Derby County 2 - 2 Fulham

Rams confirm relegation at Pride Park. Paul Jewell knew awhile ago that his club would be playing next season in the Championship. Saturday’s result made it official as Derby hosted fellow cellar dwellers Fuham. Emanuel Villa scored his first goal for the club in the 10th minute with a deflection. Diomansy Kamara evened it up fourteen minutes later with a strong drive for the Cottagers. Both sides had their chances to net throughout, but the deadlock was only broken when Dean Leacock deflected Hameur Bouazza’s shot into his own net. County salvaged some pride when Villa headed in his second to take a point from the match. Too bad they are done after one season, but maybe Jewell can get the side put together and make a comeback to the Premiership.

  Bolton 2 - 3 Arsenal 

Gunners resurgent at the Reebok. At the half things looked pretty bleak for Arsenal. Matthew Taylor put the Wanderers up before the fifteen minute mark when he headed home Gretar Steinsson’s cross from short range. Manuel Almunia had no chance of stopping the shot and Bolton were on the board for the first time since March 6th. Arsenal played well in the first half, they just couldn’t be effective enough to dent the twine. Things went from bad to worse when Abou Diaby was shown a straight red for a shocking tackle on Steinsson in the 31st minute forcing Arsenal to fight on for the rest of the match down a man. Just before the half Taylor got his second goal when his shot deflected off of William Gallas and past Almunia.

The second half was a different affair as Emmanuel Adebayor and Theo Walcott came in on the hour to give the Gunners a different look. It worked as Gallas found the net almost immediately from Robin Van Persie’s corner, giving life to the visiting fans. Six minutes later Gary Cahill brought down Alexander Hleb in the box. RVP calmly slotted home the penalty for an unlikely comeback. Jlloyd Samuels ended up being the last to touch Cesc Fabregas’ shot in stoppage time, sending it into his own net and sending all three points back to London.

By the way the only difference between Diaby’s tackle on Steinsson and Martin Taylor’s tackle on Eduardo is that Eduardo’s leg actually broke. Diaby went in studs up and hit Steinsson in the shin and could easily have broken his leg too. Characteristically Arsene Wenger saw no problem with the tackle this time around saying “I feel it was more a protective tackle than an aggressive one but he was too high – I don’t complain.”. Well that’s very kind of you Arsene, what about holding your own players to the same standards as you seem to hold any player that wears a different jersey? The tackle on Eduardo was terrible, but the Gunner faithful need to get off of their holier than thou attitude, it’s getting very old.

 Manchester  United 4 - 0 Aston Villa

Roo, Ron and Tev run riot at Old Trafford. Ashley Young’s shot in the early minutes of the match was the closest the Villans would come to winning the game. From that point on it seemed as though it wasn’t going to be if, but by how much. The Red Devils attacked Scott Carson’s goal from all angles, coming close a few times. In the 17th minute Cristiano Ronaldo found himself in the box with the ball falling to his feet courtesy of Rio Ferdinand. The Portuguese winger hit the ball with a remarkable back heeled shot, sending it through the defense and past a very surprised Carson. Ronaldo turned provider for the second goal in the 33rd minute with a one timer cross to the back post and finding a flying Carlos Tevez, who headed the ball in for his sixteenth goal of the season (all competitions).

The two squad’s traded early post shavers as Wayne Rooney and Shaun Maloney each missed left within a minute of each other. Rooney was in an attacking mood and he looked dangerous throughout the second half. Ten minutes into the half he was rewarded when Ronaldo mule-kicked a no-look pass twenty yards to an on rushing Rooney. The striker faked a shot getting Carson to go to ground then calmly rounded the keeper and slotted home.

Maloney nearly drew one back a couple of minutes later and would have made the score-sheet but for a remarkable save by Tomasz Kuszczak. Ronaldo slid the ball to Rooney in the 70th and he found the net once more to finish the scoring at 4-0. Even though they were up by four I was impressed by Tevez’s persistence as he continued to run down the ball and whoever had it until the final whistle. 

