One of the most comfortable Premier League title victories came even closer into view for Manchester United on Saturday afternoon as Sir Alex Ferguson's men beat Reading at Old Trafford after rivals Manchester City had lost at Everton in the early kick-off.
Elsewhere there was a big win for Arsenal in the race for Champions League football as they dispatched of Swansea, whilst Aston Villa were the big winners in the relegation scrap as they saw off Queens Park Rangers in a 5 goal thriller.
The lunchtime kick-off saw Roberto Mancini look to end his dreadful record at Goodison Park against an Everton side aiming to recover from their shambolic exit from the FA Cup to Wigan last weekend. Leon Osman ensured a lead at the break for the home side with a terrific swerving strike from 25 yards after 32 minutes. The Premier League holders were unable to capitalise on Steven Pienaar's sending off on the hour mark as Everton held on and eventually clinched the 3 points thanks to Nikica Jelavic's late goal.
Defeat for City left Manchester United knowing that a win at home to managerless Reading would put them 15 points clear and needing just 13 points from their remaining 9 games to clinch the title. Rio Ferdinand, motivated by his recall to the England squad on Friday, surged forward before finding Wayne Rooney whose deflected shot gave United the lead on 20 minutes.
Arsenal followed up their impressive and confidence boosting 2-0 win in the Allianz Arena with a victory by the same scoreline over Swansea in South Wales. The first-half was an even affair with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain going closest with two thunderous efforts that struck the bar, and the game looked destined for a scoreless draw until Nacho Monreal struck home his first Gunners goal with 16 minutes remaining. Substitute Gervinho then latched on to an Aaron Ramsey pass to seal the points in injury time. The Gunners are now just 2 points behind Chelsea and 5 behind North London rivals Spurs.
Some had suggested that Liverpool were still in with a small chance of gatecrashing the top four but any hope they had of that were seriously dented by a rampant Southampton side as they won 3-1 on the south coast. Morgan Schneiderlin put the home side ahead after just 6 minutes, with Rickie Lambert's deflected free-kick made it 2-0 just past the half hour mark. Coutinho pulled one back for Liverpool on the stroke of half-time but Jay Rodriguez made sure of the points 10 minutes from the end.
A 5 goal thriller at Villa Park saw Paul Lambert's side emerge victorious in a crucial relegation face-off against Queens Park Rangers. The visitors were impressive in the first half but went in level after Gabby Agbonlahor struck in stoppage time to cancel out Jermaine Jenas' opener. Andreas Weimann put the home side in front just before the hour, forcing Harry Redknapp to go for broke as a more attack minded Rangers made it 2-2 through Andros Townsend. Christian Benteke ensured that there was to be more drama with the vital winner with 81 minutes on the clock. QPR are now 7 points from safety with 8 games to go.
Finally there was a dour goalless draw played out between Stoke and West Brom at the Brittania that, quite frankly, isn't worth wasting any more words on.
0 comments:
Post a Comment