Sunday, April 02, 2006

Premiership Saturday Round-Up


Manchester United have closed the gap to leaders Chelsea to just seven points at the top of The Premiership after victory at Bolton.
Chelsea could only claim a 0-0 draw with Birmingham at St Andrews in the early kick-off, which gave United the chance to further close the gap and they took it.
Bolton had gone ahead when Rio Ferdinand failed to clear and Kevin Davies fired home.
But United fought back and Louis Saha levelled before half time with a great finish as he curled the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen with the outside of his left foot.
Ruud van Nistelrooy - who was again left on the bench - was brought on late in the second half and he was on hand to grab the winner as Saha crossed into the six-yard for the ubiquitous Dutchman to fire home.
Arsenal are back into sixth and just two points behind rivals Tottenham, and with a game in hand, after their 5-0 demolition of Aston Villa at Highbury.
The game was really won by half time as goals as Emmanuel Adebayor and Thierry Henry put Arsenal ahead.
The Gunners stepped up a gear in the second half as Henry, Robin van Persie and Abou Diaby punished slack Villa defending.
Arsene Wenger's side took advantage of the fact that Tottenham went down 3-1 at Newcastle.
Lee Bowyer scored after just 65 seconds, but Robbie Keane levelled with a header.
However, Newcastle struck twice before half time through Shola Ameobi and Alan Shearer from the penalty spot, to seal victory.
Newcastle's cause was aided in the second half when Michael Dawson was sent off for a second bookable offence - while former Toon star Jermaine Jenas almost earned the biggest cheer of the afternoon when he managed one of the misses of the season when he fired wide from two yards with the goal at his mercy.
Portsmouth's brilliant run of form continued as they won 3-1 at Fulham - their third successive Premiership win.
Gary O'Neil put Pompey ahead within the first minute, but they were soon pegged back by a tremendous strike from Steed Malbranque.
Tresor Lomana Lua Lua then restored Pompey's lead and the win was sealed with O'Neil's second on the hour - which took a wicked deflection off Philippe Christanval.
Fulham's miserable day was compounded late on when Michael Brown was sent off for a reckless two-footed challenge.
Pompey's win takes them above Birmingham and level on points with West Brom - who played out a 2-0 defeat with Liverpool in the final game of the day.
First half efforts from Robbie Fowler and Djibril Cisse gave third placed Liverpool victory at The Hawthorns.
Sunderland avoided relegation on Saturday after they sealed a 2-2 draw at Everton, because of West Brom's result.
The Toffees were twice in-front but they could not hold on to claim the win. Leon Osman had given Everton the lead, only for Jon Stead to grab his first goal of the season and first for Sunderland.
James McFadden looked as if he had won the game, but a late header from Rory Delap - also his first goal for The Black Cats - gave Kevin Ball's men a share of the spoils.