 Tottenham 1 - 4 Newcastle United

 Toon trounce Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Darren Bent has had quite a forgettable season so far. It’s hard to score when your ass never leaves the bench. He got the start against the Geordies and in the 26th minute he popped in a cross from Steed Malbranque putting the hosts on the board. Juande Ramos went with Bent, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane on the attack and in the beginning it looked like it would work as each player had chances to score. Nicky Butt opened the second half with a goal in the first minute to tie the match courtesy of Geremi. Geremi gave his side the lead seven minutes later with a free kick from the edge of the box that Paul Robinson never had a chance to save.

Newcastle kept up the attack and were rewarded by Michal Owen’s curling shot in the 65th minute that was vintage Owen. Mark Viduka showed great presence of mind when he let Obafemi Martins’ pass run through to Owens for the goal. An unselfish move that resulted in a score. Martins showed his skill at the end of the match when he went forward on the counter attack, left Teemu Tainio on his rear and made Robinson look foolish for the fourth goal.  

  Fulham 1 - 0 Everton 

McBride heroics at Craven Cottage- Fulham have had a tough season, but they are still in the battle to stay in the Premiership. Thanks to their “Captain America” they stayed in that battle for just a little longer. From the start of the match the Cottagers showed that they were the more determined of the two as Jimmy Bullard and Brian McBride both had good opportunities to open the scoring in the first half. Everton seemed to have trouble getting motivated although the chance to retake fourth place in the league should be enough to get a side going. The loss of Andrew Johnson before the fifteen minute mark did little to help their cause.

Fulham didn’t play smooth, mistake free football so some chances went wanting. But, in the 67th minute McBride got his head to Simon Davies cross and put the hosts ahead. Everton fell victim to the top level club should pound the relegation contender and it bit them badly.

  Wigan 1 - 0 Bolton 

Bolton bombs at JJB. Wigan Athletic must have been thinking that this match was going to be the usual when referee Steve Tanner gave Jason Koumas an iffy straight red in the 4th minute and gave the cellar dwellers an entire game with ten men. Emile Heskey scored his first goal in twenty matches with a fine volley from close range. Mario Melchiot chipped the ball into the area and found Heskey in the box for what would prove to be the winner. The Wanderers had their share of chances, but Chris Kirkland got to every attempt and kept his side from dropping any points to the visitors.

The Latics have some tough matches coming up for the run in, including at Portsmouth, at Chelsea, at Aston Villa and home to Manchester United. Not good news as far as beating the drop is concerned. Bolton are now fighting to stay up for next season and their schedule with a trip to Manchester United this week as well as hosting Arsenal and finishing with a trip to Chelsea. Good luck to both of them.

  Man City 2 - 1 Tottenham 

Blues storm second half at the City of Manchester. If the match were only forty-five minutes the Spurs would have been the undeniable winners of the game. Sadly, there were another forty-five minutes to play and the Blues made the most of them. Robbie Keane started the scoring a nice goal just after the half hour mark that put some excitement in the Tottenham attack. They just couldn’t add to their total.

City came out in the second half looking like they still had some fight in them and they worked the Spurs defenders, probing for weakness. Their break came in the 59th when Blumer Elano nodded the ball through to Stephan Ireland (maybe offsides??) who finished nicely to draw the match. Juande Ramos made a couple of substitutions to shake things up. One of which may have been a tad unpopular with Keane. But, the change didn’t have the desired effect for the Spurs as they watched Nedum Onuoha out jump Pascal Chimbonda to head the winner past Paul Robinson for the victory. When you are up against Robinson in goal, there is a great chance that you’ll get the goal you need.

  West Ham 0 - 4 Chelsea 

Hammers get lesson at Upton Park. Chelsea took their Carling Cup frustrations out on their hosts early. Even the loss of Frank Lampard to a silly red card did little to brighten the day for West Ham. Lampard opened up the scoring for the Blues by converting the penalty earned by Salomon Kalou when Anton Ferdinand brought him down in the box. Joe Cole doubled the scoreline three minutes later when he powered home a pass from Nicolas Anelka. Michael Ballack turned the match into a rout two minutes later when he got on the receiving end of a Lampard cross. So when the whistle blew for the half to end the hosts were already down 3-0, though it should have been 4-0 as Anelka was wrongly judged to be offside when he scored.

