Sunday 26 February 2012

Derby Goals, Legendary Pairing and a Mid-Table Clash

Super Super returned with a triple bill that had everything to rival the Carling Cup final and much more. The day kicked-off with the North London derby. So far this season, the big games have featured a crazy amount of goals and this one was no different. The first goal rolled in after just four minutes when non-existent defending allowed Louis Saha in on goal, his shot took a deflection before looping over the goalkeeper. It got worse for Arsenal when Gareth Bale 'fell' under a Wojiech Sczcesny challenge, Emmanuel Adebayor stepped-up and converted the subsequent penalty to make it 2-0 on his 28th birthday. But Arsenal managed to fight back with Bacary Sagna heading a goal home on 40-minutes before Robin Van Persie fired them level three minutes later to make it 2-2 at half-time, the Dutchman scoring his 29th goal in all competitions this season.

The momentum was definitely in Arsenal's court following the break and a typical Arsenal attack ended with Tomas Rosicky tapping the ball home to give the hosts the lead six minutes after the restart, his first goal in over an year. It soon turned into a half Tottenham would want to forget as Van Persie played Theo Walcott in and the Englishman was only too happen to score past Brad Friedel in front on interim England Manager, Stuart Pearce. Walcott then added his second and Arsenal's fifth three minutes after his first on 68-minutes. To make Tottenham's day even worse, Scott Parker received a second yellow card three minutes before the end to rule him out of the clash against Manchester United. Van Persie received his fifth yellow card of the season, meaning he his potentially out of the clash with Liverpool. The victory also means that Arsenal move ahead of Chelsea into fourth on goal difference.

Meanwhile, at Carrow Road, Norwich entertained Manchester United. United needed to win to stay within two points of leaders Manchester City. It took the legendary pairing of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs to squeeze the three points out of the surprise package of the season. Scholes headed home a Nani cross after just seven minutes to give United the lead. Giggs hit the crossbar in the second half that would have ended the game. Instead, Grant Holt broke David De Gea's fantastic resistance with an exquisite shot on the turn seven minutes from time, his tenth goal of the season. But Giggs' 900th appearance was to end with a win with the Welshman tapping home an Ashley Young cross in injury time.

The day's other game saw Stoke host Swansea in a game where the winner would go three points above the loser. The opening goal of the game after 24-minutes with Matthew Upson heading his first Stoke goal from a corner. The other goal of the game came via Ryan Shotton's Delap-esque throw was headed in by Peter Crouch just fifteen minutes later. Swansea's reserve keeper, Gerhard Tremmel, was making his debut and should have kept Crouch's header out instead of palming into his own net. Stoke sit 12th on 33-points with Swansea two places and three points behind.    

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