Capital One Cup Quarter Final Draw

Leeds United v Chelsea

Swansea City v Middlesbrough

Norwich City v Aston Villa

Bradford City v Arsenal

Capital One Cup Fourth Road

Leeds 3-0 Southampton: Michael Tonge (35) and El Hadji Diouf (88) made it 2-0 before Luciano Becchio (90) sealed the victory over the Premiership visitors from the penalty spot.

Reading 5-7 Arsenal AET: Arsenal pull off an amazing comeback to somehow progress into the quarter finals. Jason Roberts (12), a Laurent Koscielny (18) own goal, Mikele Leigertwood (20) and Noel Hunt (37) put Reading 4-0 ahead. Theo Walcott (45) and Olivier Giroud (64) pulled two goals back before Arsenal scored two very late goals to force extra time. Koscielny (89) slightly redeemed himself with Walcott scoring the equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time. Marouane Chamakh (103) gave Arsenal the lead for the first time before Pavel Pogrebnyak (116) looked to force penalties. But to goals from Walcott and Chamakh in injury time sealed the victory.

Sunderland 0-1 Middlesbrough: Scott McDonald (39) scored the only goal to win the Wear-Tees derby and send the Premier League team home.

Swindon 2-3 Aston Villa: An injury time goal saved Villa's blushes to send them through. Christian Benteke (30) and Gabriel Agbonlahor (39) had given Villa a 2-0 lead but Miles Storey (78 & 81) levelled the game. Benteke scored the injury time goal to break Swindon hearts.

Wigan 0-0 Bradford AET (Bradford win 4-2 on penalties)

Chelsea 5-4 Manchester United AET: In the rematch, United were seconds away from victory before ultimately losing in extra time. Ryan Giggs (22) opened the scoring after Anderson pounced on dawdling Oriol Romeu. David Luiz (31) equalised from the spot when Alexander Buttner tripped Victor Moses. Javier Hernandez (43) continued his great record scoring against Chelsea before Gary Cahill (52) headed Chelsea level for a second time. Nani (59) chipped United ahead for the third time and were five seconds from victory until Scott Wootton bundled Ramires in the box, Eden Hazard converted the second penalty to force extra time. A slack attempted back pass from Wootton allowed Daniel Sturridge (97) to give Chelsea the lead for the first time of the match. Ramires (116) earned victory after a stunning pass from Hazard. But Giggs (120) had the last word scoring from the spot after Javier Hernandez was pushed by Cesar Azpilicueta.

Norwich 2-1 Tottenham: Two goals in three minutes see Norwich go from a losing position to progressing into the last eight. Gareth Bale (66) had put Tottenham ahead before Jan Vertonghen (84) scored an own goal to equalise. Simeon Jackson (87) scored the vital winning goal.

Liverpool 1-3 Swansea: There will be new champions with Liverpool being knocked out by Brendan Rodgers' former team. Chico Flores (34) and Nathan Dyer (72) put the visitors 2-0 up. Luis Suarez (76) pulled one back before Jonathan De Guzman (90) sealed the victory.

9-Man Chelsea Lose, Merseyside Draw, Arsenal and City Scrape Through

Chelsea 2-3 Manchester United: Chelsea's first league defeat of the season sees two players sent off and a shroud of controversy. United started the better and were ahead after four minutes when a Robin Van Persie shot came off the post to hit David Luiz on the back before going in. It was 2-0 after 12-minutes when a quick United break saw Antonio Valencia pull the ball back for Van Persie to guide home. Chelsea grew into the first half and were soon dominating the match. They more than deserved to get back into the game when a Juan Mata free-kick found the net just before half-time.
Chelsea then started the second half the way they ended the first and it was no surprise to see the hosts level just eight minutes after the restart, Ramires heading an Oscar cross home. The game began to change on the 63rd minute when Branislav Ivanovic brought Ashley Young down as last man in a goal scoring opportunity, the busy referee, Mark Clattenburg, had no option but to send the Serbian off. It got even worse six minutes later when Chelsea were then down to nine men. Fernando Torres, who was lucky not to have been given more than his yellow for a first half challenge on Tom Cleverley that was chest high, fell under a challenge from Jonny Evans. Replays showed their was minimal contact, but Clattenburg deemed not enough to go down and gave the striker a second yellow for simulation.
The game was won 15-minutes from time in equally controversial circumstances; a Van Persie shot was fumbled just away from goal by Petr Cech. The bundled clearance fell to Rafael who smashed the ball across the six yard box for substitute Javier Hernandez, who was coming back from an offside position and did look offside, to tap home. Whether it should have been allowed or not shouldn't allow for what happened next; as Hernandez ran to the corner to celebrate, Chelsea fans threw chairs, coins and other missiles onto the pitch. One steward twisted his knee in his attempt to cool things down and while he was receiving treatment on the pitch, it was perceived that fans also hit him with missiles. To make things more distasteful, Chelsea have lodged an appeal to the FA for two apparent uses of racial language by Clattenburg to their players.

Everton 2-2 Liverpool: Everton comeback from 2-0 down to earn a point in a Merseyside derby without a red card. The visitors took the lead on 14-minutes when Luis Suarez smashed the ball across the goal where it rebounded off Leighton Baines and went into the net. It was 2-0 six minutes later when a Steven Gerrard free-kick was headed home by Suarez. Everton got back into the game when a loose ball fell to Leon Osman to guide a shot into the bottom corner on 22-minutes. They were level ten minutes before half-time when Steven Naismith scored his first Everton goal, a year since his last goal. Liverpool thought they had won it in second half injury time when Luis Suarez tapped home a Sebastian Coates knock down. After wheeling away in celebration, the linesman had put his flag up. The only problem is, if it was given offside then the linesman got it wrong but Coates had his hands on the shoulders of the defender which could have been deemed as a foul.

Southampton 1-2 Tottenham: Gareth Bale's return to St.Mary's saw the Welshman break the deadlock on 15-minutes after he headed home a Tom Huddlestone cross, but he didn't celebrate out of respect for his former club. Spurs were then 2-0 ahead when a Jermain Defoe shot was cleared off the line before Clint Dempsey bundled the ball over six minutes before half-time. Jay Rodriguez scored his first Premier League goal in 66-minutes from a corner after an initial attempt had been parried, to pull a goal back for Southampton but they couldn't force an equaliser.

Newcastle 2-1 West Brom: Newcastle steal the points in the depths of injury time. Demba Ba put Newcastle ahead ten minutes before half-time with a clever volley that was too hard for Ben Foster. West Brom were level ten minutes into the second half when Romelu Lukaku headed a Zoltan Gera cross past Tim Krul. Substitute Papiss Cisse deflected a Sammy Ameobi shot past Foster to open his account for the season and walk off with the three points.

Reading 3-3 Fulham: Reading remain without victory despite being embroiled in a six goal thriller. Mikele Leigertwood opened the scoring with a great goal into the top corner. Bryan Ruiz didn't want to be outdone and he equalised in a similar fashion just after the hour mark. Fulham then turned it around when Chris Baird headed his second goal in two games on 77-minutes. This time it was Reading's turn to equalise and it came five minutes from time through Garath McCleary. Parity only lasted for three minutes though and Dimitar Berbatov thought he had won the game with a beautifully guided shot into the bottom corner. But an injury time scramble saw the ball fall over the line courtesy of Hal Robson-Kanu to earn a point.

Arsenal 1-0 QPR: Arsenal scrape through with all three points in dubious circumstances. The action began ten minutes from time when Stephane Mbia was sent off for kicking out at Thomas Vermaelen after he had already been awarded the foul. A scramble then led to Mikel Arteta heading the ball home from an offside position. QPR are still without a victory this season.

Manchester City 1-0 Swansea: City join United by going one point behind leaders Chelsea after squeezing out victory against Swansea. The only goal of the game came just after the hour mark when Carlos Tevez scored from long range.

Wigan 2-1 West Ham: Wigan win their first home game of the season. Ivan Ramis smashed the hosts ahead after just eight minutes. James McCarthy made it 2-0 two minutes into the second half before James Tomkins headed a consolation in injury time.

Aston Villa 1-1 Norwich: 10-Man Villa failed to hold onto their lead against Norwich. Christian Benteke put Villa ahead on 27-minutes after being put through by Brett Holman. Joe Bennett was then sent off seven minutes into the second after receiving his second yellow for pulling Elliott Bennett back. Brad Guzan and co did their best to keep Norwich at bay but they ultimately crumbled when Michael Turner headed a corner home for his first ever Canary goal 11-minutes from time.

Stoke 0-0 Sunderland: Not even eight minutes of injury time could separate these two draw specialists. 

Vettel's Quad Extends Lead

Sebastian Vettel once again led from start to finish to win his fourth consecutive race, lead for over 200 consecutive laps and extend his lead over Fernando Alonso. It could have ended better for Vettel who had Mark Webber behind him for most of the race until a KERs issue allowed Alonso to gain and ultimately overtake the stricken Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton also came close to catching Webber, but the Australian managed to find enough speed when he needed it to hold on to secure that final podium place.

The start of the race was eventful but not so much for any incidents which many are used to. With Ferrari so much quicker on the straight, Alonso had managed to overtake both McLaren cars to get into third. Jenson Button regained his place from Alonso on the next corner but Hamilton couldn't overtake the Ferrari.

The start wasn't wholly incident free and it was Michael Schumacher who suffered a puncture to instantly end any chance of the veteran winning any points. The puncture was suffered after he contacted the front wing of Jean-Eric Vergne. The damage sustained caused Vergne to pit as well as Schumacher, but both were able to continue.

By the fourth lap, Alonso had managed to make his straight line speed count by overtaking Button to gain that third place. Two laps later, Button had lost another place as he just didn't seem to have any real race pace, it was Hamilton who had gained the fourth place.

