Saturday's English Premier League Roundup
Six games were played this Saturday in the Premier League, there were supposed to be seven but Blackpool versus Manchester United was called off due to the fact that Blackpool do not have under soil heating installed underneath their pitch. And the weather
was so blisteringly cold and snowy that without under soil heating maybe no game could've been played.
Saturday's six match-ups saw three being won and three being drawn. First up was Arsenal against Fulham at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal finished the game nervously and there must have been a number of anxious faces inside the Emirates as Arsenal made the
game extremely difficult for themselves, despite Samir Nasri giving them an early lead in the 14th minute when he left to defenders in his wake before slotting the goal past Mark Schwarzer. Diomansy Kamara pulled one back for the visitors when he was put through
by Clint Dempsey after a horrible misunderstanding and a clash of heads between Arsenal's centre backs, Sebastien Squillaci and Laurent Koscielny, left the latter needing to be stretchered off and replaced by Djourou. Nasri then scored another magnificently
superb goal where he jinxed past two defenders and Schwarzer to finish from the acutest of angles. Arsenal weathered the late Fulham storm to hold on for a 2-1 win and subsequently climb to the top of the table.
Next, Chelsea were at home to Everton. Chelsea started with every attacking intent and before they scored from the penalty spot, John Terry had already hit the bar. Then Anelka was deemed to be felled in the box by Tim Hiward and a penalty was awarded which
Drogba scored to make it 1-0. Jack Rodwell then hit the post with a close range header before Jermaine Beckford scored a header also from close range to finish the game a goal apiece. It was another disappointing result for Chelsea.
Blackburn Rovers hosted Wolverhampton Wanderers at Ewood Park. And it was a comprehensive win for Sam Allardyce's side where David Dunn, Brett Emerton and Ryan Nelson scored in a comfortable win 3-0.
The only other winners on the day were Manchester City who beat Bolton at The City of Manchester Stadium. Carlos Tevez got an early winner for the Eastlanders when Yaya Toure played a through ball to Tevez and he finished inside the far post in the 4th minute.
Bolton really did not threaten too much throughout and Jussi Jaaskelainen made a couple of good saves to deny City getting a second.
Birmingham City hosted Tottenham Hotspur at St Andrews Stadium, and Tottenham were given the lead in the 19th minute when Bale whipped in a free kick which wasn't completely cleared by Foster, and Bassong gathered and slid the ball past Birmingham keeper.
Craig Gardner responded 9 minutes from time when he nodded in a pull back from Nikola Zigic. The match ended 1-1 with Tottenham again losing ground at the top of the table.
Wigan Athletic and Stoke played out an entertaining 2-2 draw that saw Stoke City take the lead through a Robert Huth free kick which deflected off Mohamed Diame to go past Al Habsi and into the Wigan net. As fate would have it, two of the other three goals
will also come as a result of deflections. In the 30th minute, a Ben Watson free kick was deflected into the net by Stoke defender Danny Collins. Then Matthew Etherington restored Stoke's lead when he tapped in after Ricardo Fuller squared the ball to him.
But, the Latics pegged the Potters back again when Tom Cleverley's shot was deflected into the net by Rory Delap. It was a freak day for deflections at the DW stadium as the 3 goals showed.
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