Stoke Batter Bolton, Tale Of Two Late Penalties At Arsenal

Due to the FA Cup semi-final, Super Sunday was cut down to just one match at the Emirates between Arsenal and Liverpool although you only needed to watch sixteen minutes of that match. The more eventful football match, although one-sided, was at Wembley where Stoke and Bolton met for a place against Manchester City in the FA Cup final.

As a contest the match was over before it had started, there were already fears over how much Bolton would miss the cup-tied Sturridge. The answer was soon apparent, although he couldn't do much about some awful defending that led to Stoke's goals. Matthew Etherington put Stoke ahead after Bolton had failed to clear the danger, he fired it from the edge of the box into the bottom corner after eleven minutes. It was 2-0 six minutes later when a Huth miss-hit volley ended up going past the unsighted Jaaskelainen. It was all over after half an hour when Kenwyne Jones fired Stoke 3-0 ahead. The second half produced no comeback, or even a hint of one and Bolton were 4-0 down after 68 minutes with substitute Walters getting in on the act. His cameo was complete nine minutes from time when he got his second and Stoke's fifth.

Back in the Premiership where the action didn't really start until the 57th minute when Carragher and Liverpool debutant Flanagan collided, causing Carragher to be knocked unconscious. Thankfully Carragher was okay and was stretchered off after all the safety measures had been carried out on Carragher. This led to eight minutes of injury time although the game finished after 102 minutes. In the 97th minute Arsenal attacked with Fabregas surging into the box, he was brought down by Spearing and Arsenal had a late late penalty. Van Perise converted it but time was added on due to the decision and the goal. Liverpool went straight up the other end and earned a free-kick right on the edge of the box, Suarez took it but it was deflected and looked to be going harmlessly away from goal. Lucas and Eboue were chasing it and Eboue stupidly brought Lucas down and Liverpool were rightly awarded a penalty in the eleventh minute of injury time. Kuyt stepped up and converted the penalty to give Liverpool the draw in unbelievable circumstances. Arsenal could only close the gap on Manchester United to six points with both teams having played the same amount of matches. Liverpool move to within five points of Tottenham in fifth but Tottenham have two games in hand, one of which is against Arsenal on Wednesday.