There were battles towards the bottom end of the points throughout the race. One of those was between Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez which saw the Force India overtake the Sauber on lap-14 to gain eighth. Six laps later, Perez ended up suffering a puncture after contact with Daniel Ricciardo in a carbon copy incident to Schumacher. The Mexican did manage to continue but ultimately had to retire on lap-22 for unforeseen damage to the suspension.

Lap-29 just highlighted the pace of the Ferrari when Kimi Raikkonen overtook Felipe Massa for fifth place. But the Brazilian soon regained the place by overtaking the Finn on the straight. Pastor Maldonado became the third driver to suffer a puncture on lap-31 after contact with Kamui Kobayashi, but the Venezuelan was also able to continue.

Pedro De La Rosa wasn't so fortunate as he became the second retirement of the race on lap-45. The Spaniard suffered a brake failure that caused him to spin off and hit the barrier. It was around that time that Webber announced his loss of KERs and the Ferrari team jumped on it straight away. By lap-48, the Ferrari had completely caught up and managed to overtake the Red Bull to secure that second place.

The battle for the final point ended with Bruno Senna overtaking Nico Rosberg on lap-52. It also ended miserably for the other Mercedes car, Schumacher ended up having to retire on lap-57, his eighth in his final ever season and to make matters worse, he is to be investigated for ignoring blue flags. Race result:

1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Alonso (Ferrari), 3.Webber (Red Bull), 4.Hamilton (McLaren), 5.Button (McLaren), 6.Massa (Ferrari), 7.Raikkonen (Lotus), 8.Hulkenberg (Force India), 9.Grosjean (Lotus), 10.Senna (Williams), 11.Rosberg (Mercedes), 12.Di Resta (Force India), 13.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 14.Kobayashi (Sauber), 15.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 16.Maldonado (Williams), 17.Petrov (Caterham), 18.Kovalainen (Caterham), 19.Pic (Marussia), 20.Glock (Marussia), 21.Karthikeyan (HRT) DNF: Perez (Sauber), De La Rosa (HRT), Schumacher (Mercedes)

Red Bull's Front Row Lock-Out Hat-Trick

The first time in their history, Red Bull have performed a hat-trick of front row lock-outs to continue Sebastian Vettel's charge to become a triple World Champion. It was the German who lit up the time sheets in practice and again in Q2 before carrying that over into claiming Pole with Mark Webber in second.

McLaren weren't as far away as many thought they might have been and they lock-out the second row with Ferrari holding the third. Lewis Hamilton is desperate to claim a victory before he leaves McLaren and will start third ahead of Jenson Button. Ferrari tried to deploy a tow tactic to gain some time, it worked to some extent in Q1 but it wasn't really played out in the remainder of the session. Fernando Alonso came out finishing fifth with Felipe Massa, who suffered a spin in Q2, in sixth.

Kimi Raikkonen will begin the race in seventh with Sergio Perez continuing to show McLaren what he can do by getting into Q3 once again and making it into eighth. Pastor Maldonado returned to Q3 to post a time that sees him start ninth whilst Nico Rosberg made it into Q3 but didn't post a time, giving him a choice of tyres.

Q2 saw drivers miss out in the very last seconds, Romain Grosjean was the last of those to miss out and will begin the race 11th. Force India would have perhaps looked for at least of their cars into Q3 for their home race. Nico Hulkenberg came closest to fulfilling that desire but ultimately finished 12th, Paul Di Resta starts 16th. Williams had a largely successful qualifying session with Maldonado gaining the quickest time in Q1, albeit on the soft tyres, and Bruno Senna will start 13th.

Michael Schumacher continues to disappoint in qualifying and begins tomorrow's race in 14th. Daniel Ricciardo managed to creep out of Q1 and pushes himself up to 15th, ahead of Di Resta. Kamui Kobayashi looked rather nervy throughout the session and didn't look comfortable in the Sauber, hence why he ended up only qualifying 17th.

Not for the first time season, Jean-Eric Vergne failed to make it out of Q1 and joins the usual suspects in 18th place. Vitaly Petrov managed to win the Caterham battle and will start 19th with Heikki Kovalainen 20th, the Finn ended the session beached in the gravel. Timo Glock will start 21st with his Marussia team-mate, Charles Pic, at the back of the grid. The two HRTs managed to out-qualify the Frenchman with Pedro De La Rosa also beating Narain Karthikeyan in front of the Indian's home crowd.

Arsenal & City See Dutch, Madrid Also Lose

Group A: Dinamo Zagreb remain pointless after defeat to PSG. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his second goal of the tournament to break the deadlock on 32-minutes. Jeremy Menez secured the three points two minutes before half-time to move up to six points.
FC Porto maintain their 100% record in this year's campaign after a topsy turvy match against Dynamo Kyiv. Silvestre Varela put Porto ahead on the quarter of an hour mark before Oleh Gusev scored his second of the tournament to equalise six minutes later. Jackson Martinez put Porto back into the lead nine minutes before half-time. Ideye Brown equalised again for Kyiv on 72-minutes but Martinez was on hand to seal the points six minutes later. Mid-way table:
FC Porto              9
Paris St. Germain  6
Dynamo Kyiv       3
Dinamo Zagreb     0

Group B: Arsenal are beaten at home in a Champions League group game for the first time since 2003. Schalke came to the Emirates and were the better side throughout. They finally got their reward when Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored his third goal in three games on 76-minutes. The win was wrapped up when Huntelaar's fellow Dutchman, Ibrahim Afellay, was on hand to make it 2-0 four minutes from time.
Montpellier have now opened the scoring in all three of their games in their debut Champions League, only to come away without victory. This week it was Gaetan Charbonnier to give the French hosts the lead four minutes into the second half. Vasilis Torosidis equalised for Olympiacos on 73-minutes before Konstantinos Mitroglu scored his second goal of the tournament in injury time to snatch the three points. Mid-way table:
FC Schalke    7
Arsenal           6
Olympiacos     3
Montpellier      1

Group C: Zenit finally have their first points of the campaign on the board in the day's early kick-off. A penalty in the 72nd minute from Aleksandr Kerzhakov was enough to seal the win against Anderlecht.
Malaga are the only side in this season's tournament yet to concede a goal. Joaquin was on target for the second time this campaign on 64-minutes to beat AC Milan. Mid-way table:
Malaga                  9
AC Milan              4
Zenit St Petersburg 3
Anderlecht             1

Group D: Manchester City's European woes continue with defeat away to Ajax. It started off in a better vain for the visitors when Samir Nasri put City ahead on 22-minutes. Siem De Jong equalised with a great finish just before half-time. Ajax were the better team throughout the match and deserved their lead when Niklas Moisander scored his second goal of the tournament 12-minutes after the restart. Christian Eriksen's deflected shot sealed the points for Ajax on 68-minutes.
The Bundesliga Champions saw off the La Liga Champions to go top of Group D. Robert Lewandowski scored his second goal of tournament to put Dortmund ahead on 36-minutes. Their lead lasted for two minutes when Cristiano Ronaldo netted his fifth of the campaign. The winner came on 64-minutes in the shape of Marcel Schmelzer to seal the victory for the German hosts. Mid-way table:
Borussia Dortmund 7
Real Madrid           6
Ajax                       3
Manchester City     1   

United Come From Behind Again, Chelsea Lose, Celtic Suffer Late Heartbreak

Group E: Chelsea's hopes of retaining the Champions League suffered a blow away to Shakhtar Donetsk. The Ukrainian hosts found themselves ahead after just three minutes through Alex Teixeira, his second of the tournament. Fernandinho made it 2-0 seven minutes into the second half before Oscar pulled one back two minutes from time. Another disappointment for Chelsea saw Frank Lampard substituted in the first half after sustaining an ankle injury and may be a doubt against Manchester United on Sunday.
Juventus remain unbeaten so far this season despite not actually winning a game in Europe. They were almost victims of a shock defeat when Mikkel Beckmann put Nordsjaelland ahead five minutes into the second half. But the point was rescued nine minutes from time when Mirko Vucinic equalised. It gives the Danes their first ever Champions League point. Mid-way table:
Shakhtar Donetsk 7
Chelsea                4
Juventus               3
FC Nordsjaelland 1

Group F: Valencia halt BATE's 100% record with a comfortable victory in Bulgaria. Roberto Soldado was Valencia's hero with a hat-trick. He broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in first half injury time. Soldado then doubled Valencia's lead ten minutes into the second half before completing his hat-trick on 69-minutes.
Lille remain pointless as Bayern Munich keep three teams locked at the top together. The only goal of the game from the penalty spot on 20-minutes where Thomas Muller was on hand to convert it. Mid-way table:
Valencia          6
BATE Borisov 6
Bayern Munich 6
Lille OSC        0

Group G: It was heartbreak for Celtic as they suffered defeat with the final kick of the game in Camp Nou. Giorgos Samaras scored his second goal of the competition to put Celtic ahead with a deflected header from a free-kick on 18-minutes. A classic Barcelona move was then finished off by Andres Iniesta to level the game just before half-time. Celtic did extremely well to hold on as Fraser Forster pulled off some magnificent saves and Barcelona hit the post. But a cross from Jordi Alba managed to beat everyone including Forster to find the corner of the net and crush Celtic with the last kick of the game.
Spartak Moscow score two goals for the third time this competition but have finally won their first game. Rafael Carioca put the Russian hosts ahead of Benfica after just three minutes. Benfica's first goal of the tournament saw Rodrigo Lima equalise on 33-minutes. A Mario Jardel own goal two minutes before half-time was enough to give Spartak the victory. Mid-way table:
Barcelona           9
Celtic                  4
Spartak Moscow 3 
Benfica                1

Group H: Manchester United retain their 100% start but had to do it the hard way at home to Braga. Alan scored his second goal of the tournament to give the Portuguese visitors a shock lead in under two minutes. It got worse for United when their makeshift back four were pulled apart again to allow Alan to head home his second goal of the match after 20-minutes. United managed to pull one back five minutes later through Javier Hernandez. Jonny Evans scored his first ever Champions League goal at the second attempt to equalise on 62-minutes. Hernandez then headed home a Tom Cleverley corner to steal the three points wit 15-minutes remaining.
Galatasaray pick up their first point of the season with a draw at home to Cluj. Dany Nounkeu put the ball into his own net to give Cluj the lead after 19-minutes. The Romanians then made it hard for themselves when Matias Aguirregaray got himself sent off two minutes before the half hour mark. But it took until the 77th minute for the Turkish side to take advantage when Burak Yilmaz scored their first goal in this competition. Mid-way table:
Manchester United 9
CFR Cluj               4
Braga                     3
Galatasaray            1

Own Goals Cause Draws

This week's Super Sunday had a touch of deja vu about them. Both games had an early goal, a sending off and an own goal to produce two 1-1 draws. The first of which came in the Stadium of Light where the first Tyne Wear derby was played.

