Weekend Round Up
A packed weekend of Premier League action saw an extraordinary game at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Arsenal which is where our round up kicks off. Arsenal travelled to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and came away with a memorable 5-3 win that reignited their campaign. Chelsea started brightly and took the lead through Frank Lampard’s header after 14 minutes. Back came Arsenal though and Gervinho set up Robin van Persie to tap home to make it 1-1. Chelsea restored their lead on half time as much maligned captain John Terry poked home from a corner but it all changed after the break as goals from Andre Santos and an astonishing goal from Theo Walcott put Arsenal 3-2 ahead. With ten minutes left though Juan Mata, once a target of Arsenal, smashed home an equaliser from 30 yards but an inexplicable slip from John Terry let in van Persie to round Petr Cech and restore Arsenal’s lead. In injury time, as Chelsea pushed forward, Arsenal broke, and van Persie lashed home to grab his hat-trick and a priceless three points for The Gunners, much to the delight of Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal celebrate Robin van Persie's magnificent hat-trick
Earlier in the afternoon Manchester United overcame a difficult game at Goodison Park to beat Everton 1-0, Javier Hernandez getting the goal, to keep up up the pressure on Manchester City who overcame a resilient Wolves side 3-1 at The Etihad Stadium. Edin Dzeko got the first after a disastrous error from Wayne Hennesey, Aleksandr Kolarov doubled the advantage before Vincent Kompany was sent off for a tug on Kevin Doyle. Stephen Hunt scored the resulting penalty but Adam Johnson curled home late on to secure the points as City march on.
At the other end of the table Norwich came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Blackburn at Carrow Road. Junior Hoilett scored the opener but Steve Morison volleyed in an equaliser in two of weekend’s best goals. Yakubu and Chris Samba put daylight between the two sides but Michael Bradley scored a deflected strike and in injury time Martin Olsson was harshly adjudged to have handballed and Grant Holt tucked away the resulting penalty. Swansea overcame struggling Bolton 3-1 at The Liberty Stadium with goals from Joe Allen, Scott Sinclair and Danny Graham while Fulham overcame Wigan 2-0 at The DW Stadium courtesy of strikes from Clint Dempsey and Moussa Dembele.
Sunderland and Aston Villa played out an 2-2 draw in another entertaining game. Stilian Petrov scoring beautifully from 20 yards giving Villa the lead until Connor Wickham smashed home to make it 1-1. Richard Dunne thought he had got the winner five minutes from time but back came Sunderland and Stephane Sessegnon bundled home in the 89th minute to save a point for a relieved Steve Bruce. In the evening game Liverpool beat West Brom 2-0 thanks to a penalty from Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll’s third goal of the season and on Sunday Tottenham kept up their excellent form with a 3-1 home win against QPR with Gareth Bale grabbing a brace and Rafael van der Vaart getting the other, in between a consolation goal for Jay Bothroyd.
Bale capped an excellent performance with two goals
SYS Team of the Weekend: Schwarzer (Fulham); Richards (Manchester City), Kolarov (Manchester City), Vidic (Manchester United) Koscielny (Arsenal); Hoilett (Blackburn), Bale (Tottenham) Parker (Tottenham), Allen (Swansea); van Persie (Arsenal), Walcott (Arsenal)
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