The Premier League upped the ante and offered us plenty of action to wet our appetites before we’re left with an international break to deal with next week.
Good Week For: Manchester United (Extended lead at the top of the table despite poor performance), Reading (Comeback draw against Chelsea to climb out of relegation zone), Newcastle (Crucial win against relegation rivals, Villa)
Bad Week For: Liverpool (Threw away lead to draw with Arsenal), Tottenham (Looked out of sorts against Norwich), West Bromwich Albion (In the middle of a real slump right now that doesn’t look like ending)
Tuesday’s action saw many of the league’s struggling sides involved in crucial fixtures; the biggest of which was Aston Villa’s home fixture against Newcastle. Much has been made of Newcastle’s spending this month and some believe that such a large amount of new signings at this point of the season should be stopped as it gives teams an unfair advantage. Interestingly enough though, Newcastle’s creativity and impetus in this match came from some of their more established stars. Papiss Cissé and a stunner from midfielder, Yohan Cabaye, put Newcastle 2-0 up on the night and despite a second-half goal from Christian Benteke looked very good value for an important win.
Villa, who then dropped into the relegation zone, were leapfrogged by Wigan after the Latics battled to a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Stoke City. Stoke, so often formidable at home, took a 2-0 lead but where pegged back by Wigan who managed to equalise and in turn demonstrated some of the fight that has kept them in the Premier League over the years. Wigan kept pressing for a winner but it never materialised but a step out of the relegation zone is a step in the right direction even if it only lasted 24 hours.
A team hoping to take the same step in the near future is Harry Redknapp’s Queens Park Rangers. They hosted Manchester City in a very tight clash at Loftus Road, a clash which QPR looked very much like they were in control of as the game went on. The end result was a 0-0 draw but it was a deserved point for QPR against the Champions; if only they could give such performances all the time! This clash was far more entertaining than one of the other 0-0 draws in this round of fixtures. The clash, if you can call it that, between Sunderland and Swansea saw both sides practically cancel each other out despite a few sporadic chances from both sides; hopefully over the international break both sides can rediscover their flare and come back stronger.
Liverpool needed to come back stronger in this round of fixtures, never mind after the internationals, and for 60 minutes they looked to have done that after earning a commanding 2-0 lead over Arsenal, putting their memories of last weekend’s FA Cup humiliation behind them. It took no more than 10 minutes for that dominance to fall apart though as Arsenal came back to draw 2-2 and take the contest down to the wire. The thoroughly entertaining clash between the sides ended in a draw but it was very much a case of attacking excellence exposing both sides’ defensive fragilities.
Fragilities were something not on show at the Madjeski Stadium, at least on Chelsea’s part as they took a 2-0 second-half lead against Reading through midfield maestros, Juan Mata and Frank Lampard. Everything looked to be going Chelsea’s way until Reading played what is slowly but surely becoming their party trick and staged a late comeback to take a share of the spoils and push Wigan back into the relegation zone on goal difference. Adam Le Fondre was at the centre of all the drama again as the Reading talisman bagged the late goals after coming off the bench.
Elsewhere in the league Manchester United came away from Old Trafford with all three points after an arguably undeserved win against Mauro Pochettino’s Southampton side. United conceded very early on yet again but came back to lead the match before Southampton put on what Sir Alex Ferguson hailed as “the best display by any away team at Old Trafford this season” in the second half; it was all to no avail though as United held out for the win.
After having the transfer of Leroy Fer cancelled earlier in the day, Everton hosted Steve Clarke’s West Bromwich Albion, a side who have tumbled down the table emphatically since their impressive run of form in the early parts of this season. Leighton Baines was the star for The Toffees as he scored both of their goals to set Everton hot on the heels of Andre Villas-Boas’ Tottenham Hotspur. AVB’s side faced a very difficult trip to Norwich City and were being ran ragged and heading for defeat until Gareth Bale intervened with a beautiful strike to salvage a draw for the Londoners.
A former Tottenham player was the star of the show in Fulham’s clash with West Ham United. Dimitar Berbatov stole the show for Fulham, literally cantering his way through the West Ham defence to set up his team mates on countless occasions and his efforts, as well as the rest of his team’s allowed them to take a deserved 3-1 win before they take on both Manchester clubs over the next few weeks.
Results:-
Aston Villa 1 – 2 Newcastle United
Stoke City 2 – 2 Wigan Athletic
Queens Park Rangers 0 – 0 Manchester City
Sunderland 0 – 0 Swansea City
Arsenal 2 – 2 Liverpool
Reading 2 – 2 Chelsea
Manchester United 2 – 1 Southampton
Everton 2 – 1 West Bromwich Albion
Norwich City 1 – 1 Tottenham Hotspur
Fulham 3 – 1 West Ham United