The usual feistiness of the derby was prevalent throughout the match and Newcastle got off to a lightning quick start. The visitors were ahead after just three minutes when a Demba Ba shot was parried by Simon Mignolet. The ball fell to Yohan Cabaye who smashed the ball home.

Newcastle were then down to ten men on 25-minutes when Cheick Tiote received a red card. After the whistle had already blown for a Newcastle free-kick, Tiote carried on playing and, shortly after Steven Fletcher had cleared the ball, left his studs in an attempted challenge.

Newcastle didn't really seem too off-put despite the man advantage but Sunderland did arguably deserve a point. They got that point with four minutes left when a Seb Larsson free-kick was met by John O'Shea, his header ten deflected off Demba Ba to out wit Tim Krul and find the net.

It was a very similar story in the second game at Loftus Road where QPR entertained Everton. Everton were very slow for a lot of the game and got caught on the counter attack almost immediately. From a corner, Julio Cesar managed to clear the ball out to Junior Hoilett and the Canadian ran the rest of way before his shot clipped the back of Leighton Baines, wrong footing Tim Howard, and putting QPR ahead after just two minutes.

Everton did get better as the first half went on and they were level on 33-minutes. A Seamus Coleman cross was met by an unmarked Sylvain Distin. The defender's header came off the post before hitting the back of Julio Cesar and rolling back over the line, counting as an own goal by the unfortunate Brazilian keeper.

Everton's hopes of sneaking a victory were marred when they found themselves down to ten men just after the hour mark. Steven Pienaar had been guilty of persistent fouling throughout the match and had already picked up a yellow card within ten minutes of the second half. His second yellow was shown after the slid into Jose Bosingwa, and left referee Jon Moss no other option. Everton held on despite the man disadvantage, leaving QPR now eight games without a win.     

Arsenal Holted, Chelsea, United and City Come From Behind

Tottenham 2-4 Chelsea: Andre Villas-Boas' first game against his former employers ended in defeat during a topsy-turvy affair. The league leaders took the lead on 17-minutes when William Gallas' defensive header from a corner was then volleyed home by Gary Cahill. Chelsea then conceded for the first time in the second half  in the league this season when Gallas turned a Jan Verthonghen flick across the goal from a Tom Huddlestone free-kick into the net just two minutes into after the restart. Tottenham took the lead seven minutes later when a wayward Aaron Lennon shot was taken and placed past Petr Cech by Jermain Defoe, his 200th league goal. The visitors levelled on 66-minutes when a Gallas clearance was taken by Juan Mata who coolly placed it into the bottom corner, his fifth goal in five games. It was two goals in three minutes for the Spaniard when he was played through before slotting past Brad Friedel to give the lead back to Chelsea. Their unbeaten run was guaranteed to continue when substitute Daniel Sturridge tapped the ball into the net after Mata played the ball across goal to the striker. Chelsea remain four points clear and score four goals in their third consecutive game.

West Brom 1-2 Manchester City: City are getting rather good at winning games in injury time. City were down to ten men on 23-minutes when James Milner received his first ever red card for bringing Shane Long down in a last man/goal-scoring opportunity. But it took until the 67th minute before West Brom took full advantage of the man advantage; substitute Peter Odemwingie took a shot that Long intercepted to poke it past Joe Hart. Edin Dzeko continued to do his super sub role and equalised ten minutes from time with a header from a Sergio Aguero free-kick which Ben Foster tried to collect but came nowhere near. The Bosnian then stole the three points in injury time when he finished off a rapid counter attack,

Manchester United 4-2 Stoke: Wayne Rooney becomes the first United player to score at both ends since David Beckham in 2001. It was the striker who broke the deadlock on 11-minutes but it was to give Stoke the lead when a Charlie Adam free-kick came off his face and into the net. Rooney then redeemed himself on 27-minutes when he headed a Robin Van Persie cross home, his first goal of the season in the league. United were ahead just before half-time when Antonio Valencia's cross was guided home by Van Persie. It was 3-1 in the first minute of the second half when Rooney's cross was headed home by Danny Welbeck, also his first of the season. Michael Kightly pulled one back on 58-minutes when he managed to run past most of the team before his shot rolled in off the post. The points were wrapped up on 65-minutes when Rooney finished off a corner that saw the ball ricochet around beforehand.

West Ham 4-1 Southampton: After a goalless first half, the goals flew in at Upton Park. The avalanche began immediately in the second half when a Mark Noble free-kick missed everyone as it went into the net, scoring the first goal against Artur Boruc on his Saints debut. It was 2-0 two minutes later when Yossi Benayoun's low cross was tapped home by Kevin Nolan. Adam Lallana scored his first goal in the Premiership with a clever finish on the turn on 63-minutes to make it 2-1. West Ham's two goal cushion was restored on 72-minutes when Andy Carroll was hauled down during a free-kick aerial battle, Noble stepped up and placed it into the corner. The points were well and truly wrapped up three minutes from time when Modibo Maiga also scored his first Premiership goal with a great finish into the corner.

Norwich 1-0 Arsenal: Grant Holt's 19th minute goal was enough to see the hosts secure a shock victory over Arsenal, Chris Hughton's first in the league as manager of Norwich. Alexander Tettey had the initial shot that ended up being parried by Vito Mannone and into the path of Holt who calmly slotted past the keeper, putting his name on the scoresheet for the third consecutive game. Arsenal looked largely lacklustre for a lot of the match and it perhaps more about Norwich increasing their lead than Arsenal equalising. Michael Turner put a free header wide in the first half and the hosts spurned numerous counter attacks in the second. On a better note for Arsenal, Jack Wilshere returned to the squad as an unused substitute.

Swansea 2-1 Wigan: Another game with a goalless first half as Swansea continue their good form at the Liberty stadium. The three games all came within the space of four minutes Pablo Hernandez scored his first Swansea goal on 65-minutes with a cute shot on the turn through a pair of defending legs. It was 2-0 two minutes later when Michu headed a corner home at the front post. Emerson Boyce finished the frantic four minutes with a backwards, aerial flick from a Shaun Maloney shot. Arouna Kone thought he had equalised when a cross came off his face, but the linesman flagged for offside when he was arguably onside.

Liverpool 1-0 Reading: Liverpool win their first game at Anfield this season, leaving Reading still without victory this season. Raheem Sterling became Liverpool's second youngest goalscorer after he was played through by Luis Suarez just before the half hour mark.

Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa: The three points were sealed for Fulham six minutes before the end. Chris Baird tapped a John Arne Riise corner past Brad Guzan for his third goal in his career for Fulham, his first since December 2010.

King Is Dethroned

Michael Van Gerwen comes from 4-1 down to beat Mervyn King 6-4 and claim his first senior major title. The Dutchman also moves up to eighth in the world which could place him further into the Premier League roster.

King blamed the crowd for his loss of concentration, despite the crowd being more partisan yesterday against Dolan, which takes away some his brilliant darts he threw at the beginning of the match. Despite losing the opening leg of the game, King took the first set 3-1 before doing the same in the second set after the pair were locked together at 1-1.

King became classy in the third set; he kicked it off with a 102-checkout and prevented Van Gerwen from making a comeback by posting a brilliant 152-checkout to win the set 3-1 to surge into a 3-0 lead. Van Gerwen's response saw him go 2-0 ahead in the fourth set before King netted a 120-checkout which didn't matter in the end as the Dutchman took the set 3-1 to finally get on the board. With momentum in hand, Van Gerwen went 2-0 ahead in the fifth set but King roared back with three straight legs to restore the three set advantage.

Van Gerwen couldn't afford to let king get to within a set of victory and that jet propelled him into action. he took the sixth set without reply and would make six consecutive legs with a 131-checkout to reduce the arrears to 4-3. After losing seven legs in a row, King finally found a finishing double but that was only pretence for Van Gerwen to level the match with a 3-1 win the eighth set.

With the match now a best of three sets, King looked likely to go within one after posting a 117-checkout to go 2-0 ahead in the crucial ninth set. But the Dutchman did to King what King has been doing all week and came back to win the 3-2. Those three legs would then transpire into six as Van Gerwen won the match in style, taking the tenth set 3-0 and winning it with a sublime 145-checkout.

Vettel Takes Lead With Hat-Trick

Sebastian Vettel overtook Mark Webber before the first corner and never looked back, earning him a hat-trick of race wins and now a six point over Fernando Alonso in the World Championship. Webber stuck with second to earn Red Bull the first one-two finish of the season by anyone. Alonso managed third alongside teammate Felipe Massa who is continuing a good end to the season. It was so good for McLaren as Jenson Button was ousted on the first lap and Lewis Hamilton barely clung onto tenth after a raft of problems.

