English Premiership Football Roundup, Week 12

Bonfire Weekend in England didn’t disappoint with a sensational victory by Manchester United over leaders Chelsea; Blackburn‘s demolition of the previously unbeaten away Charlton and Bolton edging Spurs.

The fireworks started at Saturday lunchtime as Liverpool thumped two late rockets through the soggy Aston Villa defence and continued with Thierry Henry leading by example as always, scoring two of Arsenal‘s three against the already seemingly doomed Sunderland; Blackburn Rovers continued their recent habit of turning over “better” teams with a 4-1 destruction of Charlton Athletic, and Fulham surprisingly eclipsed the sky blue of Manchester City.

Routine and unremarkable results in the last three of the day as the Uniteds of Newcastle and West Ham banked three points against Midlands duo Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion respectively. In the late game, Wigan Athletic continued their remarkable run to second place in the table with an easy 2-0 victory at strugglers Portsmouth.

Sunday’s matches sparkled into life with the return to form of Everton being just too much for the disappointing Middlesbrough for their first home victory of the season before, in the weekend’s star fixture, Manchester United finally stop Chelsea with a rare Darren Fletcher goal.

The fiery weekend is brought to a close with the Monday night thriller between Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur, with the Northerners nicking it 1-0 thanks to another great goal from captain Kevin Nolan, his fifth in six games, to go above neighbours Manchester United into third place in the Premiership table.

This roundup is cross-posted here on About Manchester United.

Ed: RJ