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Tuesday September 21, 2010

Berbatov Demolishes Liverpool

Stoke City 1 West Ham United 1

Kenwyne Jones netted his second goal in two matches as Stoke City drew with West Ham United at the Britannia Stadium.
The visitors, whose manager Avram Grant was observing Yom Kippur and not present at the match, took the lead in the first half thanks to Scott Parker's close-range finish.
Stoke came back strongly after the break though, with Jones following up his goal at Aston Villa on Monday by heading home in the 48th minute after connecting with a cross from the impressive Jermaine Pennant.

Aston Villa 1 Bolton Wanderers 1

Gerard Houllier witnessed at first hand Aston Villa's strengths and weaknesses after they failed to provide caretaker-manager Kevin MacDonald with the perfect send off.
New Villa manager Houllier, with assistant Gary McAllister joining him in the directors' box after the Scot was confirmed in the role just before kick off, will believe he has plenty of talent to work with, although it only showed itself in patches.
With MacDonald taking charge of his final match, Ashley Young scored in his fifth successive match against Bolton to give Villa an early lead, only for captain Kevin Davies to net a worthy equalizer for the visitors.
Houllier officially takes up the reins on Monday, with his first match in charge a home Carling Cup tie with Blackburn Rovers just 48 hours later.

Blackburn Rovers 1 Fulham 1

Clint Dempsey ensured Fulham maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League season after Blackburn Rovers had threatened to overwhelm Mark Hughes' side on his return to Ewood Park.
Chris Samba had given Sam Allardyce's Rovers the half-time lead while Fulham had barely had a sniff of goal.
The second half was a different story, however, as Hughes' men had much the better of the match and secured a scoreline that was on balance a fair result.

Everton 0 Newcastle United 1

Hatem Ben Arfa marked his full debut for Newcastle United with the winner at Goodison Park as the Magpies picked up their first away win of the season and ensured Everton's miserable start continued.
David Moyes' team were looking to build on last week's incredible comeback against Manchester United but the visitors fully deserved their three points, secured when winger Ben Arfa drilled an unstoppable shot into the top corner just before half-time.
The only sour note of a great afternoon for the Magpies was an injury to goalkeeper Steve Harper, who fell heavily on his left shoulder and was carried off on a stretcher.
For the hosts, who have mustered only two points from their opening five games, there were few positives to take, although they almost repeated last week's heroics when Aiyegbeni Yakubu hit the post in injury time.

Tottenham Hotspur 3 Wolves 1

Tottenham Hotspur produced a remarkable late comeback to record their first Premier League home win of the season as Wolverhampton Wanderers self-destructed at White Hart Lane.
The visitors looked set to complete a hat-trick of victories over Spurs after Steven Fletcher handed them a shock lead on the stroke of half-time.
Despite dominating, Tottenham were becoming increasingly frustrated but were gifted an equalizer when Stephen Ward brought down Alan Hutton in the box and allowed Rafael van der Vaart to level 13 minutes from time, before substitutes Roman Pavyluchenko and Hutton completed the turnaround.

West Bromwich Albion 3 Birmingham City 1

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish signed a new three-year contract - then saw his side overwhelmed by West Bromwich Albion who came from behind to win a pulsating derby at The Hawthorns.
Blues controlled the first half and deservedly led at the interval through Cameron Jerome's first goal of the campaign.
But the Baggies were transformed after the break with Peter Odemwingie, Jonas Olsson and an own goal from Scott Dann dooming City to their first defeat of the season.
Odemwingie caused all sort of problems when pushed into attack by Albion manager Roberto Di Matteo for the second half in place of Marc-Antoine Fortune, while Jerome Thomas tormented the Blues defence throughout the 90 minutes with his trickery and powerful runs and testing crosses.

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 1

Darren Bent left it late to deny 10-man Arsenal victory at Sunderland with a 95th-minute equalizer.
The England international struck amid a goalmouth scramble as the Black Cats launched one final attack.
Until that point, it looked as though Cesc Fabregas' freak goal would be enough to hand the visitors a hard-fought win.
The Spaniard's 13th-minute block sent Anton Ferdinand's attempted clearance sailing over the head of stranded goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and into the net.
But the Gunners had only themselves to blame after having midfielder Alex Song sent off for a second bookable offence 10 minutes after the break, while substitute Tomas Rosicky skied a 74th-minute penalty wastefully over the bar.

Manchester United 3 Liverpool 2

Sir Alex Ferguson was indebted to the "genius" of Dimitar Berbatov after the Bulgarian's brilliant hat-trick floored Liverpool at Old Trafford.
Every single member of the United side had need to thank Berbatov at the end after they had tossed away a two-goal advantage against Merseyside opposition for the second weekend running, only for the former Tottenham Hotspur man to net the winner six minutes from time.
In some very perceptive program notes, Ferguson suggested to lose a winning position once was bad luck, twice is downright careless.
Now Liverpool can be added to Fulham and Everton as teams United have thrown winning positions away against this season.
They were only spared the sight of Ferguson's fury stripping paint off the home dressing room because of Berbatov as his header denied Liverpool, who had levelled through Steven Gerrard's double.
The other part of Ferguson's pre-match missive was the declaration that "you must have faith and we are being rewarded this season for our confidence in a player who has a touch of genius about him."
Genius was an apt word to describe Berbatov's contribution, in particular the astonishing overhead kick that had put United two ahead midway through the second-half of a slow burner of a match that eventually turned into a classic.

Wigan Athletic 0 Manchester City 2

Carlos Tevez inspired Manchester City to shrug off their sluggish start to the season as Roberto Mancini's men were helped on their way by a pair of defensive errors.
Superb Tevez struck City's opener out of nothing in the 43rd minute after Latics defender Mohamed Diame back-headed a long goal kick from Joe Hart into his path.
And he set up Yaya Toure's first City goal after 73 minutes when he seized on a weak defensive header by Maynor Figueroa to cross for the Ivory Coast star to prod home.
Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi had been a virtual spectator until Tevez hit his opener and the result was hard on Roberto Martinez's men who matched their opponents for long periods.
While their own chances were few and far between the same could be said for City who - Tevez apart - carried precious little threat in the final third of the field.

Chelsea 4 Blackpool 0

Chelsea moved four points clear at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable victory over new boys Blackpool at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea destroyed Ian Holloway's side with four first-half goals - two from Florent Malouda and others from Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba.
Blackpool improved in the second half and Branislav Ivanovic had to clear off the line from DJ Campbell while substitute Gary Taylor-Fletcher brought a fine save from Petr Cech.