Alonso had taken third place from Hamilton by the end of the first corner from the start as Massa had put himself into fifth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The usual carnage we're beginning to get at the start of races was this time caused by Kamui Kobayashi. It was a battle of the brakes and the Japanese got it all wrong, clipping into Nico Rosberg before bursting Button's front right tyre. The McLaren had no option to retire and the Mercedes likewise after it had emerged the radiator was now damaged and leaking.

Kobayashi was reprimanded with a drive through penalty on lap eight which just put him further last since he had already made a trip to the pits for a lengthy repair job, he had suffered a puncture and front wing damage. Ten laps later and the Sauber team decided there was no more point in running a race on his own and decided to retire Kobayashi.

Sergio Perez on the other hand was very much in the mix to begin with. He was initially on a different strategy to those around him as he started on the soft tyres instead of the super soft. But by lap-16 everyone else had pitted and Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen all made passes on him, meaning he fell from fourth to sixth within two laps. Pedro De La Rosa's 100th race ended after 18-laps when was retired alongside Kobayashi.

Hamilton suffered some sort of tyre problems throughout and Massa was much quicker which meant the Brazilian had an easy pass on lap-21. Raikkonen was the next to challenge to McLaren and the Finn thought he had made the pass on lap-24 but Hamilton reversed it before pitting for a second time three laps later, which was rather early for a two stop strategy.

Because of the early stop, McLaren now had to resort to a three stop strategy which put him further down the order and fighting for the small points. He was passed by the opportunistic Nico Hulkenberg on lap-40 after Hamilton was embroiled in a battle with Romain Grosjean. This was the battle for sixth, seventh and eighth.

Just when Hamilton thought his race couldn't get any worse, the astroturf from one of the corners had began to tear up and one piece of it got lodged into a side pod of the McLaren. Hamilton had to race the remaining three laps with it wrapped around a bar and instead of trying to gain places he had to fend off Perez around the last corners to secure that final Championship point. Race result:

1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Webber (Red Bull), 3.Alonso (Ferrari), 4.Massa (Ferrari), 5.Raikkonen (Lotus), 6.Hulkenberg (Force India), 7.Grosjean (Lotus), 8.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 9.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 10.Hamilton (McLaren), 11.Perez (Sauber), 12.Di Resta (Force India), 13.Schumacher (Mercedes), 14.Maldonado (Williams), 15.Senna (Williams), 16.Petrov (Caterham), 17.Kovalainen (Caterham), 18.Glock (Marussia), 19.Pic (Marussia), 20.Karthikeyan (HRT)

Darts Is King But Only For The Mighty

Tomorrow's World Grand Prix darts final will see Mervyn King do battle with 'Mighty' Michael Van Gerwen. The Dutchman will be participating in his first televised major final whilst King broke Irish hearts by taking out Brendan Dolan.

The night began with Van Gerwen against Wes Newton, the only seeded player left in the tournament. Despite the scoreline not being very close, the sets most definitely were. The match kicked off in emphatic style with Newton checking out 150. Van Gerwen followed that by finishing 136 to take a 2-1 lead before taking the set on the final dart.

The highlight of the second set was Newton finishing 89 on the bull to take a 2-1 lead. This set also went into a deciding leg which the Warrior won to level the match. A 152-checkout from Newton made it 2-2 in the third set but a 104-checkout from the Dutchman meant he would take a 2-1 lead.

Newton then took a 2-1 lead in the fourth set but disaster struck as a contact lens looked to have shifted out of place and caused the Fleetwood man some discomfort. This inevitably hampered his throw as his sight must have been lessened and it allowed Van Gerwen to win three straight legs and take a 3-1 lead. It would typical then Van Gerwen stepped it up a gear while Newton was suffering, he took full advantage by winning the fifth set without conceding to make it 4-1. The Dutchman would make it seven consecutive legs to take a 2-0 lead in the sixth set before finally winning it 3-1 to claim a 5-1 victory over Newton.

With knowledge that he was in the final, Van Gerwen could sit back and enjoy the encounter between King and Dolan. As expected, the partisan crowd tried their best to put King off his stroke whilst trying to stir Dolan to victory. It certainly worked to begin with as Dolan surged into the a 2-0 lead. But King, a la against  Thornton yesterday, battled back to take the set 3-2 and silence the audience.

Dolan did win the opening leg of the second set which livened the crowd up a bit but only to be silenced once more as King took the set 3-1 to double his advantage. The Northern Irishman made another attempt at getting back into the game and the crowd singing his name. He dominated the third set and took the third leg with a gigantic 170-checkout to put himself within a set of King.

It became four opening legs in a row that Dolan would win but that would be the only leg he would win in the fourth set as King regained his two set advantage. An 84-finish via the bull put Dolan 2-1 ahead in the fifth set on his quest to keeping in touch with King. But King was still having none of it and again managed to fight back to win the set 3-2 and go within a set of victory.

Dolan wasn't finished and did delay the inevitable somewhat. Again the Irishman went 2-1 only to see King level but this time Dolan held on to take the set 3-2 and reduce the deficit. This only seemed to anger the former Premier League star and went on a rampage in the seventh and final leg. He secured a Shanghai-108 finish to make it 2-0 before sealing the victory with a classy 132-checkout, setting up a mouth watering final against the 23-year old Dutchman.

Renault's 200th Pole

Renault secure their 200th Pole position thanks to Mark Webber. They are now just eight behind Ferrari in the history of Formula One after Webber pipped his teammate, Sebastian Vettel to first after the German looked the favourite throughout the day. Lewis Hamilton survived a slight scare in Q1 and perhaps lucky not to have fallen at the first hurdle, but he recovered to qualify third. It was a similar story for Fernando Alonso who was also slow in Q1 but managed to turn it around and get fourth.

Felipe Massa will start sixth in between the two Lotus cars, Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified his French teammate. Nico Hulkenberg managed to get eighth for Force India whilst the two Mercedes cars line up side by side, with Nico Rosberg ahead of Michael Schumacher.

The big name to fall from Q2 was Jenson Button who could only manage 11th. This was somewhat due to Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso breaking down and being parked towards the end of the lap near the end of the session. It was Peter Sauber's birthday today and he had a muted celebration with Sergio Perez starting 12th and Kamui Kobayashi 13th. Paul Di Resta will begin the race 14th in the other Force India with Pastor Maldonado in a disappointing 15th. The two Toro Rossos also line-up side by side but Ricciardo did manage to post a quicker time than Jean-Eric Vergne before breaking down and will start ahead of the Frenchman.

Narain Karthikeyan span out in Q1 and couldn't complete a time, not that he would have made it out of Q1 anyway. Bruno Senna was the one to join the usual six in the first session and will begin down in 18th place. Vitaly Petrov managed to out-qualify Heikki Kovalainen in the Caterham battle for 19th and 20th. Charles Pic also managed to beat his experienced teammate in the Marussia battle for 21st and 22nd whilst Pedro De La Rosa didn't have a lot of competition to finish 23rd.

2012 World Grand Prix Darts: Quarter Finals

Friday in Dublin and the semi-final line-up has now been confirmed. Irish fans will continue to be in a happy mood and full of support for Brendan Dolan who secured victory. Wes Newton, Michael Van Gerwen and Mervyn King also made it to the weekend. Here's the quarter final round-up:

Justin Pipe 1-3 Brendan Dolan: The Northern Irishman continues his fantastic Grand Prix record by progressing into the semi finals. Dolan started in fantastic fashion with a 107-checkout followed by a 101-finish before taking the set 3-0. Pipe responded in the second set with a snooker 147-checkout in the opening leg. Dolan did level the set before Pipe took it 3-1 to level the match. The crowd were ferocious throughout and it did seem to hamper somewhat. Dolan led 2-0 in the third set before taking it 3-1. Pipe did put up a fight in the fourth set; he managed to level the set at 2-2 after initially taking the lead. But it wasn't enough as Dolan took the deciding leg of the set to win the match 3-2.

Wes Newton 3-2 Paul Nicholson: Newton comes from two set behind to book his place in the last four. The first set saw Newton lead 2-1 but it would be Nicholson to take the set 3-2 to take the lead. The second set saw Newton very shaky and lost it without winning a leg. The comeback had to come after Nicholson hit a 117-checkout to lead 2-1 in the third set but Newton managed to turn it around to keep himself in the game. The pair were then locked together at 1-1 before a 113-checkout sealed the set for Newton at 3-1 to force a deciding set. Newton looked the better in the final set and took a 2-0 lead before winning it 3-1 to get through.

Michael Van Gerwen 3-2 Andy Hamilton: The 23-year old Dutchman is a step closer to winning his first televised major after a tough victory. Hamilton took a 2-1 lead courtesy of an 86-checkout on the bull but Van Gerwen battled back to win the set. The Hammer responded by taking the first two legs of the second set before sealing it via the deciding leg. Van Gerwen retook the lead in the third set after taking a 2-0 lead and winning it 3-1. The Dutchman was on the verge of taking the match in the fourth set once he took a 2-1 lead. But a 160-checkout from Hamilton stole the set to force a deciding five legs. It required all five legs as well with Van Gerwen leading 2-1 before taking that final leg to book his spot in the semi-finals.

Robert Thornton 0-3 Mervyn King: King surges past the Taylor beater in stunning fashion. Thornton actually started the better and took the first two legs of the opening set. But King responded to take the next three legs and steal the set. A 102-checkout from King was how he started the second set and went to take a 2-0 lead before winning it 3-2. Thornton's last leg of the tournament made it 1-1 in the third set before King took it 3-1 to make a statement going into the semi-finals.

