SERVICES

Tuesday November 3, 2009

Arsenal Trounce 'Wannabe' Spurs In North London Derby

Arsenal 3 Tottenham Hotspur 0

Arsenal forward Robin van Persie struck twice to maintain his side's bragging rights over north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs have not won a league fixture against Arsenal since 1999, and they fell away after Van Persie opened the scoring at the Emirates Stadium and Cesc Fabregas added the second after winning possession straight from the kick-off.
Both sides went into the weekend level on points, albeit with Spurs playing a match extra, but talk of the gap between the clubs being closed was well and truly ended when Van Persie tapped in the third after the break.

Bolton Wanderers 0 Chelsea 4

Chelsea won at Bolton Wanderers for the seventh league fixture in succession to stamp their hold on top spot in the League.
Beaten in their last two away matches, there was no chance of the west Londoners suffering a third against the hosts, who had Jlloyd Samuel sent off.
Chelsea have now scored eight goals in four days against Gary Megson's team, and were brutally destructive when confronted with a team a man down.
It was hard enough for Bolton when they had 11 on the park, but they were just victims for Chelsea to bully after Samuel's red card.
Frank Lampard's penalty in first-half injury-time set up this win, with the key moment being Samuel's dismissal for the trip on Didier Drogba to concede the spot-kick.
Bolton worked feverishly but it was always a losing battle. Deco added the second and Zat Knight's own goal made it 3-0, before Didier Drogba grabbed a fourth in injury-time.

Burnley 2 Hull City 0

Burnley returned to winning ways courtesy of a Graham Alexander double on his 100th appearance for the club.
A composed penalty in the first half and then a spectacular drive from distance in the second helped the Clarets bounce back from last week's home defeat to Wigan Athletic.
Geovanni, who thought he had equalised for Hull City with a free-kick which the referee ruled out, was then sent off to cap a miserable week for the visitors.

Everton 1 Aston Villa 1

Everton drew 1-1 for the third successive home match as John Carew came off the bench to equalise for Aston Villa at Goodison Park.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov had opened the scoring for the hosts in first-half stoppage time, but Carew - who replaced Emile Heskey at the break - made it 1-1 within two minutes of the restart.
Both teams finished the match with 10 men after Bilyaletdinov and then Carlos Cuellar were given their marching orders late on by referee Lee Probert.
David Moyes will have been relieved for his players to have put a run of three successive defeats behind them, but again the Toffees were held at home following the 1-1 draws with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City.

Fulham 3 Liverpool 1

Nine-man Liverpool went down to a 3-1 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage. Liverpool defenders Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher were sent off for fouls and goals from Bobby Zamora, Erik Nevland and Clint Dempsey gave Roy Hodgson's side a deserved victory. Fernando Torres grabbed the one consolation for Liverpool. Bizarrely, it was a match in which Liverpool enjoyed the majority of the possession.
A match in which they pressed forward with lots of effort, often against a wall of white shirts. But a match in which for vast swathes they struggled to supply the quality to go with their industry.

Portsmouth 4 Wigan Athletic 0

Aruna Dindane scored with a superb hat-trick but Paul Hart's side still remain bottom of the League.
Dindane's treble was accompanied by a goal from strike partner Frederic Piquionne as Pompey scored four goals for the second time this week.
However, there was more concern for Pompey when Piquionne was stretchered off in the second half with a head injury.
Wigan Athletic were outfought and outplayed throughout and never tested England goalkeeper David James.

Stoke City 2 Wolves 2

Wolverhampton Wanderers central defender Jody Craddock rescued a point with a second-half double after his side had been outplayed in the opening 45 minutes of a pulsating Staffordshire derby at the Britannia Stadium.
The 34-year-old had previously scored only eight league goals in six seasons at Molineux but he salvaged an unlikely share of the spoils, both from crosses by substitute Nenad Milijas.
An own goal from George Elokobi and Matthew Etherington's stunning volley had put Stoke in command after dominating the first period.
They mixed up effectively the threat of the long throws of Rory Delap with some composed and neat football in exploiting the lack of pace in the Wolves back four. Etherington looked back to his best with his probing runs down the left flank while Glenn Whelan effectively broke up play in the centre of the park.

Sunderland 2 West Ham United 2

Ten-man Sunderland came from two goals down at the Stadium of Light to snatch a deserved draw and deny West Ham United a first League win since the opening day of the season.
Things looked bleak for the hosts when goals from Guillermo Franco - his first for the club - and the impressive Carlton Cole put the Hammers two up.
But Andy Reid's superb free-kick gave them hope and, after Kenwyne Jones had seen red in first-half stoppage time, Kieran Richardson tapped home a cross from the returning Darren Bent to equalise.
West Ham also finished the match a man light after Radoslav Kovac was sent off late on.
The draw was no less than Steve Bruce's side deserved for a performance of real determination in an end-to-end second period and they might even had won it had leading scorer Bent taken one of the numerous chances that came his way.

Manchester United 2 Blackburn Rovers 0

Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney made sure Manchester United got back on track in the League after the defeat by Liverpool.
Sir Alex Ferguson's side had enough chances to notch up a bigger scoreline but substitute Gabriel Obertan missed a couple of great opportunities.
Berbatov made the breakthrough in the 55th minute but it was not until two minutes from time Rooney made the points safe.
It means they keep the pressure on Chelsea and Arsenal at the top of the table in their aim to win a fourth successive title.

Birmingham City 0 Manchester City 0

Goalkeeper Shay Given produced a superb display to help Manchester City salvage a point against Birmingham City at St Andrews.
The former Newcastle United player made a string of fine saves, the highlight a second-half penalty stop to deny James McFadden.
It was a fourth successive draw in the League for Mark Hughes' side, who moved into the top four on goal difference ahead of Tottenham Hotspur.
But Hughes, who celebrated his 46th birthday on Sunday, knows City will have to show a massive improvement if they are to sustain their challenge.
His players never came to terms with the swirling wind and a fired-up Birmingham team exuding confidence after last week's win over Sunderland.
The Eastlands outfit missed the threat up front of the injured Emmanuel Adebayor and struggled to break down a defence in which centre-backs Roger Johnson and Scott Dann were rock-solid performers.
The visitors also failed to come to grips with midfield, where Barry Ferguson was a key performer - before being sent off in injury-time for a second bookable offence - while up front the pace of Christian Benitez always kept them on their toes.