Premier League Roundup: Arsenal, Bolton and Spurs win
Arsenal reclaimed the 2nd spot in Barclays Premier League by beating Birmingham 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
It was Arsenal’s new boy, Maruane Chamakh who inspired the Gunners to comeback from a goal down and avoid their second defeat at home in as many matches.
Birmingham’s Nikola Zigic had put the Blues into an early lead when his towering header from Keith Fahey’s cross beat Lukasz Fabianski to give Birmingham their first goal in the Premier League, this season.
The Gunners responded emphatically and restored the parity before the break when Samir Nasri slotted home from the penalty spot after Chamakh was fouled in the box by Scott Dann.
The Moroccan International scored a goal of his own in the second half when he finished a sweeping move, drifting through the Blues' defence and easily slotting past the keeper.
Jack Wilshere, who had an impressive game up until the closing moments, was given his marching orders for studs up challenge on Zigic to leave Arsenal a man down for the dying minutes of the game.
Arsenal’s London rivals, Tottenham Hotspurs also got to their 14 points in the league when they inflicted the first defeat of the season on Fulham. It took a controversial strike from Tom Huddlestone to settle a closely fought encounter in favour of Spurs
2-1.
It was Fulham which scored first on the night when it gave Cottagers a lead on the half hour mark. Clint Dempsey showed great composure, strength and awareness in the box and presented Diomansi Kamara with the simplest of finishes.
Spurs had a talisman of their own, who brought the match to level terms with a slick chip. Rafael Van der Vaart has been in inspirational form this season and he kept the good run going with another goal.
RVDV controlled the ball magnificently before chipping the Fulham goal keeper from 12 yards out with Roman Pavlyuchenko on hand to slot home to restore the parity in the game.
Huddlestone then tried his long with a long range effort but his goal was initially ruled out when the lines man flagged for offside against Billy Gallas but after discussion with Mike Dean, the goal was given.
Over at the St. James Park, Fabricio Coloccini rescued a remarkable point for his side with an equalizer deep into injury time.
The magpies went 2-0 down early in the game when ex-Newcastle man, Charles N’Zogbia headed in a deflected Franco Di Santo cross and just a minute later, it was 2-0 as Di Santo and N’Zogbia combined again and the French International's powerful shot was deflected
off Mike Williamson and gave Krul no chance.
Newcastle, however, remarkably fought back into the game and Shola Ameobi reduced the arrears with just 18 minutes left in the clock. Ameobi headed in a Jonas Gutierrez cross to give the home side some hope and deep into injury time, Coloccini send the home
crowd into raptures with the equalizer.
Ivan Klasnic scored a late winner for Bolton as the Trotters beat the Potters at Reebok Stadium. Lee Chung-yong gave Bolton lead in the 22nd minute when he exchanged passes with Kevin Davies and ran into the box, thus finishing easily past Sorensen.
Rory Delap equalized for Stoke City in the 47th minute as he headed home a Robert Huth cross but there was to be late drama in the game as Klasnic stole all three points for the Trotters.
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