Rooney, Park makes way for Manchester United to the table top.

Manchester Unitedretained the table top position after winning with a narrow 2-1 score line over Liverpool at Old Trafford while their title rivals Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood park. With a game in hand, the blues are 4 point behind Manchester United who will be point clear at the top even ifChelsea wins their next match.

 

On Saturday, Arsenal comfortably beat West Ham United by 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium but not before Thomas Vermaelen was red carded and Gunners goalkeeper Manuel Almunia saved a penalty in the first half. Arsenal’s manager Sir Arsene Wenger was reported to be furious over the incident as the contact was minimum but the referee had no hesitation in sending him off.

At Old Trafford it was Liverpool who went ahead by a Fernando Torres header in the 5th minute of the match but the joy was short lived for the visitors as Wayne Rooney cancelled the reds lead in the 11th minute whenValencia ran into the box and was fouled by Mascherano inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot.Rooney’s penalty kick was saved by Reina but the rebound went past the net to level the things out. The teams went into the break with a 1-1 score line.

 

In the second half, Manchester United got the much awaited lead just a minute before the hour mark whenRooney passed the ball to Darren Fletcher who gave a wonderful cross and Park Ji Sung ran past the Liverpooldefenders to head home the winner much to the delight of the home crowd. The final score remained 2-1 to putUnited on the top of the table.

Now all eyes will be on Tuesday when Chelsea will be playing bottom players Portsmouth, any obstacles for theblues here can make them pay for the title this year too…

Other results of the weekend football were:

Saturday:

Aston Villa 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Everton 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

Portsmouth 3-2 Hull City

Stoke City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur

Sunderland 3-1 Birmingham City

Wigan Athletic 1-0 Burnley

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham United

Sunday:

Fulham 1-2 Manchester City

Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Chelsea

Rooney’s goal machine continues against Fulham.

Manchester United went back to the top of the table with their 3-0 over Fulham on Sunday but not before Chelsea went ahead a day before with their thumping 4-1 win over West Ham United a day before.  Chelsea are two points behind the current leaders United and the only edge they have right now is a game in hand. In another match Arsenal carried their winning form by defeating Hull City by 2-1 as they also went joint second with the result. 

 

Manchester United was prepared to face a strong Fulham side as the visitors had thrashed them 3-0 in the previous meeting. With no Giggs and Owen in the side and Scholes rested,  Sir Alex had to put some extra effort. The first half went in vain for both the teams as none could capitalise the smaller advantages in the proceedings, Berbatov header came close to scoring in the first half . Second half started with a cracker with Wayne Rooney scoring his first of the match in 30 seconds from the start. Berbatov flicked a neat header on for Rooney, who slipped a pass left to Nani. Nani then placed a perfect pass to Rooney who netted it without any difficulty. Rooney again scored to double the United’s lead in the 82nd minute  when Berbatov got the ball and after controlling, dribbling it gave the ball to Rooney to finish it. Things were finally wrapped up by Dimitar Berbatov who made it 3-0 in the 87th minute. The score line stayed till the final whistle. 

 

Chelsea was held to a 1-1 score line till half time when Scott Parker countered blues’ lead through Alex Rodrigo in the 15th minute. But there was no stopping them in the second half where they scored three more goals through Didier Drogba and Malouda to make the things clear for Chelsea. 

 Other results are:

 Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Blackburn Rovers 

 Birmingham City 2-2 Everton 

 Bolton Wanderers 4-0 Wigan Athletic 

 Burnley 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 

 Stoke City 0-0 Aston Villa    

Image 1 source: manutd.com

Image 2 source: chelseafc.com

Reds sign off the year in style.

In what seemed like a practice match, Manchester United demolished Wigan Athleticby 5 goals to retain the second spot before the premier league goes into 2010 giving a nice birthday gift to manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Arsenal also did some similar demolition by defeating Portsmouth 4-1 at Fratton Park. But it was not so easy forLiverpool, only a late strike from Fernando Torres in the injury gave then the much needed victory and some sort of relief to the team.

Goals were raining at Old Trafford with no shelter to the visiting team. Pre match, Park Ji Sung was called in place ofRyan Giggs for the night. Manchester United were into the action as soon as the game started. Having majority of possession, which is always on the cards whether they suffer a defeat too, the first threat came from Nemanja Vidicin the 17th minute with a 25 yard shot on goal but was cleared by Paul Scharner. Manchester United got the first in the 28th minute when Park’s low curling ball from the right got deflected from Rooney’s foot into the left of the goal. The goalkeeper didn’t have the clue what was going on. Just 4 minutes later Michael Carrick doubled United’s lead with a clean strike from the edge of the crowded penalty area. And just before the half time, Rafael De Silvadisplayed brilliant skills to cut three Wigan defenders and score from his left foot. His celebration went till he ran to the dug out to point to his brother. Half time 3-0.

Well it was like United wanted to finish of quiickly, Dimitar Berbatov got the fourth for United in the 50th minute when Valencia’s cross found Dimitar who scored with his right foot. Things were finally wrapped by Antonio Valencia in the 75 minute when Rooney gave a through ball to Valencia who then grabbed the ball and got it past the keeper to finish the proceedings.

So 2009 ends on a high for United who must be hoping to get the treble tag on them in the coming year. And what it looks like now is that the fight is between the current top three for the premiership while Aston Villa will be busy holding for the final champions league spot until some fire ignited in Liverpool and Spurs in ’10.

Arsenal back in the title race, Manchester United stunned by Villa.

Aston Villa stunned Manchester United in their own backyard giving them a shock 1-0 defeat. Sole strike by Gabriel Agbonlahor gave the visitors full three points. Leaders Chelsea were held for a draw against Everton. In the classic Sunday showdown at Anfield, Arsenal came from behind to beat Liverpool 2-1 and come only 6 points behind leaders with a game in hand.

At old Trafford the game really didn’t go in Manchester United favour for the reasons that some of their main players were out due to injuries though Vidic and Brown provided some resistance but that was not enough for the red devils. It was also Aston Villa’s first victory at this ground since 1983. Fire power was also lacking from Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs who also came back after missing the min weeks match against Wolfsburg . The goal for the visiting side came in the 21st minute when Gabriel Agbonlahor headed home Ashley Young’s ball who gave a chip in from the left flank. With the score remained as it is for the rest of the match and no late surprise by Manchester United, it was all over for them. United was unable to capitalise on Chelsea’s high scoring 3-3 draw against Evertonearlier during the day.

In the only match on Super Sunday, Arsenal are back to the title race after they came from behind to beat Liverpoolat home in an exciting match at Anfield. Even the return of Fernando Torres wasn’t enough for the home team to take this one away. His opening scare for the gunners in the 11th minute was not too strong to find the net.Liverpool got the lead when Gerrard’s free kick landed in the Arsenal’s penalty area and in the mix up Dirk Kuytkicked the ball in the back of the net. The hosts went in to the break with the lead.
Second half was the visiting teams half, first an own goal by Glen Johnson helped Arsenal to come at par and again and again with four goals in the previous meeting, Andrey Arshavin scored again with a brilliant shot from the right of the penalty area leaving Reina a mere spectator in the action.
With a game in hand, Arsenal are slowly catching up Manchester United and again it looks like that it will be a three way battle down to the wire.
Other results were:
Stoke City 2-2 Wigan
Birmingham 1-0 West Ham
Bolton 3-3 Manchester City
Burnley 1-1 Fulham
Hull City 0-0 Blackburn Rovers
Sunderland 1-1 Portsmouth
Tottenham 0-1 Wolverhampton