Weekend round-up

Apart from Spurs beating Middlesbrough 2-3 there was also:

Everton 2-4 Manchester United; Chelsea 2-2 Bolton
And for a while United’s title looked misplaced: 2 goals behind at Goodison Park, while Chelsea were 2-1 up at Stamford Bridge. Michael Carrick had inadvertently helped Alan Stubb’s free kick into goal and Manuel Fernandes had tricked Wes Brown and scored a lovely goal despite United dominating possession and play. But individual errors from Everton players soon put United level: goalkeeper Turner caught and released a corner kick, allowing John O’Shea to tap it in, and Phil Neville’s attempt at clearing a ball ended up in his own net. The tables had turned and there was time for Wayne Rooney, ferociously booed throughout, to score after a great effort and for substitute Eagles to cement the win with a neat shot. Meanwhile, at Stamford Bridge, Bolton had taken the lead with goal from Michalik only to see the lead become levelled and disappear as Salomon Kalou twice headed past Jaaskeleinen. But Bolton equalised, as Kevin Davies headed in a Gary Speed free kick, and Chelsea looked for, but were unable to find, a winner. The race is on, but advantage United.

Manchester City 0-2 Aston Villa
If most teams consider playing at home an advantage, Manchester City must at this point feel the opposite. Having failed to score, let alone win, at home since the 1^st of January, they have won 3, drawn 1 and only lost 1 of their last away fixtures. Despite playing with energy and matching Villa’s attempts, nothing found the goal and Sorenssen was never unduly troubled. Whether because he was getting bored or just because he was looking at the ball and nothing else, the Villa goalkeeper attacked and flattened Darius Vassell from behind, thus awarding City with a penalty. Joey Barton stepped up but fired it over the bar: Sorenssen remained untroubled and Barton must be regretting his harsh open criticism of his team. Surely that wasn’t worth paying for either…? Villa’s goals came from a powerful header by John Carew and a very well taken free kick by substitute Shaun Maloney.

Reading 1-0 Newcastle
The eagerly awaited return of Michael Owen, which lasted 90 minutes but only looked hopefully brilliant for the first part, ended up yielding an offside goal and some nice chances but no more. As Sibierski and Emre both had to be taken off for serious injury, Ameobi also made his return as a substitute. Newcastle looked bright in the early stages of the game, and in the first half Titus Bramble seemed to post the greatest threat to goalkeeper Harper with some deplorable back-passes. But Reading came back and Newcastle looked increasingly disorganised and seemed to have misplaced their central midfield entirely. Beautiful crosses from Solano and Milner found the middle but the Reading defence expertly trapped Owen, Ameobi and Martins offside. A well taken volley by Kitson put Reading deservedly ahead and they continued to press for more goals. If they keep this form up, the UEFA cup spot will come whether Steve Coppell wants it or not.

…and the rest:
Rafael Benitez, with one eye - or possibly both – firmly on next week’s Champions League fixture with Chelsea, had rested several of his key players and Portsmouth saw their opportunity and took it. Benjani Mwaruwari chipped a long goal kick past an advancing Jerzy Dudek and proceeded to head the ball in for their first; Niko Kranjcar, alone on the left hand side, controlled another long ball and nicely tucked it in for the second. Liverpool eventually responded with a corner kick header by Sami Hyypia; Portsmouth 2-1 Liverpool. Wigan were tortured by a rampant West Ham; the win for the Londoners put the teams on level points. Luis Boa Morte caught on to a long goal kick and his touch sent the ball bouncing over John Filan, who had misjudged the ball, and into the net. Yossi Benayoun found the goal mouth wide open as he finished off a wonderful attacking team effort and Boa Morte and Harewood combined to score a third; Wigan 0-3 West Ham. Charlton’s woes deepened after their trip to Blackburn: Scott Carson dropped the ball from Jason Robert’s strike and even if a header by Darren Bent put the visitors level, this was not Charlton’s finest hour. Ben Thatcher was sent off, Hermann Hreidarsson scored a clumsy own goal and a few minutes later it was Robert’s turn to shoot straight through all defensive attempts. A lovely Matt Derbyshire strike from the right in the 83^rd minute sealed the victory; Blackburn 4-1 Charlton. Sheffield United moved a step away from the immediate relegation bottom as a powerful strike by Michael Tonge secured a win over already relegated Watford; Sheffield United 1-0 Watford. Arsenal, ever wasteful with brilliant chances, but creating enough of them to get a few in by sheer statistical necessity, overcame Fulham by scoring two winning goals in the last six minutes. Having gone ahead with a header and seemingly cruising, their game regained urgency as Fulham equalised in the 78^th minute. But an Adebayor strike and a penalty allowed Arsenal to claim all the points and send Fulham deeper into relegation issues; Arsenal 3-1 Fulham.

…elsewhere:
I should add to the Scottish and Italian league title winners of last week that Lyon actually have secured the French Ligue 1 as well. Again. I forgot. Or perhaps don’t care enough? PSV Eindhoven won the Dutch league in style with a 5-1 win. And my UEFA-cup predictions have so far been completely off, as Espanyol beat Bremen 3-0 and Osasuna beat Sevilla 1-0. Of course return legs can change things for the losers who are at home next. Oh, who cares. In Sweden, Malmö FF completely destroyed AIK with a 4-0 home win. Delightful.