Saturday
Manchester City moves back into the top four. Man. City and Bolton each scored three goals in this game. Unfortunately for the Wanderers one of theirs was in the wrong net. Bolton held a 2-1 lead until a deflection off of Lubomir Michalik got past Jussi Jaaskelainen. Late goals by Darius Vassell and Kelvin Etuhu brought the final score to 4-2 City. The hiring of Sven-Goran Eriksson in the off season is turning into one of the best moves by anyone.
Fulham robbed at Craven Cottage! I saw this game and the penalty given in stoppage time was ridiculous. The Cottagers were definitely the more active team in the second half, but no-one really deserved to get full points from this game. Big Sam had to be thankful for the gift before Christmas. Fulham 0-1 Newcastle United.
Was that Wigan!!! I don’t know what Steve Bruce fed these guys during the week, but he needs to keep it up. Denny Landzaat, Marcus Bent and Paul Scharner all scored for the Latics, with Bent getting a hat-trick. Blackburn got it’s own hat-trick from Roque Sant Cruz, but even if Benni McCarthy had scored from the spot they still would have come up short. If you like to see defense this was not the game for you. Wigan Athletic 5-3 Blackburn Rovers.
Others: Birmingham 1-1 Reading; Derby 0-1 Middlesbrough; Sunderland 1-1 Aston Villa; West Ham 0-2 Everton; Portsmouth 0-1 Tottenham; and Milton Keynes beat Peterborough 2-1
Sunday
United rules Anfield. I was right about Tevez, wrong about Torres. Manchester United was out shot by Liverpool (5 MU- 20 L) but they got the one that counted as they kept up the pressure on Arsenal by collecting all three points. Liverpool put up quite a fight in the second half and could have evened up the scorecard or taken the lead a few times. Alas it wasn’t to be as the Red Devils threw everything they had in front of each shot by the Reds.
Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic stood strong in the middle while Wes Brown and Patrice Evra worked the sides valiantly. Rafa Benitez sent on Ryan Babel and Peter Crouch to shake things up, and it made a difference. But, Carlos Tevez’s 43rd minute goal proved to be too much for Liverpool.
Gallas strikes back. In a match that saw nine yellow cards and John Terry hobble of with a possible broken metatarsal, it was a 45th minute goal by William Gallas that was the difference. Gallas finally made good on his threat to score on Chelsea. Of course he made that threat while he was playing FOR Chelsea.
All of the previews said that this was going to be a boring kick around with neither team wanting to risk losing. They were wrong. These two don’t like each other and they go at it hammer and tongs when they meet, and this match was no different. All of the stats were very even and if it had ended as a draw that would have been fair. They will meet again on March 22nd.
