn out to be the season-defining match for the beleaguered club.
Other Results
Stoke 1 – 0 Blackburn
West Brom 1 – 1 Bolton
West Ham 1 – 1 Fulham
Birmingham 0 – 2 Everton
Wigan 2 – 0 Wolves
Tottenham 2 – 1 Aston Villa