After a magical weekend of FA Cup action, the Premier League took centre stage again with a few exceptional fixtures of its own.
Good Week For:- Reading (Stunning comeback win against West Brom), Manchester United (Crucial derby win over Liverpool), Chelsea (Responded emphatically to their loss to QPR)
Bad Week For: Aston Villa (Dropped into the relegation zone), Arsenal (Looked out of their depth against Manchester City), West Ham (Battered by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light)
The fixture that most will have had their eyes on over the weekend was the clash between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford. After coming seriously close to beating United in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, Liverpool sensed an opportunity to take the three points at Old Trafford. Based on their first-half performance though, they didn’t look up to the task as the Liverpool midfield struggled to control the game. United got closer and closer to scoring as the half went on and they eventually did thanks to a clinical one-touch finish from Robin Van Persie.
The second half was a different story however as both sides scored a goal each to take the score to 2-1. Liverpool then went on to dominate proceedings with their new signing, Daniel Sturridge, causing some real panic among the Manchester United defenders but ultimately it was all to no avail as United saw out the game to walk away with the victory and a momentary 10-point gap at the top of the table.
Manchester City took mere hours to close the gap again though as they comprehensively beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates. Laurent Koscielny was dismissed within ten minutes and it was all uphill from there for Arsenal as City, without Yaya Toure, picked the Gunners apart in emphatic fashion.
While the previous two fixtures featured in Sky Sports’ Super Sunday, a clash worthy of being called super was Reading’s match versus West Bromwich Albion. Albion had been going through a rough patch of form going into the game but seemed to have gotten over it as the dominated proceedings for most of the game. James Morrison and Romelu Lukaku were instrumental in giving West Brom a 2-0 lead. Despite West Brom’s excellence for seventy minutes, Reading demonstrated some of the class that got them into the England’s top flight by staging a very late comeback to win 3-2 in the dying minutes.
Chelsea, on the other hand, had their fixture away to Stoke won long before the final whistle. It took a while for Chelsea to break the deadlock, as well as a bit of luck thanks to an own-goal from Jonathon Walters, but once they did it looked like a forgone conclusion that Chelsea would win. Another Walters own-goal , a Frank Lampard penalty and a stunner from Eden Hazard saw Chelsea canter to a 4-0 win but it could have been so much worse had it not been for Asmir Begovic’s brilliance in goal.
Sunderland haven’t really been known for their attacking flair this season but that’s exactly what they were when they hosted West Ham United. Sebastian Larsson opened the scoring with a stunning long-range effort to really set the tone for the game. Adam Johnson scored the second, finishing a good counter-attacking move for Sunderland after a calamitous moment at the back for West Ham. Despite not getting on the score sheet, Stephane Sessegnon was instrumental for Sunderland and his good form will be imperative to the Black Cats’ hopes this season.
Hope is something that appears to be fading fast for Aston Villa. They were beaten 1-0 at home to a Southampton side that seem to be growing in confidence. A controversial penalty saw Southampton take the lead and never looked back from there. Aston Villa’s stuttering form in front of goal came back to haunt them as they had an abundance of chances but just couldn’t convert any of them; maybe this defeat will have alarm bells ringing for Randy Lerner.
A Giorgos Karagounis stunner saw Fulham take the lead as Wigan found themselves conceding first for the 15th time this season. Franco Di Santo though, had other ideas about how the game was going to go as he scored a stunner of his own to drag Wigan level. Another game deprived of goals, but not of chances, was Everton’s clash with Swansea. Everton dominated the first half with Nikica Jelavic and Marouane Fellaini spearheading the Toffees’ attack however the best chance came from Swansea’s Michu. A slick counter attacking move saw Michu break free of the defence and almost lob Tim Howard had it not been for the American’s fingertips and the woodwork. Everton have now only lost 3 games of their last 31 but it’s the amount of draws they’ve had that are killing their chances of stardom.
Another draw was afoot at Loftus Road as QPR hosted Tottenham Hotspur but again was not without its chances. A fantastic double-save from Julio Cesar stopped QPR going behind in the opening ten minutes as he stopped a curling bullet from Jermaine Defoe before rising to stop Adebayor’s rebound. Shaun Wright-Phillips looked menacing as he and Adel Taarabt led the charge for the home side but Hugo Lloris was equal to the task in the Spurs goal. A draw was a fair result in the game as both sides went for the jugular and both keepers were fantastic but QPR will need to grab some victories soon to avoid being consigned to relegation. Draw games seemed to be pretty prominent this week as Norwich played out a stinker of a bore draw with Newcastle in what could be Fabricio Coloccini’s last game for the Toon side.
Results:-
Reading 3 – 2 West Bromwich Albion
Stoke City 0 – 4 Chelsea
Sunderland 3 – 0 West Ham United
Aston Villa 0 – 1 Southampton
Fulham 1 – 1 Wigan Athletic
Everton 0 – 0 Swansea
QPR 0 – 0 Tottenham Hotspur
Norwich City 0 – 0 Newcastle United
Manchester United 2 – 1 Liverpool
Arsenal 0 – 2 Manchester City