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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

EPL: Toffees melt, Sunderland crumble, Rooney revived

Wed 02/02/11 Arsenal 2 - 1 Everton View events More info


Sunderland 2 - 4 Chelsea View events More info


Manchester United 3 - 1 Aston Villa View events More info


West Bromwich … 2 - 2 Wigan Athletic View events More info

Arsenal 2 Everton 1
Saha handed Everton the lead after 24 minutes in north London even though he looked well offside, but second half goals from substitute Andrey Arshavin and defender Laurent Koscielny handed Arsenal a hard-fought and deserved victory.

The result keeps Arsene Wenger's side second in the Premier League table, five points adrift of Manchester United but still very much in the title race.

Moyes slams Fabregas outburst
Replays showed Saha scored from an offside position, which raised the ire of Arsenal captain Fabregas at the interval, but Moyes labelled the language the Spaniard used to berate the referee as 'disgusting'.

"I thought there were some really bad tackles from Arsenal in the game and Fabregas' comments to the official in the tunnel at half-time warranted a sending off. It was disgusting," the Scotsman said.

http://mutantaday.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/david-finch-and-scott-williams.jpg

"I'm not going to repeat them; but they did. If he had said it on the pitch he would be have been off immediately, so what's the difference in the tunnel?"

Moyes admitted Saha's goal was fortunate but was more concerned at the way his team threw away victory.

"I think it was offside, it was the wrong decision. But it wasn't Everton who made the decision," he said.

Man United 3 Aston Villa 1
Wayne Rooney has struggled in front of goal all season, despite impressing in all other aspects of his game, but netted two first-half strikes to set the Red Devils on the road to victory.

Villa briefly threatened a second-half comeback when Darren Bent hit his second goal since making a 24-million-pound switch from Sunderland with his only meaningful touch of the game.

But Nemanja Vidic smashed in a third to seal the victory and extend United's unbeaten run to 24 Premier League games this season.

Sunderland 2 Chelsea 4
Sunderland, fielding new signing Stephane Sessegnon on the left of midfield were excellent in the first half, stunning the Premier League champions with a goal in the fourth minute - Phil Bardsley cutting in from the left to drill a low shot across the flat-footed Petr Cech and into the far corner.

It gave Sunderland fans hopes of another shock result but Chelsea matched the home side's quality and gradually reeled them in.

They were given a helping hand on the quarter-hour when Ahmed Elmohamady needlessly felled Ashley Cole in the area before Frank Lampard strode up to send Craig Gordon the wrong way from the spot.

Gordon was superb throughout the game and made a string of eye-catching saves, but the Sunderland gloveman made a crucial error in the 23rd minute when he raced out of his box after Nicholas Anelka had produced a defence-splitting pass for Salomon Kalou to run on to.

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The Ivory Coast international rolled the ball around the goalkeeper's star-shaped dive to give the visitors the lead.

The Blues' advantage lasted only three minutes though as Kieran Richardson netted his third goal in two games when his free-kick traversed under the Chelsea wall and past the stranded Cech.

The equaliser saw the two teams going into the break on level terms but Chelsea were a different class in the second-half as Gordon found his goal under siege in the first 15 minutes with Kalou, Didier Drogba, Anelka and Lampard all going close.

It looked as though Sunderland's mean defence might thwart Chelsea's clear superiority but the key goal came on the hour when, from a disputed corner, Lampard produced a magnificent save from Gordon but the ball dropped to John Terry who dug the ball out of the turf and just under the crossbar.

The scoreline was given a look which reflected the balance of power over the 90 minutes when Florent Malouda waltzed by a string of tired challenges to set up man-of-the-match Anelka who side-footed home from five yards.

Premier League table
# Team MP D P
1 24 +32 54
2 24 +27 49
3 24 +17 45
4 24 +25 44
5 23 +6 38
6 25 +2 37
7 24 +0 32
8 24 -6 31
9 23 +3 30
10 23 +0 30
11 24 -1 30
12 23 -7 28
13 25 -15 28
14 24 -3 27
15 24 -1 26
16 24 -14 26
17 22 -10 23
18 25 -19 23
19 23 -17 21
20 24 -19 21

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