Premier League Review – Blues close in on United

A positive weekend for the Blues, as United slipped up at away to fierce rivals Liverpool, meanwhile in the evening kick-off Andre Villas-Boas guided his team to a comfortable 3-1 win over Everton.

The league table now has City sitting top, maintaining their three point lead, meanwhile United have dropped to second and are a point ahead of Chelsea with both Manchester clubs meeting next weekend. Newcastle are fourth and Liverpool are fifth, should Tottenham win their game in hand they will go level on points with the Geordies.

This Premier League weekend was all about early goals, with five of them being scored inside 10 minutes!

Goal of the weekend
Robin Van Persie‘s second goal against Sunderland. After winning the free-kick, the Arsenal captain stepped up and curled a brilliant left-foot free-kick into the top corner from outside the area. Simon Mignolet in the Sunderland goal had no chance and that moment of magic won the Gunners the match.

Save of the weekend
Wojciech Szczesny‘s close range save from Sunderland’s Lee Cattermole. The Polish stopper somehow dived across his line to save a point-blank header from three yards after Cattermole met Stephane Sessegnon’s cross. It was described as ‘save of the season’ by BBC’s Match of the Day.

Club of the weekend
Newcastle United. A tricky decision as not many teams stood out this weekend, but Newcastle showed their character against Tottenham after falling behind twice in their match; only to equalise both times and almost steal a late winner. The Magpies remain unbeaten in the league and are six points from the top of the table. 

Player of the weekend
Arsenal captain and saviour Robin Van Persie. Since the first minute – when he scored – the Dutchman’s movement and overall play was brilliant to watch. After bagging the early goal he almost doubled his tally with an exquisite turn and chip which hit the inside of the post. But RVP never gave up and scored a wonderful free-kick (see above) to give his side all three points.

Miss of the weekend
Dedryck Boyata‘s header against Wigan Athletic. The defender was unmarked inside the six-yard box but somehow headed Martin Petrov’s free-kick wide. Luckily for him, Bolton Wanderers held on to win the match.

Worst decision of the weekend
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson leaving out important players. The most successful manager in football got it abit wrong away to Liverpool on Saturday. Leaving the likes of Wayne Rooney, Nani, Javier Hernandez, Anderson and Antonio Valencia on the bench is something you shouldn’t do at Anfield. And when Sir Alex did bring the first three on, they managed to get an equaliser and spare his blushes.

What went wrong?
Wigan’s dodgy defence. You would think playing at home would settle your nerves more but this wasn’t the case for the Latic’s defence and especially Antolin Alcaraz. All three of Bolton’s goals came from mistakes at the back with two of them from the Paraguayan defender; much to the disgruntled home fans.

By Aaron Aquilina

Twitter @P_D_L_P

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