2012 World Grand Prix Darts: Day Four

Four days down and we now know our quarter final line-up for tomorrow's action. The shock of the night, in some respects, sees the World Champion becoming the latest big seed to be ousted before the last eight, meaning that none of the top five seeds will be playing tomorrow. Andy Hamilton, Paul Nicholson and Wes Newton make up the rest of the draw. Here's the round-up:

Andy Hamilton 3-2 Steve Beaton: Hamilton never led, in set terms, before winning this tight fought contest. After two legs that went against throw, Beaton was the first to hold with a 101-checkout before winning the set 3-2. Hamilton roared straight back in the second set as the break seemed to buoy Beaton, a 109-checkout was the start the Hammer was looking for before winning the set without conceding. Hamilton looked to be cruising when he took a 2-0 lead in the third set, but a 103-checkout was just the start for Beaton to mount a comeback and somehow take the set 3-2 to lead 2-1. The fourth set also went down to the wire, but Beaton was unable to seal the victory as Hamilton took it 3-2 to force a deciding set. The fight then looked to have left Beaton as the Premier League man took it without conceding to book his place into the next round.

Colin Osborne 1-3 Paul Nicholson: The Geordie Aussie has now only dropped one set out of six during his first two matches. The first set went with throw until the fifth leg where Nicholson won it to take the lead. Osborne began the second set with a 116-checkout but it wasn't enough to stop Nicholson from taking a 2-0 lead, again in the fifth leg. The third set was also just as close and Osborne kicked this one off with a 127-checkout. Nicholson did take a 2-1 lead from there before Osborne battle back to force a fourth set. Ozzy once again won the opening leg of the set. But that would be his last leg of the tournament as Nicholson reeled off three consecutive legs to put his name into the quarter finals.

Adrian Lewis 1-3 Michael Van Gerwen: The 23-year old takes out the World Champion in their first ever match on TV. Lewis blew very hot and cold throughout the match and got off to the worst possible start as Van Gerwen won the opening set without conceding. Lewis did come back from the break in better form and repaid the compliment by levelling the match by winning the second set 3-0. After the pair were level in the third set, Van Gerwen managed to take it 3-1 to regain the lead. Lewis started the fourth set with a majestic 170-checkout and did go onto lead 2-1. But he couldn't force a deciding set as the Dutchman took the final two legs to book his place against Andy Hamilton in the quarter finals.

Wes Newton 3-1 Ian White: Newton is now the highest seed still in the competition after this victory. Both players were immaculate with their finishing for the majority of the match which led to the first set being won 3-2 by Newton, the highlight being a 151-checkout in the third leg to go 2-1 ahead. Newton began the second set with a finish on the bull but would end losing the set 3-1 as White levelled the score. With momentum in hand, White then went 2-1 ahead in the third set before Newton fought back to take it 3-2 and regain the lead. The fourth set saw the pair locked together at 1-1 before Newton played some great shots to take the set 3-1 and secure his passage into the last eight.

2012 World Grand Prix Darts: Day Three

Day three in Dublin and we now know that there will be a new champion come Sunday as Phil Taylor departs after an epic battle against the UK Open Champion, Robert Thornton. Irish eyes continue to smile as Brendan Dolan also makes his passage into the last eight along with Kevin Painter and Mervyn King. Here's the round-up:

Brendan Dolan 3-1 Vincent Van Der Voort: The Northern Irishman dominates the Dutchman to again put himself into the quarter finals. Dolan took the first set without conceding, also making a 106-checkout in the second leg. Van Der Voort still hadn't hit form in the second set but did manage to win his first leg at the fifth time of asking. Dolan responded with an 81-checkout on the bull to take a 2-1 lead and would then complete the set a leg later. The Dutchman did manage some sort of fight in the third set; he lead 2-0 before Dolan came back to force a deciding leg which Van Der Voort managed to win to take the set. But any hope of forcing a deciding set were diminished when Dolan roared back from the break to reel the three legs off and book his place in the quarter finals.

Justin Pipe 3-2 Kevin Painter: Pipe was never behind, in sets, throughout this tight contest against the Players Champion. Painter did take the lead with a 120-checkout in the opening leg. Pipe missed two darts to take the third set in the fourth leg but it didn't matter as he would win the set 3-2. Painter battled back and was the better player in the second set, taking it 3-1 after the pair were level and secured the set with a 68-checkout on the bull. Pipe returned the compliment in the third set by taking it without conceding to retake the lead at 2-1. But Painter wasn't finished and quickly took a 2-0 lead in the fourth set before winning it 3-1 to set up a tense final set. After losing the first leg of the deciding set, Pipe managed to reel off the next three legs to book his place into the final eight.

Phil Taylor 2-3 Robert Thornton: In a rematch from the UK Open final, Thornton manages to beat Taylor on TV for the second consecutive match. It went down to the deserved final leg as it was just a brilliant match. After being level, Taylor comfortably took the opening set 3-1. It was the same pattern in the second set but it was Thornton who would win it 3-1 to level the match. A 104-checkout from Thornton was the highlight of the third set but it took a fifth leg decider for the Scot to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Taylor wasn't anywhere near finished and began the fourth set with a classy 120-checkout before taking the set 3-0 to force a deciding set. The pair still couldn't be separated and Taylor would miss five darts at the double to win the set 3-2, allowing Thornton to pull off another victory over the reigning Grand Prix champion.

Mervyn King 3-1 Dave Chisnall: Chisnall still fails to bring his tour form to TV as King comfortably makes it into the quarter finals. King led the first set 2-0 before taking it 3-1. The second set was dominated by the 2011 Premier League star, securing a 104-checkout in the second leg before following it up with a 110-finish to win the second set without conceding. Chisnall did show some fight in the third and brought a glimpse of his best with a 130-checkout in the opening leg and a 116-finish in the third leg before taking the set 3-2. Chisnall then 2-1 ahead in the fourth set to threaten a possible deciding set, but King fought back to take it 3-2 and progress into the last eight.

2012 World Grand Prix Darts: Day Two

The second day of the World grand Prix sees the conclusion of the first round. There was an almighty comeback from Wes Newton while the World Champion and Paul Nicholson claimed a safe passage. World number three, James Wade, ended up having a meltdown on stage to lose to Colin Osborne and Raymond Van Barneveld also failed to progress. Here's the round-up:


Steve Beaton 2-0 Andy Smith: The night began with a thrashing from Beaton. The Bronzed Adonis took the first set without conceding. Smith did level the second set a 1-1 before Beaton finished the job off in style with a 104-checkout.

Andy Hamilton 2-0 Mark Webster: Webster's horrid 2012 continues with another first round defeat. Hamilton took the opening leg of the game with relative ease and could have made it 2-0 if it wasn't for Webster making a superb 140-checkout via two double tops. The Welshman then led 2-1 before Hamilton levelled with a 90-finish on the bull and then took the first set 3-2. Webster looked out of sorts once again throughout the second set which Hamilton took 3-1 to progress.

Michael Van Gerwen 2-1 Colin Lloyd: The Dutchman had to come from behind to take his place in the second round. Despite winning the first leg, Van Gerwen lost the first 3-1. Lloyd then won the first leg of the second set before Van Gerwen levelled with a 110-checkout. That was enough to spur him on enough to take the second set 3-2. Lloyd lost his finishing doubles in the third set, allowing Van Gerwen to win it 3-0 and finalised the result with a 101-checkout.

Wes Newton 2-1 Ronnie Baxter: Newton performs the mother of all comebacks against Baxter. The Warrior was out of sorts at the beginning of the match and Baxter took full advantage by taking the first set without conceding. Baxter then continued to cruise in the second leg and went 2-0 ahead and had a dart to win the match within six legs. But Newton somehow dug deep and found his darts, managing to level the set before hitting a 109-checkout to force a deciding set. With his new found momentum, Newton took the first two legs of the third set before winning it 3-1 to somehow make it into the second round.

James Wade 1-2 Colin Osborne: There was just as a remarkable story in this match as Wade turned from definite winner to tearful loser within five minutes. Osborne took the first leg with a impressive 129-checkout before his recent form came back to haunt him, allowing Wade to easily take the first set 3-1. The Machine wasn't in top form but was in cruise control and took a 2-0 lead in the second set. But something happened and Osborne suddenly found darts to come back and level the set before taking a 106-checkout to win the set. Ozzy then went ahead in the final set and it almost reduced Wade to tears. Whether it was something personal or maybe even a dreaded case of dartitis, Wade looked to his girlfriend Gemma and gave a shake of the head before practically admitting defeat. From there, he just threw his darts without any real conviction, allowing Osborne to win the set 3-0 to somehow make it into the second round.

Adrian Lewis 2-1 Richie Burnett: The World Champion comes through a tough match against Burnett. Lewis easily took the first set without conceding. But Burnett found his game as the second set went with throw, thus giving the Welshman a 3-2 set victory. The third set saw Lewis take a 2-0 lead before Burnett pulled one back but ultimately couldn't force a deciding leg and Lewis progresses to face Van Gerwen in the second round.

Raymond Van Barneveld 0-2 Ian White: Barney becomes the victim of the first whitewash in a surprise defeat. The Dutchman did lead the first 2-0 courtesy of a 121-checkout in the second leg. He also had a dart to take the set but he missed and allowed White to claim a 144-checkout before securing the whitewash to level the set. A 132-finish was the icing on the cake for White to win the first set. The interval didn't deter White who then secured a 112-checkout in the first leg of the second set. Barney did level the set but White prevailed to win the set 3-1 to dump the five time World Champion out.

Michael Mansell 0-2 Paul Nicholson: Nicholson sets up a tie against Osborne with this win over the Northern Irishman. Despite taking a 2-0 lead in the first set, the Asset needed a 156-checkout to win the set 3-2. The second set was much more convincing as Mansell failed to get out of the starting blocks until late, this was more than enough time for Nicholson to get down and win the three legs to win the set 3-0 and progress through.

