Manchester United and Manchester City both suffered shock defeats in the Premier League on Saturday as Arsenal went clear at the top after Chelsea had battled back to claim a point at Tottenham Hotspur.
David Moyes suffered his first home defeat as
Manchester United manager as West Brom
claimed a deserved 2-1 victory at Old Trafford. After a goalless first half, the match sprung to life
in the second with Morgan Amalfitano scoring a
superb solo goal. Just three minutes later, United
were level through a Wayne Rooney free-kick
that somehow evaded everyone, but a
tremendous strike from Saido Berahino sealed the points for Steve Clarke's side. There was late drama as Marouane Fellaini
thought he had scored his first goal for the club
to equalise, but the Belgian was ruled offside. The result heaps more pressure on Moyes
following last week's humiliation in the
Manchester derby. Manchester City fell back down to earth with a
bump following that derby triumph with Aston
Villa coming from behind twice to beat them 3-2. City took the lead their dominance deserved on
the stroke of half-time at Villa Park, with Yaya
Toure on hand to tuck home from his side's
eighth corner of the opening period. However, Villa grabbed an unlikely equaliser in
controversial fashion six minutes after the restart
as Leandro Bacuna teed up Karim El Ahmadi to
blast the ball past Joe Hart -- but replays showed
he was offside. The visitors weren't behind for long, though, Edin
Dzeko bundling in Samir Nasri's corner five
minutes later. But Villa levelled for a second time
with Bacuna curling in an exquisite free-kick in
the 73rd minute before the hosts stunned City by
taking the lead two minutes later when Andreas Weimann ran clear to prod past Hart. Arsenal went back on top of the table after
continuing their fine away form with a 2-1 win
over Swansea City. A goalless, and fairly uneventful first half, saw
the Gunners come out the better at the start of
the second period and young Serge Gnabry
latched onto a ball from Aaron Ramsey to slot
home his first senior goal for the club. Arsenal’s lead was doubled shortly after by
Ramsey, as the Welshman extended his
remarkable run of scoring to eight goals in nine
games this season when he picked up the ball on
the edge of the box and hammered it into the
roof of the net. Swansea hit back with less than ten minutes
remaining as Ben Davies ran onto a chipped ball
over the top to slip the ball home, but Arsene
Wenger’s men held out to record their eighth
straight victory on the road and capitalise on the
Manchester clubs’ dropped points. A second-half header from John Terry ensured
Chelsea emerged with a point after a 1-1 draw
with Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Gylffi Sigurdsson had put the hosts ahead in the
first half with a composed finish to round off a
smart team move. However, a feisty encounter
-- in keeping with the pre-match war of words
between Andre Villas-Boas and Jose Mourinho --
was levelled midway through the second half when Juan Mata's free-kick was glanced in by
Terry. Chelsea finished the game with ten men as
Fernando Torres, who had been having an
ongoing tussle with Jan Vertonghen throughout
the second half, was shown a second yellow card
for the last of a number of clashes between the
two men. Southampton grabbed two quick-fire goals at the
start of the second half to see off Crystal Palace
2-0. Pablo Osvaldo netted his first goal for the Saints
since his £15 million move from Roma with a low
shot from the edge of the box after 47 minutes,
before a Rickie Lambert free-kick went in off the
angle of crossbar and post two minutes later for
the striker's 200th career league goal. Two controversial incidents helped Hull to all
three points with a 1-0 win at home to West
Ham. Hull were awarded an early penalty when Joey
O'Brien was harshly penalised for pushing Robbie
Brady in the back -- a decision that left Sam
Allardyce fuming -- and Brady confidently
converted from the spot to give the Tigers the
lead. The West Ham boss was livid again late in the
second half when Jake Livermore blocked a cross
with his elbow in the box only for the visitors'
penalty appeals to be waved away. Cardiff heaped more pressure on under-fire
Fulham boss Martin Jol after a 2-1 win at Craven
Cottage. Steven Caulker put Cardiff ahead with a
thumping header from Kim Bo-Kyung's corner
after 12 minutes. In first-half stoppage time
Bryan Ruiz, three minutes after coming off the
bench, curled a beautiful shot from 25 yards into
the top corner, but Jordon Mutch then grabbed a late winner in injury time for the visitors with
almost a carbon copy of Ruiz's goal.
Topic: Misery for Manchester, Arsenal clear (Read 1375 times)
