Weekend Football Roundup: Premier League, La Liga, Serie A

Weekend Round-Up

Premier League Results:

Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham

Bolton 0-5 Chelsea

Burnley 2-0 Hull

Everton 1-1 Aston Villa

Man. United 2-0 Blackburn

Portsmouth 4-0 Wigan

Stoke 2-2 Wolves

Sunderland 2-2 West Ham

Birm’ham 0-0 Man. City

Arsenal’s north London supremacy was instilled in their emphatic win over rivals Tottenham. It was a thrilling match and Arsenal put on their usual display of beautiful possession football. Tottenham too, did well to close down in the midfield. With half time approaching, it took Robin van Persie’s excellent read on Sagna’s cross in the 42nd minute to break the deadlock. And seconds later, from the kick-off, Cesc Fabregas run from the half-way line through the somewhat stunned Spurs defence. “Fab” easily put it past Spurs keeper Gomes to make it 2-0 after 45 mins. In the second half, Sagna set up Van Persie again, 15 minutes into the second half. It was a day of poor defending on Tottenham’s part; and excellent play from Arsenal...you can deduce who the better side was.

Chelsea saw off Bolton 0-4, again. It really could’ve been more, had they not been wasteful with some of their chances. But nobody can complain about a 4 goal win. Chelsea’s dominance in the English game was maintained with goals from Lampard, Deco and Drogba and an own-goal from Knight.

The partnership of Berbatov and Rooney finally paid dividends in the second half of their match. United looked shaky throughout. They were without Vidic and Ferdinand, and relied on Wes Brown and Jonny Evans to hold fort at the back. However Berbatov and Rooney got the job done, but it was by no means a good display of football, United were made to work for their 3 points.

Birmingham held Man City to their 4th league draw in a row on Sunday. The Eastlands club may have more stars in their line-up, but if anything, Birm’ham outplayed the Manchester Club. Keeper Shay Given saved McFadden’s penalty in the second half to ensure that Man City didn’t drop three full points. City didn’t do much upfront, but their defence was put to test. The match ended goalless, the Citizens would know they were lucky to escape a loss.

For my thoughts on the Fulham-Liverpool fiasco, see my earlier post.

La Liga Results:

Real Madrid 2-0 Getafe

Xerez 0-2 Sevilla

Osasuna 1-1 Barcelona

Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Atletico Madrid

Villareal 5-0 Teberife

Espanyol 1-1 Real Valladolid

Real Mallorca 1-0 Racing Santander

Real Zaragoza 2-1 Almeria

Malaga 0–1 Valencia

Deportivo La Coruna 1-1 Sporting Gijon

Real Madrid recovered from the early loss of Raul Albiol (who was shown red for bringing down Soldado just outside the box) to secure a win over Getafe. A brace from Argentine Gonzalo Higuain was enough to give Los Galacticos the 3 points. They were without Cristiano Ronaldo again. Under fire coach Pellegrini will breathe a sigh of relief and look to the much anticipated clash with Milan midweek.

Los Che edged out bottom of the league Malaga thanks to a sole goal from Navarro. Malaga however can take comfort from the fact that they pushed Valencia and were in no way walked all over. Valencia sits in 4th position and has closed the gap between themselves and leaders Barca down to 5 points.

Elsewhere in La Liga, Sevilla maintained their 3rd position with superb strikes from Negredo and Luis Fabiano against Xerez. And Atletico Madrid has dropped more points and has slumped to 18th position. Javi Martinez’s header in the first half was enough for Bilbao, leaving Atletico in the relegation zone.

For the Osasuna-Barcelona match review, see my earlier post.

Serie A Results:

Juventus 2-3 Napoli

Milan 2-0 Parma

Fiorentina 3-1 Catania

Sampdoria 0-0 Bari

Cagliari 3-0 Atalanta

Livorno 0-2 Inter Milan

Chievo 1-1 Udinese

Roma 2-1 Bologna

Siena 1-1 Lazio

Palermo 0-0 Genoa

Inter won their away tie against Livorno, in what turned out to be an important weekend in Serie A. With Juventus losing to Napoli, the gap between the two stretch to 7 points. Goals from Maicon and Diego Milito secured Mourinho’s side the win. Milan also secured a crucial win against Parma, and is now back in the big time as they sit in 4th.