Despite Manchester City’s victory over Manchester United on Monday, Roberto Mancini has remained adamant all week that the title race is over. Attention then turned to the foot of the table and despite Wigan’s good results in the cup, there’s quite a relegation battle for them to step back into when they resume league action next week.
Good Week For: Arsenal (Up to third after a mid-season slump), Everton (Creeping closer to the top four), Sunderland (Big win in local derby to help ease relegation worries)
Bad Week For: Queens Park Rangers (Hopes for survival must now be over), Reading (Despite goalkeeping heroics, a draw today might have killed their survival hopes), Stoke (Lost yet another game)
Arsenal, who’ve had a season full of drama in one way or another, were involved in the most dramatic fixture of the weekend as they hosted Norwich City. With Chelsea and Spurs stuttering in recent weeks, Arsenal have slowly crept their way closer to the top four again and had an opportunity to go third with a good result against Norwich. Arsenal started well and were dominant in the first half without really being tested at the back; this soon changed in the second half and Arsenal were caught napping as Robert Snodgrass put the Canaries ahead 1-0. Things seemed to go Norwich’s way from then on in too as Norwich goalkeeper Mark Bunn was instrumental in keeping the Arsenal frontmen quiet. The Gunners did manage to mount a comeback though and boy was it a good one. Three goals in the last eight minutes of the match saw Arsenal walk away with the 3-1 victory, the three points and more importantly, third place.
Another team that hasn’t shied away from drama this season is Queens Park Rangers. They travelled to Goodison Park hoping to avoid a 17th league defeat of the season. The away side started pretty briskly but faded just as fast as Everton started to dominate the game behind the midfield prowess of Darron Gibson. The Irishman was a force in midfield throughout and opened the scoring in the first half after a long range effort was deflected into the QPR goal. Jose Bosingwa in particular had a torrid afternoon in the QPR defence as he was terrorised by the Everton wingers and was at fault for Everton’s second goal when he failed to clear from a corner and allowed Victor Anichebe to knock the ball into the net. QPR’s relegation fight-back must surely be over now.
Alex McCarthy put in a monstrous performance between the sticks for Reading as the Royals held Liverpool to their second consecutive 0-0 draw. It was almost a disastrous start for Reading though as within 14 minutes, Suarez was millimetres away from putting the Reds ahead. A delightful clearance on the line from Chris Gunter was enough to see Suarez denied after his chip had beaten the Reading ‘keeper. This would be the last time McCarthy was beaten at all in this game though as his superb reflexes, and those of his defenders, were more than adequate to keep Liverpool quiet throughout the match. Phillipe Coutinho, however, did have the ball in the back of the net for Liverpool but was offside despite the cute back-heel finish. Liverpool are now only two points shy of equalling their points total for the whole of last season and with five games left, you have to wonder, by how much are they going to beat it?
Paolo Di Canio dedicated his Sunderland side’s 3-0 win over local rivals Newcastle to the memory of his mother. In a crucial relegation six-pointer the Black Cats were pretty dominant and opened the scoring after 27 minutes thanks to a super Sunderland counter-attack led by Stephen Sessegnon. The score-line would have changed a fair few times between the Sunderland’s first and their second had it not been for the sterling efforts of both goalkeepers. When the second goal was scored though it was Adam Johnson who scored it with his first goal since January in typical Adam Johnson fashion, a delightful curled effort after cutting in from the right wing. David Vaughan then sealed the derby day spoils for Sunderland and Di Canio as he lashed a lightning quick finish past Tim Krul from distance. Also, with Tim Krul now out for the season thanks to a dislocated shoulder, Newcastle are suddenly looking to be in a bit of trouble.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Aston Villa and Fulham played out a 1-1 draw at Villa Park in a clash that could have gone a number of ways if either side had taken more of their chances. The loss of Gabby Agbonlahor didn’t seem to hinder Villa too much as the combination of Christian Benteke and Charles N’Zogbia proved more than menacing enough for the Fulham defence. However, it was the combination of N’Zogbia and Weimann that saw Villa snatch their goal as the former supplied the latter to curl a beautiful finish into the Fulham net. As usual, Dimitar Berbatov was the focal point of Fulham’s attack but was wasteful at times with his chances and it took an own-goal for Fulham to get on the score sheet. To ensure safety, both teams must be more clinical in front of goal.
Southampton and West Ham also played out a 1-1 draw at St. Mary’s Stadium. In a result that sees both sides edge closer to guaranteed top-flight football next season, Gaston Ramirez and Andy Carroll scored for Southampton and West Ham respectively. Southampton were the dominant side for just over an hour as they happily pinged the ball around the pitch whereas West Ham, as they have done all season in away games, struggled to create chances. Again though, this was a fair result and all but secures both sides’ Premier League status next season.
Finally, Stoke City were condemned to another loss as they were steamrolled by Manchester United. Michael Carrick and Robin Van Persie got on the score-sheet for United as they took another step towards a record-extending 20th league title.
With merely nine points between 10th and 18th place and every side within that place range having lost at least one of their last six games, anything can happen at the foot of the table. Your team might not be safe! Stick with us here at Fortitude to find out how your team fares over the closing weeks of the season.
Results
Arsenal 3 – 1 Norwich City
Everton 2 – 0 Queens Park Rangers
Reading 0 – 0 Liverpool
Newcastle United 0 – 3 Sunderland
Aston Villa 1 – 1 Fulham
Stoke City 0 – 2 Manchester United
Southampton 1 – 1 West Ham United