The Blues withstood a concerted effort by West Ham to get back into the game and dashed all hope when Ashley Cole finished them off with a 64th minute goal. Chelsea needed the boost before they host Olympiacos on Wednesday. What they didn’t need was for Lampard to have to sit out for the next three domestic matches.

  Arsenal 1 - 1 Aston Villa 

Gunners escape at Emirates. Aston Villa made the trip to London a memorable one as they showed a lot of fight. Arsenal had the better of the statistics, but I didn’t see it. The Villans kept slipping through and challenging the Arsenal defense. Gabriel Agbonlahor’s speed kept the Gunner defenders on their back foot as the England U-21 international made run after run at Manuel Almunia’s goal. Aston Villa got their goal when Philippe Senderos knocked a beauty into his own net in the 27th. There was some question about Agbonlahor being offside in the build up, but no flag went up and he sent in a fantastic cross that the Swiss international deflected into his own net.

Arsenal threw what they had at Scott Carson in the last ten minutes and the defense rose to the occasion over and over. Then they failed to clear a cross into the box and the defender knocked the ball in front of Nicklas Bendtner, who slotted home from close range and rescued a point and a slim lead in the Premiership.

One last point. Theo Walcott needs to get over himself. He had a couple of opportunities to find teammates for a good shot on goal and instead he took some pretty lousy shots. Nice one Theo.

  Birmingham 4 - 1 Tottenham 

Blues spoil party at St Andrews. A quick word of advise to the Hotspurs…FOCUS! Birmingham City didn’t just beat Tottenham, they demolished them. Mikael Forssell welcomed himself back to the starting line-up with a hat-trick. Forssell has had a recent history of injury though you would never have guessed as he showed that he has lost none of his skill. Sebastian Larsson added to the Blues talley with a great free kick of his own.

Jermaine Jenas scored in stoppage time for the Spurs, but the points all went to the home side. Tottenham tried to claw themselves into this match, but couldn’t beat Maik Taylor. City have had two great results in the last two weeks and are playing some good football.

  Fulham 0 - 3 Man Utd 

Red Devils run riot at Craven Cottage. Sir Alex rested his big guns for long stretches during their trip to the capital. Fulham had some good chances that they just could not put away in the match and United made them pay for it. Owen Hargreaves got a rare chance at a free kick and sent it into the upper right hand corner to give Manchester United the lead at the 15 minute mark for his first United goal. Park Ji-Sung scored a superb header at the end of the first half to make the Fulham task even harder. The Cottagers hopes were dashed midway through the second half when Simon Davies sent the ball through Antti Niemi’s wicket and into the net.

Brian McBride and Eddie Johnson formed an all American front line for Fulham with Johnson getting off a couple of good shots at Edwin Van Der Sar. McBride has been out for a long time through injury and was unable to resurrect the form he has shown so often at Craven Cottage. Sadly the run in will probably be the end of his stay in England.

Elsewhere: Derby County 0-0 Sunderland; Middlesbrough 0-1 Reading; Newcastle United 0-1 Blackburn Rovers; Manchester City 0-0 Wigan Athletic.

With twelve weeks left in the Premiership season things are going to get dicey for those in the Relegation Race. Every match is another step closer to making the rounds of the Championship grounds next season. Let’s look at the results from those lurking at the bottom of the table.

Spurs cruise at Pride Park. Paul Jewell tried his best to help the Rams avoid the drop in January when he brought in a seasoned group to help shore up all areas of their game (see January 10th posting). Even with the new arrivals Derby have only 9 points in 26 matches this season. Tottenham didn’t give the home side a chance to move off of the bottom of the League. The first half held some opportunities for Derby as they hassled the Spurs enough to provide some chances for themselves. Giles Barnes came close a couple of times and could have given Jewell his first win since taking the helm.

The second half saw Juande Ramos adjusting early to counter a very game Rams attack and was rewarded by Robbie Keane’s 68th minute cleanup of a Roy Carroll rebound. Younes Kaboul and Dimitar Berbatov drove the point home with late goals for the visitors. Jewell has to be proud of the effort put forth by the lads today. I am concerned for his ability to hold onto players like Barnes and Kenny Miller when they go down. Tottenham 3-0 Derby County.

