Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Boxing Day Football

Manchester United 5-0 Wigan: United level with City at the top of the table and half the goals deficit to five after making it ten goal without conceding in their last two games. United took the lead when an Patrice Evra cross found Ji-Sung Park after eight minutes. United were given a late Christmas present four minutes before half-time when Connor Sammon was sent off for a leading arm into the face of Michael Carrick, harsh to say the least. United took full advantage as Dimitar Berbatov made it 2-0 after finishing a Darron Gibson immediately after the free-kick. Berbatov scored his second with a great turn and shoot sequence thirteen minutes into the second half. United's fourth came when Antonio Valencia found a cool finish when a corner wasn't fully cleared with fifteen minutes to go. The angel was placed on top of the tree when Antonio Alcaraz fouled Park on the edge of the box but a penalty was given, Berbatov stepped up and converted to score his hat-trick with twelve minutes remaining.

West Brom 0-0 Manchester City: City surrender their two point advantage after being held to West Brom team that had lost all of their previous Boxing Day Premiership matches. City probably had the better of it as Mario Balotelli had a goal disallowed in the first half before hitting the bar in the second. But West Brom did create chances of their own with their counter attacks causing concern before Jerome Thomas hit the post towards the end of the game.

Liverpool 1-1 Blackburn: Blackburn gained an unlikely but invaluable point at Anfield. With Paul Robinson injured, Blackburn called upon reserve keeper Mark Bunn who was making only his fourth appearance. He gave a man of the match performance which helped Blackburn to take the lead, a Morten Gamst Pedersen corner turned in by Charlie Adam right on half-time. Liverpool did find an equaliser eight minutes into the second half via a header from Maxi Rodriguez but Bunn prevented the hosts from scoring a second.

Bolton 0-2 Newcastle: Newcastle break their six games without a win streak to keep Bolton rooted in the relegation zone. The first half was fairly even and it took till the 69th minute before the deadlock was finally broken; substitute Hatem Ben Arfa getting on the end of a cross. The game was wrapped up two minutes later with Demba Ba continuing his fantastic goalscoring record, finishing a Gabriel Obertan cross.

Fulham 1-1 Chelsea: Chelsea make it three consecutive 1-1 draws with the early kick-off finishing the same way. Chelsea took the lead just two minutes into the second half with Juan Mata scoring his fifth Chelsea goal. Poor defending cost Chelsea and Clint Dempsey scrambled in a Bryan Ruiz cross just nine minutes after going behind to earn a point for themselves.

Sunderland 1-1 Everton: Sunderland took the lead after 26 minutes with substitute Jack Colback scoring his first goal for his club, courtesy from a big deflection off of Sylvain Distin. Everton equalised when Leon Osman seemed to have kicked himself, but referee Howard Webb deemed it to have been a foul from Lee Cattermole and gave a penalty. Leighton Baines converted it to make it 1-1 six minutes into the second half.

Stoke 0-0 Aston Villa: Both teams fought hard to win the match but neither team could find the killer touch. Stoke came closest with a header saved off the line by Gabriel Agbonlahor in the second half. Villa created more opportunities but couldn't break the Stoke defence.


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