2012 World Grand Prix Darts: Day One

The City West Hotel opened its doors once again to commence the 2012 World Grand Prix of darts. One of the two Irishman made it into the second round whilst the fourth and fifth seeds exited at the first stage. There was a good win for Phil Taylor who looks to put his recent bad form behind him. Here's the round-up from the first day:

Mark Walsh 1-2 Robert Thornton: Last weekend's event winner, Thornton recovers to beat Special Brew. Walsh started the match with a 118-checkout before taking the opening set 3-1. The Scot then went a leg down in the second set but was arguably the better player. That soon came into account along with his prolific starting, he levelled the match by taking the second set 3-1. With momentum in his hand, Thornton took the next three legs to secure the whitewash in the third set to win the game 2-1.

Dean Winstanley 2-3 Dave Chisnall: The match was settled by a last leg decider, which Chisnall finally won after missing nine previous darts to win the game. Chizzy was unstoppable in the first set, taking it without dropping a leg. The second set saw Winstanley lead 2-1 before Chisnall then missed four darts to win the game, thus allowing Winstanley to take the set 3-2. The third and final set also went to that final leg with both players missing darts at the double, Chisnall missed five with Winstanley missing two before Chisnall finally wrapped it up.

Simon Whitlock 1-2 Justin Pipe: The European Champion exits the Grand Prix at the first stage courtesy of Pipe. After breaking the first leg, Whitlock found himself 2-1 down with Pipe finding a 112-checkout before taking the opening set via the opening leg. Whitlock was then a leg down in the second set before reeling the next three legs off to level the match despite winning a leg more overall. Pipe again took the first leg in the third set before Whitlock missed darts at the double to level the set and it hurt him deeply, he couldn't recover and allowed Pipe to win the third set 3-0 to take the game, his first win in a Grand Prix.

Terry Jenkins 1-2 Mervyn King: King comes from a set and two legs down to somehow progress into the second round. King did take the first leg of the night before Jenkins levelled with an exquisite 126-checkout, from that Jenkins took the opening set 3-1. The Bull looked to be in full control when he took the first two legs of the second set but King roared back to take the next three legs to force a third and final set. With momentum in hand, King would then take the first two legs in that final set before Jenkins dug deep to force a final leg. King would emerge victorious with a 66-checkout to dump out Jenkins and set up a second round match with Chisnall.

Gary Anderson 0-2 Brendan Dolan: Anderson's return to television ended rather prematurely at the hands of the home boy. Dolan did take the opening leg before finding himself 2-1 behind, but the Irishman regained composure to take the first set. Anderson fired a 106-checkout to level the second set at 1-1 and had to level it again after Dolan replied with an 81-finish on the bull. Dolan then stood firm with the partisan crowd behind him to take the deciding leg in the second set to progress through.

Phil Taylor 2-0 Michael Smith: The ten time Grand Prix Champion was business like in seeing off young debutante Smith. Smith kicked off with two 180s but still ended up losing the first leg before tying the set at 1-1. Taylor then surged through and took the opening set 3-1 with a 94-checkout on the bull. The exhibition stuff came out in the second set even whilst Smith continued to play well. A 167-checkout put Taylor 2-0 before Smith posted a last hoorah 113-finish. The game was then wrapped up with a 106-checkout to make it 3-1 in the second set and 2-0 overall, giving Taylor the chance to avenge his UK Open defeat against Robert Thornton.

Kevin Painter 2-0 Kim Huybrechts: Huybrechts' Grand Prix debut lasted all of six legs as he was well and truly whitewashed by an inspired Painter. The Artist quickly reeled off the six legs required to win, the highlight being an 84-checkout on the bull in the fifth leg, and set up a tie against Pipe in the second round.

Vincent Van Der Voort 2-1 William O'Connor: O'Connor fails set up an all Irish second round affair after a roller-coaster match against Van Der Voort. The Irishman started the much better and blew the Dutchman away 3-1 to claim the first set. O'Connor managed to find a 96-checkout via double-18 then double tops to level the second set at 1-1 before Van Der Voort dug in and made it one set apiece with a 3-1 set victory of his own. The Dutchman then looked like a guarantee to progress when he took a 2-0 lead in the third set. But O'Connor once again came back and found a 140-finish to set up another last leg decider. Unfortunately, O'Connor was slow to start which allowed Van Der Voort to get ahead and eventually take the set 3-2 to set up the second round tie against Dolan.

Evans Open For United, Late Point For Saints, Spurs Win Liverpool Draw

Super Sunday was exactly that today with four matches to wet the appetite. Manchester United travelled to Newcastle where they were looking to recover from their defeat to Tottenham. Their goals came from the most unlikely of sources as they took full advantage of sloppy defending.

The visitors would take the lead after just eight minutes when a Robin Van Persie corner was headed home by Jonny Evans for his second ever United goal. It was the same sort of scenario on the quarter of an hour mark when Patrice Evra was on hand to head a Wayne Rooney corner past Steve Harper, scoring his second goal in three and a half years. Within that space of time Danny Welbeck had two chances to score but missed both of them.

Newcastle had a penalty shout in the first half turned down when Evra was clearly pulling a shirt. Their best chance of the game came in the second period when David De Gea saved a shot onto the post before Papiss Cisse headed the ball back with the Spaniard just clearing it off of the line, although it was extremely touch and go whether the ball had crossed the line or not. The game was then won in sublime fashion when Tom Cleverley curled a shot into the top corner 19-minutes from the end, putting United back into second place.

Tottenham move up to fifth with a victory over Aston Villa at White Hart Lane. Spurs were the better side in the first half without really testing Brad Guzan. But Villa came back in the second half and created a few chances until Tottenham took the lead 13-minutes after the restart when a wayward Jermain Defoe shot hit off Steven Caulker to go into the net. The win was then wrapped up on 67-minutes when Aaron Lennon fired the ball into the bottom corner.

Two late goals saw Southampton go 2-1 behind after initially taking the lead before snatching a point away from Fulham. The hosts took an early lead when Jose Fonte scored with a looping shoulder from a corner, his first in the Premiership. They probably should have had a second before half-time after they had hit the post before having a goal ruled out when Mark Schwarzer seemingly fell over.

Fulham would hit the post in the second half before Southampton gave their guests an equaliser. A John Arne Riise strike was going wide before Jos Hooiveld diverted it home to score his second own goal of the season on 70-minutes. Fulham then took the lead with three minutes remaining when substitute Kieron Richardson scored his first Fulham goal courtesy of a pull back to him. But the win was snatched away when Jose Fonte managed to head a free-kick home in injury time.

The other game of the day saw Liverpool and Stoke play out a goalless draw. Robert Huth was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch early on after looking to stand on Luis Suarez. Pepe Reina once again had an unstable game and was lucky not to have conceded. Liverpool did carve openings throughout the game but often failed to put Thomasz Sorensen to the test but Raheem Sterling did hit the post in the second half.

Vettel Is First Back-to-Back Winner

Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish to become to the first driver to win back-to-back races this year. The win means he closes the gap on Fernando Alonso to just four points after the Ferrari crashed out on the first corner, with only five races remaining. It wasn't all bad news for the Prancing Horses though, Felipe Massa managed to get his first podium finish in 33 races with a well earned second place. Kamui Kobayashi staved off a late charge from Jenson Button to become the first Japanese driver to finish on a podium in Suzuka since 1990.

Before the race, Nico Hulkenberg and Button had received five place penalties for gearbox changes and ultimately managed to witness a very eventful first corner. It began with Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, the Ferrari looked to stay ahead of the Renault before having a rear wheel clipped, Alonso then went off the track before spinning back onto the track facing the wrong way. That caused others to look on cautiously, that included Romain Grosjean who was too busy looking at that incident to notice he was about to crash into Mark Webber, fortunately both cars managed to continue before the Frenchman was given a ten second stop-go penalty on lap seven for causing the collision. Nico Rosberg would also end up in the wars during that first corner when he was contacted by Bruno Senna and was forced to retire, Senna belatedly received a drive through penalty on lap-21 for also causing a collision.

With all that carnage, the Safety Car had to be deployed and the field already looked interesting; Kobayashi had made it to second, Button third, Massa fourth and Timo Glock had got his Marussia up to 11th. The Safety Car went in on lap two and Sergio Perez immediately battled with Raikkonen which nearly ended up in tears. The Lotus forced the Sauber off of the track when otherwise there would have been contact and possibly two further retirements.

Following that, Perez continued to have an eventful race by overtaking his, what will be, McLaren predecessor, Lewis Hamilton, on lap six with a great move diving inside the Englishman. After the first set of pit stops, Massa had come out into second on lap-18 and that's where he would remain until the chequered flag. Perez's race was then over a lap later when he tried to re-overtake Hamilton, but this time he was too eager and was again forced off where he span and beached the car in the gravel.

Narain Karthikeyan would retire on lap-34 from the back of the pack before Charles Pic suffered an engine failure and joined the HRT six laps later. Vitaly Petrov was also a naughty boy, and received a drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags on lap-48. The final retirement was Romain Grosjean who boxed the car on the final lap. Race result:

1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Massa (Ferrari), 3.Kobayashi (Sauber), 4.Button (McLaren), 5.Hamilton (McLaren), 6.Raikkonen (Lotus), 7.Hulkenberg (Force India), 8.Maldonado (Williams), 9.Webber (Red Bull), 10.Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 11.Schumacher (Mercedes), 12.Di Resta (Force India), 13.Vergne (Toro Rosso), 14.Senna (Williams), 15.Kovalainen (Caterham), 16.Glock (Marussia), 17.Petrov (Caterham), 18.De La Rosa (HRT) DNF: Alonso (Ferrari), Rosberg (Mercedes), Perez (Sauber), Karthikeyan (HRT), Pic (Marussia), Grosjean (Lotus).

