Premier League Recap (February 12-14)

Manchester United 2-1 Manchester City

The Manchester derby was one to remember this time around. After a dull 0-0 draw earlier this season, Saturday’s lunchtime match was anything but. Man City boss, Roberto Mancini, went back to his single striker formation while United may have been playing their best and most fit team of the season (sans Rio Ferdinand). The game started brightly with both teams attacking but then slowed down after about 15 minutes. Then came Nani’s goal after a brilliant ball from Ryan Giggs in the latter part of the first half. Edin Dzeko came on for James Milner in the second half and he paid immediate dividends when his shot came off of Silva’s back to level the match at 1-1. I think everyone knows now what happens next, the YouTube worthy, brilliant, overhead goal by Mr. Wayne Rooney. It is definitely one of the best goals I have seen and it won a huge game for United and probably knocked City out of the title race. Great moment.

Arsenal 2-0 Wolves

Arsenal remained firmly in the title race and picked up a big three points ahead of their much talked about match against Barcelona on Wednesday. Robin Van Persie looked like a superstar and got both of the Gunners goals in this match. The only problem with the performance was that Arsenal didn’t score more. That was partly due to not the greatest finishing but mostly due a fantastic game from Wolves keeper, Wayne Hennessey.

Sunderland 1-2 Tottenham

Spurs got a much needed win to give them some confidence going into the mid week Champions League play. Sunderland bossed the opening parts of the game with Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan scoring first. Tottenham equalized with a Matthew Dawson header off a corner. In the second half Niko Kranjcar got the winner just as he did last week against Bolton. The match of the two top seven teams lived up to its billing.

Liverpool 1-1 Wigan

This has to be seen as a disappointing one for Liverpool at home against a team that is in the bottom half. Raul Miereles continued his hot streak with another wonderfully struck goal but Wigan would score on a teasing ball in the second half to even the score and split the points.

Blackburn 0-0 Newcastle

Newcastle responded from their eight goal thriller against Arsenal last week with a good but not great performance that saw them get a single point at Ewood Park.

Bolton 2-0 Everton

Defender Gary Cahill scored the opener for the Wanderers, while the Daniel Sturridge loan move has turned out to be an amazing one for Bolton. He and Stuart Holden look like they have been playing together for years. David Moyes has run out of ideas as Everton’s struggles continue.

Blackpool 1-1 Aston Villa

Blackpool has struggled at home all season and it continued on Saturday. Gabby Agbonlahor opened the scoring after Darren Bent played him into space. Blackpool responded well and eventually got a goal from Grandin to tie it at 1-1. DJ Campbell missed a couple good chances for Blackpool but it got better for the home side when Jean Makoun was sent off for his wild challenge. The goal never came for Blackpool so it was another draw at home.

Birmingham 1-0 Stoke

Not much to say about this one, because it was Stoke and Birmingham. Giant striker, Zigic, got the winner in stoppage time.

West Brom 3-3 West Ham

On paper, this looked like it was going to be a boring match up of terrible W clubs, but in reality it was a six goal classic (kind of). Graham Dorrans got the first one on a screamer in the 3^rd minute before Jerome Thomas and a West Ham own goal made it 3-0 to West Brom. The Hammers were not done, however. There was a fighting spirit from West Ham and they climbed all the way back to get a 3-3 draw with two goals from new signee Demba Ba (1st and 3rd) and Carlton Cole (2nd).

Fulham 0-0 Chelsea

Not much happened in the first 90 minutes of this game except a lot of missed chances from Chelsea’s Fernando Torres. When the clock hit 90:00 the match got interesting. Fulham started to look they were going to win it when Clint Dempsey won a penalty for them after David Luiz, who had a great game for Chelsea, brought him down in stoppage time. Dempsey then missed the penalty and the rebound which was essentially the last kick of the match. Yet another poor result for Chelsea.

The Rooney goal and United win was obviously the big story of the weekend but plenty happened to keep the various races (title, fourth spot, and relegation) alive and enthralling.