Premiership Review
Birmingham City 2 Arsenal 2
This game would be remembered for the wrong reasons as a very horrific injury to Croatian striker Eduardo Da Silva.
Martin Taylor was the defender that made a poor tackle on Eduardo in 2 minutes of play and deservedly got a red card. The lunging and 2-footed tackle has been met with red cards this season because of incidents like this that can end a player’s career and Eduardo’s lies in the balance.
Birmingham playing with 10 men surprisingly took the lead with a good free kick by James McFadden when Mathieu Flamini was adjudged to have brought him down. The decision seemed harsh but Flamini did not have to make the challenge in the first place.
Manuel Almunia would feel that he should have done better with the free kick. Arsenal huffed and puffed in the 1st half with no real penetration. Their best chance of the half fell to Emmanuel Adebayor from a great 50-yard pass from Cesc Fabregas.
Fabregas’ game has become a little too predictable as most of his passes seem to always be looking for Adebayor and they are easy to read.
In the 2nd half though Arsenal showed more purpose and Theo Walcott that in the 1st half was having a nightmare game came to life and scored 2 quick goals to put his side in front.
It was looking like a routine victory for the visitors until Gael Clichy and Mathieu Flamini gave Birmingham a lifeline in the 4th minute of injury time by playing like amateurs.
An innocuous looking ball came to Flamini and instead of just clearing his lines, he decided to play a casual pass to Clichy, who in turn left the ball and then realized that a Birmingham player would get to the ball and he stuck out a leg. He may have got the ball but it was still a foolish thing to do and the referee pointed to the penalty spot much to the absolute disgust of captain William Gallas. arsenal news
James McFadden smashed the resulting penalty for an unlikely draw and Gallas refused to leave the pitch in absolute disgust.
It was 2 points dropped for Arsenal with a lot of people including manager Arsene Wenger’s decision to take off both Walcott and Hleb contributing to the draw.
But Eduardo’s injury was the talking point.
Newcastle United 1 Manchester United 5
Manchester United were given a boost with the events at St. Andrews before they even kicked off and they just romped this game without much fuss.
Newcastle provided little or no resistance and Wayne Rooney along with Cristiano Ronaldo helping themselves to a brace each and Louis Saha completing the rout.
Newcastle United’ s consolation was scored by Abdoulaye Faye and they are looking at a relegation battle as they are very poor side in very poor form.
Liverpool 3 Middleboro 2
Following their dramatic midweek win over Inter Milan in the champions’ league, Liverpool were looking for only their 2nd win in the league this year.
They quite predictably went behind through Tuncay Sanli and almost inevitably Fernando Torres made it a double in a minute before completing his hat-trick in the 2nd half.
Jeremie Aliadiere got a red card before Stewart Downing scored a late consolation.
Portsmouth 1 Sunderland 0
Jermaine Defoe settled this game with a penalty in the 2nd half when David Bardsley was adjudged to have fouled Nico Kranjcar.
Wigan Athletic 2 Derby County 0
Playing against Derby County at home is a banker and this was no different as Wigan ruined former manager Paul Jewell’s return to the JJB stadium having left them at the end of last season.
Goals from Paul Scharner and Antonio Valencia in the 2nd half gave Wigan all three points. arsenal news
Fulham 0 West Ham 1
A controversial goal from Norberto Solano settled this all London affair as he seemed to foul Fulham goalkeeper, Anton Niemi and there is no doubt that in Italy or Spain this goal would not have stood.
Another defeat spells grave danger for Fulham as they have to start winning games and soon otherwise they would be playing championship football next season.
Reading 1 Aston Villa 2
Reading’s season just seems to be getting worse as they just seem to be suffering defeat after defeat and are another side that have a big relegation battle on their hands.
Aston Villa would feel that they stand a very good chance of Champions league football even though I don’t think they have a good enough squad for that but they should at least qualify for UEFA football.
Goals from Ashley Young and Marlon Harewood with Gareth Barry hitting a penalty well wide ensured that Villa won comfortably at Reading whose only consolation was a goal from Nicky Shorey.
Blackburn Rovers 4 Bolton Wanderers 1
This Lancashire derby was settled by goals from 2 Benni McCarthy penalties, David Bentley with 1 goal and Morten Gamst Pedersen’s 1st league goal of the season.
Bolton that had a very good midweek result in Madrid where they held Ahletico Madrid to a 0-0 thereby knocking them out of the UEFA cup had Kevin Davies to thank for their consolation goal.
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