SERVICES

Tuesday August 26, 2009

Burnley Excel At Turf Moor

Arsenal 4 Portsmouth 1

Arsenal comfortably beat Portsmouth to continue their impressive start to the season with a 4-1 romp at Emirates Stadium.
Abou Diaby - one of four changes by manager Arsene Wenger - smashed in a first-half brace to set the rampant Gunners on their way.
Although Younes Kaboul pulled a goal back, it was only delaying the inevitable as William Gallas bundled in his third goal in as many matches, before youngster Aaron Ramsey wrapped things up.
Arsenal had smashed six at Everton before winning the first leg of their Champions League qualifier 2-0 away to Celtic in midweek.
Next up in the Premier League is a trip to Manchester United. More of the same there and indications will be this could yet be a vintage season for Wenger's young Gunners.
Portsmouth, though, have now lost all three of their matches so far - and it looks set to be a long campaign ahead for the Fratton Park club, who have yet to resolve their ownership issue.

Birmingham City 0 Stoke City 0

Stoke's goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen produced a superb second-half save to deny Birmingham their second home win in the space of 72 hours.
The Dane kept out a bullet header from Blues striker Garry O'Connor at full stretch from a Sebastian Larsson free-kick in the second half.
It was one of the few moments of excitement but both sides will probably be satisfied with a return of four points from their opening three matches of the campaign.
The two teams could not be faulted for effort and commitment in the hot conditions but there was a shortage of quality with only Blues midfielder Barry Ferguson showing any composure on the ball and ability to pass.

Hull City 1 Bolton Wanderers 0

Kamel Ghilas combined with fellow new signing Jozy Altidore as Hull City finally got back to winning ways at the expense of Bolton Wanderers.
Ghilas fired the decisive goal of a scrappy encounter at the KC Stadium after being set up by Altidore's first touch with 61 minutes gone.
Until then Hull had been second best to Bolton, who wasted clear-cut chances through Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies.
But the Tigers were a different team after the goal and debutant Altidore, whose first appearance had been delayed by red tape, and Ghilas both spurned further opportunities.
Bolton produced a late rally but Hull held on for their first win in 13 Premier League matches and their first at home since last December.

Manchester City 1 Wolves 0

Emmanuel Adebayor's blistering first-half effort proved enough to earn victory for Manchester City on his home debut.
Although newly-promoted Wolves came close to an equaliser when Andy Keogh's effort crashed back off the crossbar, anything other than a home win would have been cruel for Mark Hughes' men, who totally dominated the first hour and created enough clear chances to win several matches.
There is certainly plenty of room for optimism around the Blues camp just now, and, with a trip to crisis club Portsmouth next Sunday, City could well find themselves heading into the international break among the Premier League's pace-setters.
The reason that has been stated most often for City not being tipped among the title contenders is that it will be difficult to get so many new players to gel.
Yet it is also true that the process should be at its most difficult right now, before getting progressively easier as the season wears on.
If that is true, the Blues should be regarded as contenders because their play is fluid as it is.

Sunderland 2 Blackburn Rovers 1

Kenwyne Jones reminded £10m new boy Darren Bent that he is not Sunderland's only dangerman with a match-winning double against Blackburn Rovers.
Jones struck either side of the break to hand the Black Cats a first home victory of the season, although they had to come from behind and ride their luck as Rovers, without Aston Villa target Stephen Warnock in the 18, threatened to leave with at least a point.
Blackburn took the lead through Gael Givet's 21st-minute strike, but despite the visitors enjoying the better of the first half, Jones levelled after 32 minutes and then headed his side in front nine minutes after the break.
However, Sam Allardyce's men had two goals disallowed and saw £6m signing Nikola Kalinic pass up four glorious opportunities, one of them after Christopher Samba had hit the bar 15 minutes from time.
That will have mattered little to the bulk of a crowd of 37,106, who left happy with six points from their side's first three fixtures and hopeful of a much more comfortable season than the last two.

Wigan Athletic 0 Manchester United 5

England striker Wayne Rooney joined the 100 club and Michael Owen got off the mark as Manchester United re-discovered the winning habit in emphatic style.
Rooney made the breakthrough in the 56th minute and got his second nine minutes later in a fine second half show.
In between Dimitar Berbatov found the target in the 58th minute as United bounced back from their humbling by newly-promoted Burnley in midweek.
Owen made his mark in the 85th minute after replacing Rooney 13 minutes earlier and Nani completed the scoring in stoppage time with a superb free-kick.
The day, however, belonged to Rooney, such an unselfish worker, as he scored his 100th and 101st goals for the club.

West Ham United 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2

Spurs maintained their 100 per cent start to the Premier League season after West Ham gifted them Jermain Defoe's equaliser and Aaron Lennon's winner at Upton Park.
The Hammers were leading through Carlton Cole's spectacular volley but the England striker's backpass then set up Defoe to level against his former club.
Another mistake led to Lennon's winner, with Jonathan Spector slipping at the vital moment and the winger taking full advantage to rifle into the bottom corner.
Since leaving West Ham, Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has an impressive record of getting results at Upton Park - but he does not usually need help from his former club.

Burnley 1 Everton 0

Burnley proved their midweek victory over Manchester United was no fluke as they beat Everton at Turf Moor for back-to-back 1-0 home wins.
Wade Elliott's 34th-minute strike gave the Clarets their second Premier League top-five scalp inside four days.
Everton striker Louis Saha even missed a second-half penalty which had been awarded after Tony Hibbert went down in the area.

Fulham 0 Chelsea 2

Chelsea climbed to second place in the Premier League as they preserved their 100 per cent start to the season with a 2-0 win over Fulham in the south-west London derby at Craven Cottage.
Goals in each half from Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka settled the contest in Chelsea's favour.
The Blues have made a fabulous start to the season under new coach Carlo Ancelotti and the scoreline could have been higher.

Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 3

Liverpool slumped to their second Premier League defeat in nine days to put their title credentials firmly on the line.
Villa produced a defiant, organised display and deserved their first win at Anfield since 2001.
The result also ended Liverpool's 31-match unbeaten home league record stretching back to December 2007, when Manchester United were the last winners at Anfield.
The spotlight will now be on Liverpool, who only lost twice in the league last season and still did not win the title.
The margin for error is now very fine. You rarely win the crown by losing more than five matches in a season, and Liverpool's hopes could already have suffered a mortal blow.