Chelsea and Arsenal Come From Behind, Three and Easy For City, QPR and Reading Remain Winless

Chelsea 4-1 Norwich: Chelsea remain unbeaten despite the off-field disciplinary actions against Ashley Cole and John Terry. Norwich now make it 37 Premier League away games without a clean sheet. It started a lot better for Norwich when Grant Holt half-volleyed them the lead after 11-minutes. Chelsea were level within four minutes when Fernando Torres headed his sixth goal of the season past John Ruddy. A great passing move was the source on Chelsea's second on 22-minutes, after two shots had been initially blocked, the ball came back out to Frank Lampard to hammered the ball home. In contrast, Chelsea's third goal was a clinical swift counter attack. Juan Mata ended up feeding the ball through to Eden Hazard and the Belgian placed it into the bottom corner just after the half hour mark. The rout was completed 14-minutes from the end when Branislav Ivanovic fired a volley home after a fortunate flick from Mata.

Wigan 2-2 Everton: Everton move up to an early third place after Wigan prevent themselves from losing a fourth successive game. Wigan took the lead when Arouna Kone diverted a Shaun Maloney cross/shot home, but the Ivorian looked very much offside on ten minutes. Everton were level straight from kick-off when an off target Steven Pienaar effort was headed through Ali Al-Habsi's legs by Nikica Jelavic. Franco Di Santo made it 2-1 with a thumping effort into the roof of the net after a Kone pull back on 23-minutes. Marouane Fellaini was perhaps lucky to still be on the field for the second half after he slapped an arm across Maynor Figueroa, the contact was only made by his flat hand and without any malice so a yellow card was probably the right decision. Everton managed to seal a point with only three points remaining; after a couple of good previous penalty claims turned down, they were finally awarded a penalty when Kevin Mirallas was fouled. Former Latic, Leighton Baines, stepped up and smashed the spot kick into the top corner.

West Brom 3-2 QPR: QPR remain without a win and rooted to the bottom of the table as their new look side still struggles to gel together and Mark Hughes continues to have never won at the Hawthornes. West Brom took the lead after just five minutes when a Shane Long cross was headed home by James Morrison. It was 2-0 on 22-minutes when Zoltan Gera finished from a loose ball that was poorly cleared by Anton Ferdinand who slipped. Abel Taarabt made it two goals in two games with a crisp chest and volley effort ten minutes before half-time. The hosts were 3-1 up with minutes to go when a crisp passing move was finished off by Youssouf Mulumbu from a Gonzalo Jara pull back. Esteban Granero made it 3-2 in injury time with sublime turn and floated finish into the top corner.

West Ham 1-3 Arsenal: Arsenal also had to come from behind to see of London rivals West Ham. the lead was taken after 21-minutes when Mohamed Diame made a great run before curling a fantastic shot around Vito Mannone from a tight angle, his first goal for West Ham. Arsenal did level four minutes before half-time when Olivier Giroud scored his first Premiership goal following a stab from a Lukas Podolski cross. It took Arsenal a while but they finally took the lead on 77-minutes when Theo Walcott slipped the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen after being played through by Giroud. The win was sealed seven minutes from the end when Santi Cazorla fired a fantastic long range effort into the the corner.

Manchester City 3-0 Sunderland: In a battle of unbeaten sides, Sunderland were the team to lose with City remaining without defeat. It also became the first game where Steven Fletcher had a shot on target this season without scoring. City were ahead after five minutes when Aleksandar Kolarov fired in another free-kick past Simon Mignolet. City doubled their lead on the hour mark when Kolarov's low cross was directed in by the returning Sergio Aguero. The three points were wrapped up in the final minute when James Milner wrapped a free-kick into the goal.

Swansea 2-2 Reading: Swansea end a three game drought to come from behind and prevent Reading from winning their first game of the season. Reading took the lead just after the half hour mark when Pavel Pogrebnyak scored, although his shot somehow went through Michel Vorm after he parried the ball through his legs and into the net. It was 2-0 just before half-time when Noel Hunt volleyed home a deflected effort, Reading's second shot and second goal. Michu pulled a goal back with his fifth of the season when he headed a deflected cross home on 71-minutes. The hosts were then level seven minutes later when Wayne Routledge finished off a neat one-two with Luke Moore.       

Chris Holder Is The World Champion

Australia's Chris Holder has emerged victorious to be crowned Speedway's 2012 World Champion. Holder began the night two points ahead of Nicky Pedersen and, after an altercation in a controversial semi-final, finished eight points ahead of the Dane. The former World Champion, Greg Hancock, finished 2012 in third place. But the night wasn't all about the happiness of crowning a new World Champion, the Grand Prix world had to say an emotional farewell to three time World Champion, Jason Crump, who has announced his retirement just before permanently passing the mantle to his protege.

With all the hype of Holder claiming the Championship in the semi-final, the final in Torun was almost forgotten about. The Australian had made it into the final and would have taken the chequered flag if it wasn't for his bike packing up. This allowed seventh placed Antonio Lindback to win his second Grand Prix this season. He managed to beat fourth placed Tomasz Gollob, who scored the most points on the night, and Hancock.

At the semi-final stage, Holder had a six point lead over Pedersen and they were due to meet in the second event. The preamble saw a false start before Gollob beat Hancock to claim the first two final places. Martin Vaculik continued his fantastic deputising year by finishing third with World U-21 Champion, Maciej Janowski, taking his wildcard entry by finishing fourth in the semi-final.

Then it was the showdown, Holder versus Pedersen (as well as Lindback and fifth placed Emil Sayfutdinov). To make it more dramatic, Holder lined up in gate one with Pedersen in gate two. The both roared from the tapes and the Dane looked to try and push Holder off of the track as they hit the first corner. Holder had to push back and hit a wet patch which jet propelled him around and straight into Pedersen. Pedersen then collected Lindback on his way down. The referee had a huge decision on his hands and decided, somewhat controversially, to have all four riders back for the restart. Unsurprisingly, Pedersen was less than thrilled with the result and decided to walk over to Holder to give his two pennies worth. It can't have been the nicest of words and it caused some members of Holder's entourage to start pushing Pedersen.

After the pair had been pulled apart, Crump pulled Holder to one side to give him words of encouragement. It looked to have done the job as he roared out to win the semi-final. Pedersen was pushed out by Lindback to only finish third and concede the Championship.

Before any of that, the rain in Poland caused a delay into the proceedings which just added to the tension. Once the meeting had finally got under way, Vaculik won the opening heat before Gollob began his night with a victory, Hancock came second and Pedersen could only manage third. Sayfutdinov took the third heat before Holder took full advantage by winning the fourth and extending his lead to four points, Crump began his final Grand Prix night with a second place.

Lindgren took heat five with Gollob finishing second. Holder continued doing what he had to do by making it two heats from two with Hancock kissing his chances of stealing the Championship away by only finishing fourth. Lindback took heat seven whilst Pedersen finished third, opening the gap to six points, with Crump fourth. Janowski showed more of what the next generation has to offer by becoming the latest Wildcard to win a heat.

Lindback then beat Hancock in heat nine to claim his second heat in a row. Jaroslaw Hampel continued his miserable year by packing up in heat ten with Gollob also taking his second heat of the night, Crump came third. Vaculik became the next to win two heats with Holder only managing third. This allowed Pedersen a sniff and he took by winning heat-12 to close the gap back to four points.

Heat-13 was the first showdown between Holder and Pedersen and the Australian beat the Dane to the chequered flag, to make the gap five points with Holder making it three heats out of four. Lindback followed suite with his third victory in heat-14. Emil Sayfutdinov false started in the next heat but all four were allowed to continue, Gollob would win the restart to also claim his third victory of the night. Hancock won the 16th heat with Crump claiming second.

Then it was the poignant moment of the night, heat-17 was Crump's final Grand Prix heat ever and unfortunately Sayfutdinov and Hans Andersen stood in his way to winning it, it was the Russian's second victory of the night. Chris Harris will be unlikely to receive a place in next season's series and if that is the case then he tuned out with a heat victory. Pedersen finished third and it was just enough to squeeze into the semi-finals. The final heat of the night was won by Gollob, claiming his fourth win in five.

So, after another dramatic and fantastic Grand Prix. Congratulations go out Chris Holder and our wishes go to Jason Crump for a happy retirement from the GP series. Here's the final Championship standings:

1.Chris Holder (Aus) 160
2.Nicky Pedersen (Den) 152
3.Greg Hancock (USA) 148
4.Tomasz Gollob (Pol) 142
5.Emil Sayfutdinov (Rus) 133
6.Jason Crump (Aus) 126
7.Antonio Lindback (Swe) 122
8.Freddie Lindgren (Swe) 119
9. Andreas Jonsson (Swe) 88 (Guaranteed place in next series due to Crump's retirement)
10.Hans Andersen (Den) 69
11.Martin Vaculik (Svk) 69
12.Chris Harris (Gbr) 67
13.Bjarne Pedersen (Den) 59
14.Jaroslaw Hampel (Pol) 58
15.Peter Ljung (Swe) 57
16.Kenneth Bjerre (Den) 41    

Red Bull Roar Back With Vettel's Fourth Successive Pole

Sebastian Vettel will be on Pole in Suzuka for the fourth time in a row. After recent disappointing performances, Red Bull stormed back into form by locking out the front row, with Mark Webber behind his German team-mate. The stable McLaren, Jenson Button, was clearly undeterred by Lewis Hamilton's decision to move to Mercedes next season as he made his way to third on the grid.

Kamui Kobayashi wowed his home fans and will hope to build from his fourth place start in tomorrow's race. Romain Grosjean sits fifth in the middle of a Sauber sandwich, Sergio Perez continues to prove why McLaren have chosen him for next season in replace of Hamilton by getting sixth.

