2 January 2011
CHELSEA 3 (Lampard 23 Pen, Drogba 84, Terry 89)
ASTON VILLA 3 (Young 41 Pen, Heskey 47, Clark 91)
Chelsea's poor mid season form continues as they shared a stunning six goal thriller against Aston Vila at Stamford Bridge. A remarkable first half saw two penalties and seven yellow cards, six for Villa, as referee Lee Mason took centre stage. Chelsea led when James Collins was adjudged to have climbed all over Florent Malouda and, after two players were booked, Frank Lampard crashed in the spot kick. Just before the interval, Villa levelled as Michael Essien hacked down Nigel Reo-Coker for a much clearer penalty, also finished well and powerfully by Ashley Young. Villa began the second half in sensational fashion by taking the lead as Stuart Downing's cross was headed in by a combination of Emile Heskey and Jeffrey Bruma. The hosts eventually started to get their act together as both Lampard and Malouda were denied by keeper Brad Friedel as they pressed for an equaliser. They eventually levelled six minutes from time as Salomon Kalou's close range effort was saved and Didier Drogba took a couple of touch and somehow forced a shot through a crowd of players and into the net. Within five minutes, Chelsea took the lead when Essien's cross was met by Drogba and his header was brilliantly saved only for John Terry to get to the rebound first and bobble a shot into the bottom corner. Into five minutes of stoppage time and Chelsea lost concentration totally and allowed Ciaran Clark to come in totally unmarked on the blind side to head home Marc Albrighton's cross and amazingly equalise for the visitors.
Attendance : 41,222
Assists : Malouda (won pen), Reo-Coker (won pen), Downing, n/a, n/a, Albrighton
WIGAN 0
NEWCASTLE 1 (Ameobi 19)
Newcastle move into mid table with a comfortable, yet narrow, win at Wigan. Newcastle led at the interval when Joey Barton's low shot was saved but not held by the keeper and after Peter Lovenkrands bundled the ball against the post, Shola Ameobi was on hand with a tap in from a matter of two yards out.
Attendance : 15,277
Assist : n/a
1 January 2011
BIRMINGHAM 0
ARSENAL 3 (Van Persie 13, Nasri 58, Johnson 66 og)
Arsenal stay on the coat tails of the two Manchester clubs with a comfortable win at Birmingham. They led early when Robin Van Persie's deflected free kick found the net and wrapped it up after the break when Cesc Fabregas set up Samir Nasri to drill in the second and then a Fabregas shot was well saved but hit two defenders and bobbled in via the leg of Roger Johnson.
Attendance : 24,341
Assists : n/a, Fabregas, n/a
LIVERPOOL 2 (Torres 49, Cole 92)
BOLTON 1 (Davies 43)
Under pressure Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson saw his club come from behind to net a last minute winner at home to Bolton. The visitors led when Matt Taylor's free kick was headed in by Kevin Davies. Liverpool rallied after the break and levelled when Steven Gerrard's clipped pass was brilliantly finished by Fernando Torres and with time edging away, up popped sub Joe Cole to bundle the ball in after Maxi Rodriguez had kept Gerrard's cross in the danger zone.
Attendance : 35,400
Assists : Taylor (fk), Gerrard, n/a
MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Johnson 34)
BLACKPOOL 0
Man City stay level on points with Man United at the top as they narrowly beat Blackpool in an entertaining clash at Eastlands. The only goal came when a corner was cleared to Adam Johnson whose shot took a
big deflection to sail in. They should have doubled the lead but Carlos Tevez sent his penalty wide after Luke Varney hauled down Yaya Toure.
Attendance : 47,296
Assist : n/a
STOKE 2 (Jones 23, Jagielka 69 og)
EVERTON 0
Stoke move into eighth after a goal in each half saw off Everton. Kenwyne Jones ended his run without a goal as he headed in Matt Etherington's cross and midway through the second half, a header from Jones was put into his own net by Phil Jagielka.
Attendance : 27,418
Assists : Etherington, n/a
TOTTENHAM 1 (Bale 42)
FULHAM 0
Spurs leap back into fourth as they saw off struggling Fulham. This wasn't the free flowing Spurs we've been used to but the scorer was familiar enough as Gareth Bale did well to nod in Rafael Van Der Vaart's free kick.
Attendance : 35,603
Assists : van der Vaart
WEST BROM 1 (Morrison 14)
MANCHESTER UNITED 2 (Rooney 3, Hernandez 75)
Man United began 2011 win an unconvincing win against an impressed West Brom side who missed a penalty with the scores level. The new year certainly began well for Wayne Rooney as he netted his first goal from open play since last March within three minutes as he got his head onto a routine cross from Patrice Evra which bounced hard into the turf and found the bottom corner. To their credit, the hosts battled back and levelled with the goal of the year so far (sorry!) as a long ball forward was nodded clear by Nemanja Vidic but it fell to James Morrison who struck a first time half-volley which flew into the roof of the net from 25 yards. They also felt that they should have had a penalty when Graham Dorrans burst through only to go to ground under a challenge from Gary Neville who appeared to get nothing on the ball only for the ref to wave play on. After an hour of toiling and looking anything but league leaders, United replaced Dimitar Berbatov with Javier Hernandez and within a minute, West Brom did get their penalty as Jerome Thomas cut inside and was caught by the trailing leg of Rio Ferdinand, however Peter Odemwingie committed the cardinal sin of not getting a spot kick on target and dragged his effort badly wide. United should then have had a spot kick of their own as Fabio's cross was clearly handled by Thomas but they had to be content with a corner and after the initial one was cleared, they found the net as Hernandez found space at the near post to nod in Rooney's cross.
Attendance : 25,499
Assists : Obertan, n/a, n/a
WEST HAM 2 (Zubar 51 og, Sears 79)
WOLVES 0
West Ham moved out of the bottom three as they beat fellow strugglers Wolves. They needed a stroke of luck to take the lead as Carlton Cole should have converted Frederic Piquionne's cross but missed it completely only for the ball to go in off of Wolves defender Roland Zubar. They clinched the win when Tal Ben Haim's cross was swept in by Freddie Sears for his first goal since netting on his debut almost three years ago.
Attendance : 33,500
Assists : n/a, Ben Haim
Gary Dowden - Joint Admin Yahoo Groups Premier-L list
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/premier-l/
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