Fulham falls at the Riverside. Gareth Southgate trotted out new signing Afonso Alves early in the second half, but Boro’s record signing was overshadowed by Jeremie Aliadiere’s early goal. The Teesiders three points gave them a little room for themselves from the drop zone while the Cottagers supporters are already getting the train schedule for Hull City pinned to the fridge. The early goal put Fulham on their back foot for much of the game until Clint Dempsey and Leon Andreasen gave the home supporters a couple of moments on edge. In the end Roy Hodgson might be available for Finland again this summer. Middlesbrough 1-0 Fulham.

Toffees unimpressive at Goodison. Everton looked like anything but a Champions League hopeful as they downed a scrappy Reading side through Phil Jagielka’s header in the 62nd. David Moyes’ boys had some unbelievable chances to put the wood to the Royals, they just couldn’t find the net. What happened to Andy Johnson by they way? The man will run all day and his tenacity is unquestionable, BUT when the keeper is out of the goal and nothing is stopping you how can you miss that badly???? In the end Everton did just enough to pull this game out, Reading should have probably gotten a draw though.

Stephan Hunt could have given the Royals a very early lead with a 25 yard free kick that gave Everton keeper Tim Howard fits. Nicky Shorey also had a good opportunity to get the visitors ahead when he found David Kitson for a header that sailed over the bar. Steve Coppell likes an ugly match and this one was ugleee. Everton 1-0 Reading.

Elsewhere: Sunderland helped their cause as they dumped Wigan Athletic at the Stadium of Light 2-0. Bolton couldn’t find the net at the Reebok, but Portsmouth did 0-1. West Ham hosted Birmingham City to a draw 1-1. Aston Villa watched Michael Owen put Newcastle ahead, then thumped the travelling Toon 4-1.

Heads up at St James’. I want to know first of all how does Michael Owen out jump anyone to score a header????? Well he did it in the 60th minute to give Newcastle a 1-0 lead after having two other goals disallowed. Late in the second half Robert Huth tied the score with a deflection from his noggin breaking Kevin Keegan’s chances for his first victory since returning Tyneside. Stuart Downing would have made things worse had he not been offsides in injury time. The stats were evenly split so it seems to reason that the final score be the same. Newcastle United 1-1 Middlesbrough.

A win for Fulham! No really! Roy Hodgson got his first victory courtesy of a gutty performance by his club. The Cottagers came out swinging and came close a few times, however it was Aaron Hughes’ own goal that put an attacking Aston Villa on top. Fulham fought back and Jimmy Bullard found Simon Davies for the equalizer four minutes later. Bullard, who has come back from career threatening knee surgery, became the hero of Craven Cottage when he curled in a beautiful free kick in the 86th minute. Look out, the Cottagers are on the rise! They scored three times today!

The bad news is that Gabriel Agbonlahor went out at the half with a hamstring injury. He’s very doubtful for Switzerland Wednesday. Fulham 2-1 Aston Villa.  

 Fulham feeble at Craven Cottage. Just how many players did Arsenal have on the pitch in the second half? Though up 2-0 in the second half from two Emmanuel Adebayor headers, the Gunners showed their quality by not letting up on the struggling Cottagers. Every time Fulham tried to bring the ball forward they seemed to have fifteen red jerseys surrounding them. When Czech winger Tomas Rosicky poked home Arsenal’s third goal in the 81st minute the air went out of the stadium.

I don’t know what Roy Hodgson is going to do to pull the club out of the nose dive their in. Is this a result of Lawrie Sanchez’s poor selection of talent? I think that they have some good players, however Al Fayed’s patience is going to be over if they go down to the Championship next season.

Arsene Wenger has his side playing like champions. The run in to the title is going to be fun to watch. Fulham 0-3 Arsenal.

