After Saturday's Barclay's Premier League fixtures took place, there were still three that remained to be played. Two were played on the usual Super Sunday supplement and Monday Night Football returned to host the final Premiership fixture of the weekend.
Sunday's first installment saw Blackburn host Aston Villa at Ewood Park. The first half saw 45 minutes of two teams failing to keep the ball for too long. Aston Villa did look the better side for the opening fifteen minutes with Downing finding himself in acres of space down the right hand side. But Villa failed to find a decent last ball and Blackburn found it relatively easy to subdue any attacks. Blackburn grew into the game but didn't really test Friedel in a half that was dominated in the mid-field. It looked to be going in at half-time goalless until Warnock gave away a silly free-kick about 25 yards from goal down the right hand wing. Friedel had looked vulnerable at set pieces all half, with the referee helping him out a lot by giving free-kicks for obstruction against the veteran American. Morten Gamst Pedersen took the free-kick and found the top corner with Friedel coming off his line and failing to judge the flight of the ball, Blackburn went in 1-0 ahead at half-time. Villa came out in the second half looking for that equaliser but were vulnerable to the counter attack, which Blackburn failed to convert from. Ashley Young hit the post for Villa in their most dominant spell but were hit with a sucker punch shortly after. Villa failed to deal with a corner and a misguided shot was sent goal bound by the quick reactions of Pedersen and Villa were two behind after 66 minutes. Villa couldn't come back and Blackburn took the home victory.
The second installment was a grudge match between Mark Hughes' Fulham and his former employers Manchester City. It didn't start well for Hughes as City started the better team and found themselves ahead after just six minutes; Carlos Tevez benefited from slack defending before finding the net. It got worse for Fulham as City continued their dominance and scored a second thirteen minutes before half-time via Pablo Zabaleta. The points were all sealed just three minutes later when Yaya Toure rounded off a slick City move to make it 3-0 before half-time. It was then 4-0 just eleven minutes into the second half when Tevez grabbed his second goal but Fulham got a consolation from substitute Zoltan Gera twenty minutes from time.
Monday Night Football wen up North to the Stadium of Light as Sunderland hosted Everton. after beating Chelsea last week, Sunderland were brought back down to Earth when Tim Cahill scored after just six minutes. After scoring Sunderland's third last week, on loan Welbeck continued his goal scoring form when he equalised after 23 minutes. The Manchester United man then gave Sunderland the lead twenty minutes from time. But his brace wasn't enough to win the game as Mikel Arteta equalised for Everton with seven minutes remaining.
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