Busy Saturday in England as some fairly dire weather made conditions tough. Here’s your wrap up of today’s action.
Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn
As I expected, Arsenal took out some frustration over recent struggles (and exacted some revenge for the 4-3 loss to Blackburn in September) on the Rovers at the Emirates, putting seven past Paul Robinson. Blackburn didn’t help their cause either when Gael Givet was shown a straight red card right before halftime. Robin Van Persie led the Gunners with a hat trick while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had a brace and Mikel Arteta found the net as well. Oxlade-Chamberlain continues to impress, having been in great form of late.
Norwich City 2-0 Bolton
Second half goals from Andrew Surman and Anthony Pilkington gave the Canaries three points and knocked Bolton back in to the relegation zone.
QPR 1-2 Wolverhampton
Djibril Cisse scored in his debut on Wednesday, but followed it up with a red card in the second match after reacting to a poor tackle from Wolves’ Roger Johnson. Cisse jumped up, spun Johnson around and grabbed his neck, giving the referee no real choice in the matter. Meanwhile, Bobby Zamora paid dividends for QPR in his debut, scoring the opener but Wolves utilized the man advantage equalizing early in the second half thanks to Matthew Jarvis and getting the winner from Kevin Doyle in the 71st.
Stoke City 0-1 Sunderland
A straight red card to Stoke’s Robert Huth was too much for the Potters to overcome. John McClean broke through for the Black Cats in the 60th minute and that was all they needed to secure the victory.
West Brom 1-2 Swansea City
After a fairly pedestrian first half, things got interesting in the second half. Marc-Antoine Fortune put the Baggies ahead in the 55th, but less than a minute later Gylfi Sigurdsson equalized for the Swans. A second Swansea goal by Danny Graham in the 59th minute proved the difference.
Wigan 1-1 Everton
Wigan opened the scoring thanks to a wicked deflection by Phil Neville on a Wigan cross fooled goalkeeper Tim Howard. Late substitute Victor Anichebe got his noggin on a Leighton Baines cross and equalized for Everton, but neither team could find the winner.
Manchester City 2-0 Fulham
Chris Beard had a nightmare day for Fulham, conceding a questionable penalty early to set-up City’s first goal (scored by Kun Aguero), then deflecting an Adam Johnson shot past his own goalkeeper for a second. Edin Dzeko added a third in the second half as the league leaders cruised past the Cottagers for a much needed win.