 United maintain at the Madejski. Wayne Rooney took a bevy of shots last week against Newcastle and wasn’t able to make the score-sheet in the end. I felt sorry for Marcus Hahnemann coming into this match. But, the American keeper made some great saves and got a gutty performance from his defense to keep the Royals in the match. Until Carlos Tevez found Rooney in the left side of the box. Wayne stuck out his foot and redirected the ball  into the far corner. Not a power shot from the United striker, but a beautiful piece of skill. Cristiano Ronaldo kept up the scoring run with a goal deep into injury time as he counter attacked the Reading counter attack.

Manchester United retain the top spot in the Premiership on goal difference, but this race is far from over. Reading 0-2 Manchester United.

St. James stalemate. With all of the excitement surrounding Kevin Keegan’s return Tyneside even non-Geordie fans had to expect some fireworks in his first match. Especially as they were at home in front of an ecstatic Toon Army. Even though the Newcastle squad seemed to be more free flowing than I’ve seen in awhile, they couldn’t break down a gritty Bolton defense.

Newcastle out shot the Trotters 2 to 1, but Bolton’s Jlloyd Samuels nearly pulled out a shocking victory for the visitors when he spun around to control a surprising through ball, then took a quick shot at point blank range. Shay Givens was lucky enough to have it hit his left leg and deflect out of bounds. This wasn’t how “King Kev” wanted to start. On the plus side last week they lost 6-0. Newcastle United 0-0 Bolton Wanderers.

The race for futility is in full swing as the bottom three teams lost by a combined score of 8-1 on Saturday. Sunderland is in a tight race with five other teams to stay in the top flight. However, Fulham and Derby County are definitely rejoining the ranks of the second tier. It’s sad that a team like Derby would only get one year up with the big boys before going back to the Championship. Fulham on the other hand has been on life support for a couple of years now and it would be merciful to the club and it’s fans to put it out of it’s misery.

Birmingham City 0-1 Chelsea; Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Middlesbrough; Portsmouth 3-1 Derby County; Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Sunderland.

It’s been an exciting year for football and we have finally reached the last weekend of 2007. Hopefully these games will give us all something good to remember when the clock strikes midnight. On with the show:

Goodison Park will be electric when the ball starts rolling on Saturday. Everton has played well lately and they know that they have a prime opportunity to put their stamp on the title race. Arsenal comes off of a disappointing draw with Portsmouth on Boxing Day, so they know that they have to beat the Toffees on the road. David Moyes will be without Leon Osman, Alan Stubbs, Leighton Baines and possibly Tomas Graveson for this match. But, everyone else will be ready to take on the Gunners. Arsenal might have William Gallas, but they will be without Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott.

Everton has a great chance to beat Arsenal. The Toffees have a record of 6W-1L-1D in December with their only loss at Manchester United (2-1). If anyone is in the right form to beat Arsenal it’s Everton. They have shown an ability to play stifling defense while looking to strike on the counter attack. Arsenal have a potent attack of their own, but they showed that they had trouble with Pompey’s defense on Wednesday. I’m going with the upset in this game. 1-0 Everton.

Sam Allardyce’s woes will continue on Saturday. Chelsea will be without Frank Lampard, John Terry, Florent Malouda, Ricardo Carvalho (r.c.), Ashley Cole (r.c.) and Claude Makelele this weekend. Newcastle will be without Joey Barton because he’s in the nick. They might have Michael Owen back from his thigh injury, but he’ll injure something else after fifteen minutes. Newcastle can’t seem to get things together and Chelsea are infinitely better than Wigan. The Toon Army will be screaming for Big Sam’s sacking unless he gets a big win over the Blues. Not happening. Even though they are depleted Chelsea are better than Newcastle. 3-1 Chelsea.

West Ham have a full squad for this match with League leading Manchester United. Unfortunately for Alan Curbishley, he can’t put all of them on the pitch at the same time. The Red Devils will have everyone but Edwin Van der Sar (groin). Carlos Tevez is making his return to Upton Park where he single handedly kept the Hammers in the Premiership. With Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo all on the attack Robert Green will get quite a workout in the West Ham goal. The Hammers did the double over Man U last season so Sir Alex will have no trouble firing up his lads for this game.

