What a Sunday

The top four clubs went at it today in two battles for supremacy. All four are in the Champions League quarter-finals, so this is a good indicator of what is to come in the fight for the European title.

Game One:

 Manchester United 3 - 0 Liverpool

United came into the match three points ahead of Arsenal and coming off of a solid outing against Bolton on Wednesday. For their part Liverpool had newly regained fourth position in the league and have played some decent football of their own. The hosts opened up the game with Wayne Rooney making a statement of intent by beating Jamie Carragher and forcing Pepe Reina to make a save. Javier Mascherano got into referee Steve Bennett’s book in the 11th minute with a hard tackle on Paul Scholes, setting the tone for the Reds.

Wes Brown surprised the Old Trafford faithful in the 34th by deflecting Rooney’s cross into the net for his first goal in a dog’s age. The match remained close until just before the half. Fernando Torres took exception to some questionable tackles by Manchester United players and started an argument with Bennett. The referee showed Torres a yellow card for dissent prompting Mascherano to join the conversation. To be fair, by booking Torres already Bennett had no choice but to book the Argentinian. If there had been no previous booking in the incident Mascherano would probably have stayed in the game. His second card of the match meant that he had to hit the showers. Not that he was willing to go and brought him an escort off of the pitch.

Liverpool’s chances in the match left the pitch with their midfielder and in the 79th minute Cristiano Ronaldo headed Nani’s cross home to give the home side some breathing room. Ronaldo looked like he was destined to score throughout the match, coming close on more than a couple of shots. Nani closed the door for good on the Reds two minutes later with a beautiful move to create space and a powerful shot to dent the twine. The Red Devils gave Liverpool a lot of trouble with high balls into the area (Hmmm… that might come in handy to remember).

Game Two:

  Chelsea 2 - 1 Arsenal 

A month ago Arsenal had one hand on the Premiership trophy, but that’s why they play all of the games. Chelsea knew that with a win they would leapfrog the Gunners into second. Both sides went on the attack early getting the keepers into the flow quickly. Robin van Persie has been out with injury for most of the season. He got back into the swing of the game early and tested Carlo Cudicini a couple of times with nicely taken shots. Not to be out done Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba each put pressure on Manuel Almunia.

Each side had their own plan of attack with Arsenal opting for moving the ball forward with short passes and Chelsea utalizing the longer more direct approach. There was plenty of excitement at both ends of the pitch, but the Gunners drew first blood through Bacary Sagna’s header from Cesc Fabregas’ corner in the 59th minute. Cudicini was left out in the cold as Frank Lampard failed to close down on Sagna (or move for that matter). After going down at home Avram Grant made an overdue substitution by bringing on Nicolas Anelka and Juliano Belletti. The move payed off quickly as Didier Drogba scored the equalizer three minutes later. The ball rebounded off of Lampard and into the path of Drogba who made no mistake and powered the ball past the outstretched Almunia.

The Ivornian striker was on the receiving end of Anelka’s header and he flicked it past the Arsenal keeper for the win. Arsenal were unable to put any real pressure on Chelsea down the stretch. The Blues pulled to within five points of Manchester United and they will host the leaders  at Stamford Bridge April 26th in what may be a title game.