This week's Premiership fixtures kicked off with the Saturday lunchtime game between Mark Hughes' Blackburn Rovers and Steve Bruce's Birmingham City; the striker's team beat the defender's side and Birmingham went home empty-handed after losing 2-0.
In the main group of Saturday afternoon matches, the standout game was a bit of a letdown for both sets of fans as Manchester United were held to a draw by Tottenham Hotspur, which can only have pleased Chelsea fans. Elsewhere Arsenal bested the continuingly impressive Manchester City thanks to a Robert Pires penalty but the former kings of the capital ended the day as they started, only the fourth best team in London.
Perennial strugglers Aston Villa were unable to raise their game for the visit of this season's surprise package Wigan Athletic, who surge to an unprecedented fourth place in their first ever Premiership season, whilst Fulham played above themselves to beat the moody men of Merseyside that are Liverpool.
The late afternoon match saw strugglers Portsmouth entertain high flyers Charlton Athletic down on the South Coast of England - and down is where they stayed as the Londoners came from behind to leap into second place.
The four Sunday matches started with a cracking North East derby as Newcastle United hosted an increasingly desperate Sunderland. The final 15 minutes of the first half produced a flurry of four goals but Newcastle nicked the victory thanks to a stunning second half Belozoglu Emre free kick, his first goal for the club since joining them from Inter Milan.
Later, Bolton Wanderers continued their good season with a routine 2-0 victory against promoted West Bromwich Albion, which takes them to 7th, whilst West Ham United bounced back from last week's defeat, beating Middlesborough 2-1.
This week's fixtures were brought to a thrilling close with this season's surprise whipping boys Everton, currently propping up the table, hosting runaway leaders Chelsea. All non-Chelsea fans will join in congratulating The Toffees as the first team this season to avoid defeat against the reigning champions. The Merseysiders held on for the draw after going ahead through a first half James Beattie penalty and it took another stunning Frank Lampard goal in the second half to bring Chelski back into it. He truly is the best footballer in the Premiership right now.
The current Premiership League table is here.
This article originally posted here to About Manchester United.
Article comments
1 - Yashin
The Pires/Henry penalty debacle was the highlight of the weekend. MotD showed Cruyff and Neeskens doing it properly. Hilarious.
2 - alienboy
Hi Yashin,
Yes, that certainly was very funny; I was previously unaware that it was possible to pass rather than shoot.
The highlight though? Hmm, not so sure about that, for me it was the first sign that Chelsea are actually humans and not high performance robots!