Tevez isn’t the only Red Devil to have played for West Ham. Michael Carrick and Rio Ferdinand both got their start at Upton Park. Kinda like old home week. Don’t expect mercy from these three on Saturday. United need a win to keep the pressure on Arsenal and Cristiano Ronaldo is just unstoppable this season. If West Ham gives up a free kick anywhere inside their own half Ronaldo will most likely make them pay. 3-0 Manchester United.

Wigan have beaten Blackburn (5-3) and Newcastle (1-0), drawn Manchester City (1-1) and Fulham (1-1) and lost to Bolton (1-4) in December. So they are playing better than their League standing suggests. Aston Villa are coming off of three straight draws (Sunderland, Manchester City and Chelsea). So on form Wigan should win this game. Not so fast. Villa have Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young on the wings. Their speed is amazing! The Latics will struggle to keep them from finding Big John Carew in the centre. Marcus Bent will give Wigan some hope in the offense as he will take advantage of the Villans missing defender Zat Knight (r.c.).

If Martin O’Neill’s boys play half as well as they did against Chelsea on Boxing Day, the J.J.B. will be a sad stadium. 3-1 Aston Villa. 

I don’t talk about the Brummies much. They haven’t been overly impressive this season with 5W-11L-3D. But, they’re playing at St. Andrews and Fulham suck something awful. Roy Hodgson will take over for the Cottagers against Chelsea, but he’s going to have to watch them lose again before then. Alex McLeish will field the same team that beat Middlesbrough 3-0. Antti Neimi got waxed by Tottenham as they sunk five goals on the Finnish keeper. He might want to fake a knock in this one and let Kasey Keller take the beating against Chelsea on New Years Day. Birmingham shouldn’t struggle in this one. 2-0 Birmingham City.

Manchester City have only beaten Liverpool once in a home Premier League game since 1995. However, the Blues are stronger this season than they have been in a long time. Sven-Goran Eriksson has this squad believing that they belong in the title race so they will not fear Liverpool for a change. The Reds struggled with Derby in their last outing and would have gone home with a draw if Steven Gerrard hadn’t beaten the rookie keeper in the waning moments (people are giving Gerrard way too much credit on this one). City won’t be a pushover and they have a better attack than the Rams did. They will challenge Pepe Reina.

No major injuries for either team makes this a good match. Daniel Agger might be back for Rafa Benitez, but Sami Hyypia will be out so that’s a wash. I think City are going to be charged up for this game. 2-1 Manchester City.

Early Christmas for Arsenal. Tottenham had the lion’s share of possession in this match (69% – 31%), but were unable to give the league leaders their second loss of the season. Emmanuel Adebayor opened the scoring just after halftime with a wicked finish from a Cesc Fabregas feed. Eighteen minutes later Dimitar Berbatov squeezed the ball between two defenders to even the score. Kolo Toure handed the Spurs a golden opportunity when he brought Berbatov down in the box. Gunner’s keeper Manuel Almunia saved Robbie Keane’s penalty and four minutes later substitute Nicklas Bendtner headed home the winner to keep Arsenal atop the Premier League standings. If Berbatov stays at White Hart Lane in January, I can’t think that it will be his choice. Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham.

Wanderers show Blues the door at the Reebok. Birmingham had a couple of early chances to take control of the match, but Bolton’s defense were able to keep the Blues off of the score-sheet and in contention for the relegation zone. El-Hadji Diouf broke the deadlock when he fired home in the 72nd minute. Nicolas Anelka added to the Birmingham woes when he intercepted a defensive throw in and dented the net from a tight angle in the 78th minute. The Birmingham defense gave the ball away in stoppage time and Anelka made them pay with his second goal of the match. I know that the money is tempting, but Bolton need to try and hold onto Nicolas Anelka in the transfer window. Bolton 3-0 Birmingham.

Torres tortures Pompey at Anfield. Liverpool always looked like they were in control of this one as Portsmouth never really showed much of an attacking attitude. The Reds opened up the scoring when Yossi Benayoun sent a rocket past David James from twenty yards out.  Sylvain Distin got on the board for Portsmouth three minutes later as he put the ball past James and into his own net. The look on Distin’s face showed his disbelief. The goal was actually set up by Fernando Torres as he flicked the ball at Distin in the Pompey box with enough pace to get the accidental deflection into the net. Torres’ pace tormented Portsmouth throughout the game and he could easily have had more than the two goals in the second half. Benjani Mwaruwari brought Portsmouth to 2-1 when he scored early in the second half, however, Portsmouth never had the control of the ball when they had possession. It was a bit like watching the five year olds kicking it around at the park. Liverpool 4-1 Portsmouth.

