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Tuesday October 19, 2010

Rooney Benched In United Draw

Arsenal 2 Birmingham City 1

Arsenal got their Premier League campaign back on track with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Birmingham City - but had Jack Wilshere sent off in stoppage time for a rash challenge.
The Blues took a shock lead through Nikola Zigic after 33 minutes as once again the Gunners - who had lost their past two league mastches before the international break - failed to make the most of early possession.
However, Samir Nasri levelled with a penalty just before half-time, before Marouane Chamakh slotted home a well-taken effort two minutes after the restart which proved enough for all three points.
The win was soured late on, however, when England teenager Wilshere showed his immaturity with a reckless challenge on Zigic which earned him a straight red and a three-match ban.

Bolton Wanderers 2 Stoke City 1

Bolton Wanderers handed Stoke City a dose of their own medicine as Owen Coyle's side grabbed their first home Premier League win of the season at the death.
Comeback kings City looked to have salvaged a point when Rory Delap ended a 21-month goal drought in the 48th minute to cancel out Lee Chung-yong's opener midway through the first half.
But from Gretar Steinsson's deep throw into the area in the second minute of injury time, 77th-minute substitute Ivan Klasnic fired home the winner.
Klasnic, though, went from hero to villain moments later as he was dismissed for two bookable offences.

Fulham 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2

Tottenham Hotspur hit back to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Diomansy Kamara put Fulham ahead, but Roman Pavlyuchenko and Tom Huddlestone secured the points for Spurs.

Manchester United 2 West Brom 2

Sir Alex Ferguson dumped Wayne Rooney to the bench, then saw his side throw away another two-goal lead against West Bromwich Albion as Manchester United's season lurches from one crisis to another.
The Red Devils' title challenge is in danger of disintegrating before the onset of winter after a mistake from Edwin van der Sar allowed Somen Tchoyi to complete a staggering comeback.
Javier Hernandez and Nani appeared to have put the hosts on the road to victory with their first-half strikes, only for Patrice Evra's bizarre own goal to provide West Brom with their window of opportunity.
Yet the biggest story was perhaps that Rooney sat through all the drama on the bench.
Even when he came on with 19 minutes left, it was not as a central striker, although he did have United's best chance of a winner, which was turned away by James Morrison.

Newcastle Unied 2 Wigan Athletic 2

Skipper Fabricio Coloccini struck deep into injury time to deny Charles N'Zogbia the headlines as Newcastle only just avoided a third successive Premier League defeat.
The Argentinian headed home in the fourth minute of stoppage time to snatch a precious point after Magpies old boy N'Zogbia had silenced the home crowd.
The 24-year-old Frenchman put the visitors in front with a 22nd-minute header and then added a second with a superb left-foot rocket.
N'Zogbia, tormented right-back James Perch throughout, and with a little more composure, could have killed the match off long before the final whistle.
But substitute Shola Ameobi's 72nd-minute header gave the Magpies hope as a crowd of 44,415 finally had something to shout about, and Coloccini completed the job in the nick of time.
Newcastle were poor for all but a few minutes of the opening period.
They lacked ideas in midfield, where Wigan manager Roberto Martinez had ordered his players to close down space, and toothless in attack on the rare occasions when striker Andy Carroll and Peter Lovenkrands, preferred to Ameobi and Kevin Nolan, saw anything of the ball.
But more alarmingly, they were horribly porous at the back as right-back Perch's education in top-flight football took an ugly turn up an ever steeper hill.
His main job was to try to keep N'Zogbia quiet with a helping hand from Danny Guthrie, making his first appearance of the season after recovering from a knee injury.
But the former Magpie gave him a torrid time throughout and capped his afternoon with a quick-fire double which put the Latics in the driving seat with barely a quarter of the match gone.

Wolves 1 West Ham United 1

The Premier League basement battle between Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United ended all square at Molineux after Mark Noble's penalty salvaged a point for the visitors.
Wanderers took the lead in the 10th minute thanks to Matt Jarvis, who volleyed home after Robert Green had failed to clear a cross.
But Noble made no mistake from the spot in the 53rd minute, lashing the ball past Marcus Hahnemann.
A point each means Wolves remain in 19th place in the table with West Ham below them at the bottom of the pile.

Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 0

In the late game on Saturday, Nicolas Anelka was denied a dramatic late winner by the woodwork as Aston Villa maintained their impressive home record against Chelsea.
Anelka could have earned the Blues only their second league win in the last 12 visits to Villa Park but his downward header from Ashley Cole's header bounced up and against the crossbar.
It would have been rough justice on Villa who had done enough to earn at least a share of the spoils - and should themselves have won the match in injury time as Nigel Reo-Coker shot wide when one-on-one with Petr Cech.

Everton 2 Liverpool 0

Early on Sunday morning Liverpool's new owners were left with no doubt about the size of the task ahead as Everton emerged victorious from the 214th Merseyside derby.
John Henry, head of New England Sports Ventures, was at Goodison Park to witness first-hand a fiery encounter which Everton dominated for long periods and deservedly won.
Goals from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta did the damage either side of half-time as the hosts out-played and out-fought their near-neighbours.
The defeat left Liverpool stuck in 19th place in the Premier League, with only a solitary victory over West Bromwich Albion in eight matches.
And their worst start to a season since 1953/54 - when they were relegated - undoubtedly got worse with defeat against a team who were only a place above them before the start of play. Everton were worthy winners, ending a run of three successive derby defeats.

Blackpool 2 Manchster City 3

Skipper Carlos Tevez maintained his remarkable scoring record for Manchester City as they overcame a stubborn Blackpool to go second in the Premier League.

Tevez's second-half brace in the victory against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road was just what manager Roberto Mancini wanted.

The former Manchester United striker has now scored 28 goals in his last 31 league matches and become a cult figure in the process.

Substitute David Silva was also on target while Marlon Harewood, who also stepped off the bench, and Gary Taylor-Fletcher replied for Blackpool.