Saturday EPL Round-Up
By Sam McPhee
Saturday was a day full of EPL action as there is only one match each on Sunday & Monday. The day included the massive Manchester Derby that saw a Goal of the Year candidate match-winner by Wayne Rooney, an easy, bounceback win by Arsenal & a good win by an undermanned Spurs on the roads at Sunderland & oh by the way, that massive club known as Liverpool dropped 2 points at home to those perennial galacticos known as Wigan.
The recaps!:
Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City
Wayne Rooney made up for his lack of overall goalscoring this season with a SPECTACULAR bicycle kick winner in the Manchester Derby for Manchester United. Nani had given the Red Devils a lead a few minutes before halftime when a Route-1 delivery was finished off by the Portguese winger after a few knock ons. David Silva erased the arrears in the second half for Man City albeit he knew almost nothing about his “finish” as he got credit for a goal when it deflected into the net off his backside midway through the second half. Following that was Rooney’s Goal of the Year-type goal in the 78th minute for the winner.
Arsenal 2-0 Wolves
Arsenal bounced back from the historic blown 4-goal lead match with a win at the Emirates. Robin Van Persie scored a brace to lead Arsenal to a fairly easy 2-0 stroll of a win over Wolves though Arsenal arguably should’ve won 4, 5 or even 6-nil. Van Persie’s opener came from pretty lazy defending from Wolves that allowed the cross in for the Dutchman’s scissors-kicks before he finished off a swift counter move in the second half to bag his brace. Fresh off his England starting debut, Jack Wilshere played very, very well, proving all those “experts” up in Manchester that they haven’t a clue how to analyze a player even though they’ve watched championship-winning sides for years…
Birmingham 1-0 Stoke
A last gasp goal by Nikola Žigić gave Birmingham the win over Tony Pulis’ Stoke side. The win was 3 yet more invaluable points as Birmingham look to lift themselves out of the relegation dogfight developing amongst several clubs.
Blackburn 0-0 Newcastle
Newcastle apparently dominated the game & Blackburn’s keeper, Paul Robinson made a few good saves, but the Geordies couldn’t turn their superiority into a win. Which makes two matches in a row where they’ve drawn that they “should’ve” won. I’d hate to see how poor Newcastle would be if they didn’t “dominate” matches…
Blackpool 1-1 Aston Villa
Speedy (pacy) Gabriel Agbonlahor put Aston Villa up after only 10 minutes when he jinked past a few Tangerine defenders, including the keeper. Blackpool’s French midfielder, Elliot Grandin equalized through a close-range header. Despite Villa going down to 10 men following Jean Makoun’s dismissal for a two-footed tackle, Blackpool couldn’t find a winner even though they pressed forward constantly late on & had to settle for a draw.
Liverpool 1-1 Wigan
King Kenny! Wigan rescue a point AT Anfield as for all that money spent by Liverpool, the Reds’ faithful forgot that the rest of their team is pretty overrated (Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher) or decidedly average (Dirk Kuyt, Martin Skrtel, Lucas, etc.) outside of Steven Gerrard. Liverpool’s other good player (besides new signings Carroll & Suarez who haven’t done squat yet), Raul Meireles, gave the Reds the early lead with a volleyed shot that he powered in from near the top of the box before Wigan’s defender, Steve Gohouri, poked home following some shoddy Liverpool defending. Europa League beckons for King Kenny, if he even stays… Carroll & Suarez will be mint!….. in the Europa League…. on an interesting note, the last time Liverpool won an English league title, I was in high school & hadn’t started following European SOCCER yet & Andy Carroll was 1 yr. old….
West Brom 3-3 West Ham
A week after a 4-goal comeback for Newcastle to earn a draw against Arsenal, a 3-goal fightback for West Ham saw them rescue a point in a dogfight, relegation match with the Baggies of West Brom. West Brom raced out to a 3-0 lead through Graham Dorrans, Jerome Thomas & a Winston Reid own goal. But West Ham clawed back in the second half through a brace by new signing Demba Ba & Carlton Cole.
Sunderland 1-2 Spurs
Spurs got a valuable win on the road at the Stadium of Boos/Light (Sunderland fans seem to boo everything that don’t go their way, much like Montreal Canadiens’ fans in the NHL) to help boost their campaign goal of a second consecutive year of playing in the Champions’ League. However, Sunderland had taken the lead through Asamoah Gyan in the 1st half with a well-taken finish inside the box. Sunderland looked to be in control of the match after that but Spurs equalized through a Michael Dawson header in spite of playing pretty lackluster ball in the first half in which they arguably deserved to be tied at all. But Spurs rode the “luck” in the second half & as the game got going a bit more, finally found a lead through yet another sweet, little cracker of a goal on the half-volley by Croat Niko Kranjčar for the second consecutive match in a row. One more like that & he qualifies to patent the move!
So, the remaining matches in this weekend’s EPL fixtures are the Bolton-Everton match tomorrow & Fulham-Chelsea on Monday.
The current EPL table barring Sunday’s & Monday’s matches:
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