Slugfest at Craven Cottage. This match was very much like watching a fight between two well matched boxers. Both threw everything they had at each other creating a game that was just fun to watch. The first half was highlighted by scrambles in front of both nets, with near misses for both teams. Both keepers came up with good saves with Fulham putting a bit more pressure on Chris Kirkland. Marcus Bent looked as though he was going to hand the Latics their second consecutive victory with a brilliant display of control and finishing in the 70th minute. But, Clint Dempsey fired a cracker in from the right corner of the box to give the Cottagers a well deserved point. I thought that there would be more scoring in this one, and there could have been. It was a fun watch though. Fulham 1-1 Wigan.

Other scores: Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester City; Middlesbrough 1-2 West Ham; Reading 2-1 Sunderland. 

There are some interesting matchups this weekend:

This is a great London derby! Even though Arsenal has dominated it recently, Tottenham would love nothing better than to drop the Gunners from the top spot. The Spurs have been up and down all season, but Juande Ramos seems to have them believing that they can win. Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov have been clicking together and they remind me of Emmanuel Adebayor and Tomas Rosicky in the way they play. The Gunners have Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie though and that will be the difference. With Didier Zokora suspended and a host of players on the injured list Tottenham will struggle to draw. Oh, and with Paul Robinson in goal Arsenal IS going to score. I’d love to see an upset here it’s just not going to happen. 3-1 to the Arsenal.

At a glance most people would look at this one, pick Liverpool, then move on to the next game. But these two teams have almost identical records with each having 30 points. Portsmouth have the strongest away record in the Premiership winning their last seven away matches. Liverpool have lost two in a row at home. Peter Crouch is banned for three matches and the Reds are without Steve Finnan and Daniel Agger. Unfortunately for Pompey Fernando Torres is healthy. Fortunately for them David James is in goal for them. He’s been solid this season (could be back for England soon) and he could be the difference in this game. Harry Redknapp has turned Portsmouth from a team fighting relegation constantly into one of those teams you do not want to play. This is going to be a good one and I’m looking forward to seeing it. Pompey’s defense is going to get a workout and I think they’ll earn a draw at Anfield. 0-0 draw, but plenty of fireworks.

No I did not hit my head! This game could be fun to watch. Both teams are in the relegation zone and they need to make a move now to get out. Lawrie Sanchez is gone for Fulham and while John Collins might take over early next week, that isn’t going to do jack-all for them this weekend. The Cottagers haven’t scored in their last three Premiership matches, but, they can against the Wigan defense. Clint Dempsey is tenatious in the box so Chris Kirkland will have his hands full. Marcus Bent doubled his season tally for Wigan last week against Blackburn (6 goals for the season) and I think he’ll score this weekend. Steve Bruce has the Latics thinking positive (and he’s working at proving me wrong) so look for them to be free flowing against Fulham. 3-2 Latics.

That sneaky David Moyes has Everton sitting in 6th position in the Premiership and in the knockout round of the UEFA Cup, so they are not going to be a pushover. Sir Alex knows this though so he will have United ready to go. Wayne Rooney loves to play against his former team and I think he’ll score at least one at Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo is always a danger and you know how much I like Carlos Tevez. There are going to be a lot of incoming screamers for Tim Howard. Ayegbeni Yakubu is the Toffees leading scorer with 9 goals, but with players like Andy Johnson, Tim Cahill and Joleon Lescott on the pitch, goals could come from anywhere. Edwin Van Der Sar has made some bone-headed mistakes recently that fortunately haven’t cost the Red Devils, yet. Yakubu is the guy who could capitalize on mistakes so Van Der Sar had better tighten up. Manchester United will know by kickoff whether they can take over first place from Arsenal. Either way they know they can’t let up. 2-1 United.