Premier League Round Up - Sunday 24th October
After Chelsea raced on to an eight point advantage on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Wolves the onus was on Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal to cut their lead at the top with a win in their respective games on Sunday.
The day’s first game was played between Manchester United and Stoke City as they Red Devils travelled to the Britannia Stadium having drawn their previous four fixtures in the league.
United were still looking for their first away win and after an amicable resolution to the Rooney saga United hoped to put things right on the football pitch too.
With Rooney unavailable because of an ankle injury, Javier Hernandez partnered Dimitar Berbatov in the attack and the striker bagged his first ever brace for the club to guide United to their first away win of the season.
Rooney was only able to watch from the sidelines on his birthday but Hernandez made sure that the striker will not be missed on the pitch as he scored two beautiful goals to make sure United end their away hoodoo and get their first points
in the bag away from home.
United made a bright start to the game and with Stoke policy of 11 men behind the ball it was always going to be difficult for the Manchester Boys to find the back of the net but Sir Alex’s men put in a tireless performance to beat stoke
City 2-1 on the night.
United took the lead in the 26th minute when Javier Hernandez flicked the ball into the back of the net with the back of his head. The striker was facing away from the goal but still managed to glide the ball past
Sorensen with an impossible looking header.
In the 81st minute it looked like that United will once again throw away an advantage as Tuncay Sanli curled in a beautiful strike past Van der Sar to put the tie on level terms.
But it was the Mexican’s poacher’s instincts that came to United’s good as the striker tapped in a winner just 4 minutes from time to halt the home side’s celebrations at the Britannia.
There was more good news too, well at least for the Scouse as returning to the winning ways was Liverpool; who registered their first win under the new ownership of NESV but more importantly a first in 8 matches this season.
Liverpool played at home against Blackburn Rovers and Fernando Torres scored his first goal for the club since August to guide Liverpool to a vital win.
Despite the win Liverpool are still in relegation zone as they are tied on points with Rovers and Fulham on 9 points but their goal difference keeping them in the bottom three.
Krygiakos was the hero of the night as he gave Reds a commanding performance at the heart of the defence to guide Liverpool to a much needed win.
Krygiakos opened the scoring in the night with a deft header that deflected off a Blackburn defender into the net but moments later El Hadji Diouf restored the parity and it looked like Liverpool will once again be frustrated at home.
But it was not to be as Torres his 44th goal in 46 Premier League matches to help Liverpool register the win.
In the last match of the day Arsenal eased past Manchester City 3-0. The score line may look a little generous but the match was a tight affair despite the flattering score line.
City were on the back foot since the 4th minute when Dedryk Boyata received marching order from referee Mark Clattenburg after a mistimed tackle on Marouane Chamakh, who looked through on goal.
Despite playing with a man down City looked likely to take the lead but in fact it was Samir Nasri who broke the deadlock for the visitors.
Nasri after playing a beautiful one-two with Andrei Arshavin unleashed a thunderbolt past Joe Hart to make it one nil to the Arsenal.
Hart then saved a penalty from Cesc Fabregas as the teams went into half time but after the break City threw everything but the kitchen sink at their opponents when they could not draw level and Gunners scored twice against on the counter
with Alex Song and Nicolas Bendtner.
The result means that Arsenal now is at the 2nd place while City is at the 4th. This also presents that United and Arsenal are tied on 17 points with just goal differences separating the sides.
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