Fernando Alonso had another quiet qualifying session but will no doubt get another notorious good start to push further than seventh. Kimi Raikkonen made it to eighth with Hamilton, maybe a little buoyed by his news statement, having to start in ninth. Nico Hulkenberg was the final driver to make it into Q3 but decided not to set a time and therefore begins tenth.

Felipe Massa just missed out on Q3 in 11th with Paul Di Resta, a little disappointed a not getting a look in at McLaren, starts 12th. Michael Schumacher struggled to get into Q2 in his first session since re-announcing his retirement but he did get to 13th, however his ten place grid penalty following his crash in Singapore means he starts on the back row.

This means that Pastor Maldonado gets pushed up into 13th with the other Mercedes driver, Nico Rosberg, 14th. Daniel Ricciardo also gets pushed up to 15th. The drama in Q1 saw Bruno Senna miss out but this was due to him being blocked by Jean-Eric Vergne. The Toro Rosso took his place in Q2 but received a three place grid penalty, meaning he starts 19th. Senna will now start in 16th with Heikki Kovalainen taking the other 'Q2' place.

Timo Glock becomes the best of the rest in 18th ahead of Vergne. Pedro De La Rosa made a good qualifying time to finish ahead of most of his nearest rivals and will start 20th. Pic is in 21st with Vitaly Petrov, who initially qualified in 23rd place, will now start 22nd. Unsurprisingly, Narain Karthikeyan partners Schumacher on the back row.  

Arsenal Make It Two Out Of Two, City Come Away With Penalty Point

Group A: Kyiv win the battle of Dynamos to get their first points of the campaign. They were at home to Dinamo Zagreb and broke the deadlock after just three minutes courtesy of Oleh Gusev. The points were wrapped up 11-minutes before half-time when Josip Pivaric inadvertently put the ball in his home net, leaving Zagreb searching for their first points this season.
FC Porto are the ones to make it two wins from two in this group after beating PSG in Portugal. James Rodriguez scored the only goal of the game seven minutes from time to take the three points.

Group B: Arsenal had a relatively comfortable win over Olympiacos in the Emirates. Gervinho's fine goalscoring form continued when he opened the scoring three minutes before half-time, his second in the competition. Arsenal were given a fight and the Greek side did manage to equalise in first half injury time through Konstantinos Mitroglu. Lukas Podolski also managed to score his second goal of the competition to give Arsenal the lead again 11-minutes after the restart. The result was finalised when Aaron Ramsey scored their third in injury time. Olympiacos are still without a point from their opening two games.
10-Man Montpellier recovered from their defeat to Arsenal to earn a point away to Schalke in injury time. Karim Ait-Fana managed to give the French side the lead after 13-minutes. Julian Draxler then became the youngest German to score in European competition by equalising on 26-minutes. Montpellier went down to 10-men when Garry Bocaly was sent off, Klaas Jan Huntelaar converted the following penalty to make it 2-1 after 53-minutes, the Dutchman's second goal of the tournament. But the depleted side dug deep and managed to find an equaliser in stoppage time through Souleymane Camara. Schalke move to four points with Montpellier on one.

Group C: Milan came back from their shock draw against Anderlecht to just see of Zenit in Russia. Urby Emanuelson put the visitors ahead after 13-minutes before Stephan El Shaarawy made it 2-0 three minutes later, becoming the youngest player to score for Milan in European competition. Zenit fought back with Hulk scoring his first goal for the Russians in first half injury time and Roman Shirokov levelled the match four minutes into the second half. The winner came on 76-minutes when Tomas Hubocan put the ball in his own net, keeping Zenit without a point from their two games.
Malaga keep up their impressive debut tournament by making it two wins from two. Eliseu gave Malaga the lead against Anderlecht in first half injury time. Joaquin made it 2-0 with a penalty 12-minutes into the second half before Eliseu wrapped it up with his second on 64-minutes. Anderlecht remain on the point the got from the San Siro.

Group D: In a game with so many chances, it was quite hard to see Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund only scoring a goal apiece. It was due to two fantastic goalkeeping performances from Joe Hart and Roman Weidenfeller. It took until 62-minutes before the deadlock was finally broken when Jack Rodwell played a poor pass that was easily intercepted by Marco Reus before he ran on to score. City managed to steal a point in injury time when a penalty was given for handball, the hand was out but the ball was struck from a short distance. Substitute Mario Balotelli stepped up and converted to give City their first point of the competition. Dortmund move to four.
Cristiano Ronaldo moves onto 158 goals in 154 games for Real Madrid following a hat-trick over Ajax in the Amsterdam Arena. Ronaldo opened the scoring three minutes before half-time with Karim Benzema then making it 2-0 three minutes after the restart. Niklas Moisander pulled one back on 56-minutes before the Portuguese made it 3-1 11-minutes from time. Ronaldo then got his third, his fourth in the tournament already, two minutes later to make it two wins in two for the Spaniards. Ajax are still without a point. 

Chelsea Coast, Van's The Man and Celtic Win

Group E: Chelsea make it two out of two away to minnows Nordsjaelland. Juan Mata broke the deadlock on 33-minutes to give the visitors a half-time lead. David Luiz doubled their lead 11-minutes before the end with Mata scoring his second three minutes later. Ramires then ended the rout in the final minute to keep Nordsjaelland looking, for what could be a while, for a Champions League point.
A slight surprise of the night was possibly Juventus drawing at home to Shakhtar Donetsk. Alex Teixeira put the Ukrainians ahead on 23-minutes. But their lead lasted for two minutes before Leonardo Bonucci equalised to earn Juventus' second point in two games, Shakhtar have four.

Group F: The shock of the night came from Bulgaria where BATE Borisov made it two wins from two with victory over Bayern Munich. Aleksandr Pavlov opened the scoring with Vitali Radionov scoring his second goal of the competition on 78-minutes. Franck Ribery did pull one back in the first minutes of injury time before Renan Bressan made it 3-1 four minutes later, meaning that the hosts have scored three goals in both games. Bayern remain on three points.
Valencia recovered from their defeat to BATE with victory over Lille in the Mestalla. Jonas was on target twice, firstly seven minutes before half-time and then on 74-minutes. It got worse for Lille when Mathieu Debuchy was sent off four minutes from time. Lille remain without a point after their first two games and now face Bayern twice.

Group G: Celtic make it four points out of six before their two games against Barcelona. Gary Hooper put the Scots ahead against Spartak Moscow in Russia after 12-minutes. Emmanuel Emenike equalised for the hosts four minutes before half-time before then giving them the lead three minutes after the restart. Juan Manuel Insaurralde was then sent off on 63-minutes and Celtic took full advantage. The visitors equalised eight minutes later when Dmitri Kombarov scored an own goal. Georgios Samaras then won the game in injury time to put them in good stead for Barcelona, Spartak somehow remain pointless after leading in both games before losing 3-2.
Barcelona make it two wins from two with a rather comfortable win over Benfica in Portugal. Alexis Sanchez put the visitors ahead after just six minutes. Cesc Fabregas made it 2-0 ten minutes into the second half before Sergio Busquets was sent off in the final minute. Benfica remain with a single point.

Group H: Manchester United also have six points from a possible six with a win in Romania over Cluj. The Romanians did actually take the lead when Pantelis Kapetanos broke the deadlock after 14-minutes. Their lead lasted for only 15-minutes before Robin Van Persie levelled the game with his shoulder just before the half hour mark. The Dutchman then won the game four minutes into the second half with a deft flick from a fantastic Wayne Rooney chipped through ball. Cluj remain on three points.
Galatasaray remain without a point after losing at home to Braga. Loan signing Ruben Micael gave the visitors the lead on 27-minutes. The win was then sealed in second half injury time through Alan, giving Braga their first points of the competition before their two games against United.            

Midlands Derby Draw, Hammers Win London Derby

Two derbies were the last offerings of this week's Barclay's Premier League. Super Sunday was reduced to just the one game as Aston Villa entertained West Brom with Monday Night Football coming from Loftus Road where QPR faced West Ham.

Those at Villa Park had to endure a goalless first half. The Villa fans may have took some solace from the fact they were the better side throughout the half. Brett Holman was arguably the player of the first half and he pulled out a shot that had to be saved by Ben Foster.

West Brom out with more fight in them in the second half and the contest began to look more even. Perhaps it was a slight surprise when the visitors took the lead just six minutes after the restart. James Morrison powered his way down the line before firing a low cross into the box. Ron Vlaar tried to clear it but the attempt was hit straight at Shane Long and the ball went into the net.

The game began to get more open as both teams began looking for a goal for different reasons. Villa didn't deserve to lose the game by any means and got their equaliser ten minutes from the end; a scrambled corner saw the ball fall to Darren Bent who shot home. Either team could have then gone on to score a winner with substitute Romelu Lukaku being dangerous for West Brom and Bent likewise for Villa, but the sides saw each other out to claim a hard fought point.

It would end up being a mixed game for West Ham who managed to see off ten man QPR. The visitors would obviously be happy with the three points but maybe disappointed that they will be facing a hefty fine for receiving eight yellow cards.

West Ham got off the best possible start when Kevin Nolan crossed a ball in for Matthew Jarvis to head home after just three minutes. From there, both sides looked dangerous but it would be the Hammers who extended their lead ten minutes before half-time. QPR tried clearing a corner that ended up falling to Ricardo Vaz Te, his shot was fortunately let in by Julio Cesar who won't be pleased with his effort.

A double substitution ten minutes into the second half saw Adel Taarabt and Samba Diakite come on and have varied matches. It took just two minutes before Taarabt received the ball on the wing and began to make inroads, he then unleashed a shot that found the top corner to pull a goal back. But any chances of QPR completing the fight back were hampered when Diakite managed to receive a second yellow card on 75-minutes, 20-minutes after coming. The result leaves QPR rooted to the bottom of the league and still without a win while West Ham climb above Arsenal into ninth.