City Plays For, Gets Draw At Emirates, Chelsea Loses At Wolves

Richard Farley also contributed to this report.

Now in second half stoppage time, Sunderland maintains a 1-0 lead.

While Liverpool has struggled all season, losing by a decisive margin at Ewood Park would further disillusioned an already disgruntled group of supporters. This weekend, Anfield Park saw a number of empty seats for the Reds’ 2-1 win over Bolton. Today, early news from Ewood had the visitors’ section only two-thirds full. That means fewer fans saw Blackburn put this match out of reach.

Liverpool has now packed in a Blackburn team intent on preserving the result. Now in the 70th minute, it’s still 3-0, Rovers.

The goal’s movement started with a ball played from the right flank, through West Ham’s area, rolling to Jonas Gutierrez on the left. The Argentine picked up the ball and was head-up with Tal Ben Haim. Beating him to the line, Gutierrez was able to send a cross into the six, a ball that was kicked up-field by James Tompkins. The attempted clearance went straight to Kevin Nolan who, standing at the edge of the area, put a composed shot toward the far post, into Green’s goal.

The three goal lead almost assures Newcastle will move to 28 points and eighth place. For West Ham and Avram Grant, a manager whose hot seat has only mildly cooled after going four unbeaten, a strong second half showing is necessary if louder doubts are going to be suppressed.

With the teams now going in to half time, Rovers have a lead that could send them back into the table’s top half. Liverpool, should they fail to close this gap over the last 45 minutes, will be thrown back toward crisis mode, with their weekend victory being forgotten while Roy Hodgson’s job security’s debated.

Liverpool also gave up the first goal this weekend at home against Bolton, but with a poor road record this season and little innovation this half, Blackburn;s goal may prove more important. Ten minutes before halftime, Liverpool trails Blackburn, 1-0.

The poor performance from West Ham has been surprising in light of the four match unbeaten streak the Hammers carried into today’s match. Though they slid into 18th place as a result of yesterday’s results, Avram Grant seemed to have saved his job with this team’s recent run of form.

But today, that form has eluded the Hammers, giving up two goals to Alan Pardew’s surprise starter. Approaching half time at St. James’ Park, Newcastle has a two goal lead.

Everton’s lead didn’t last very long, much like the match between these two teams earlier this season at White Hart Lane. While Everton’s lead over Tottenham Hotspur lasted around three minutes on that day, it’s lasted a full eight minutes today at Goodison Park. One thing has remained the same though: Like that match, Rafael van der Vaart is the man who has punished the Toffees.

It may be a cliche at this point, but as long as Peter Crouch keeps knocking down balls to Rafa, it’s a cliche that isn’t tired. Once again, Crouch got the assist on a VDV goal by winning an aerial challenge and nodding it towards van der Vaart, who headed the ball into the back of the net. Tim Howard was already falling backwards when van der Vaart met the ball with his head, and had he stood tall, he would have had a pretty easy save. Poor positioning means that Spurs have an equalizer.

Best is making is 15th appearance for the Magpies since moving from Coventry City last January. Between the Championship and the Premier League, this is his first league goal for Newcastle after scoring nine in half a season for Coventry.

With Newcastle dominating possession into the 30th minute, the match at St. James’ Park remains 1-0, Magpies.

Yes, Louis Saha has scored. That guy. The often injured French striker who plays football, occasionally, for Everton has scored a goal just three minutes into their game against Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park. According to the announcing team on ESPN3.com, this is the first time that Everton has started a game with two “out and out” strikers in a game, if you don’t count Tim Cahill as a striker, which is kind of up for debate. Anyway, this looks like more of a traditional 4-4-2 than what Everton usually play and David Moyes looks like a genius.

All of Alan Hutton, Michael Dawson, Sebastien Bassong, and Gomes might have done more to prevent the goal from happening, but all of the credit should go to King Louis for a quality strike. His shot was a low one, hit with some significant power that beat Gomes at his near post from around 22 yards away. It was his first Premier League goal in over a year, and it’s set Everton up for what would be a fantastic result.

Editor’s Note: On replay (and subsequently confirmed), Fletcher never touched the ball before it went in, with the ball deflecting off defender José Bosingwa and past Cech for Wolves’ opener.

The goal start with a corner kick from the right of corner. Elokobi made a near post run that took him beyond goal, playing the short corner. A clever left-footed flick sent the ball along the goal line, barely eluding Cech. Two Wolves had made their way to the line, the closest, Fletcher, putting through the early, surprise goal.

A few well taken goals by Manchester United’s Nani and Javier Hernandez were enough to see off Stoke City at home on Tuesday from Old Trafford. Although it wasn’t a classic, the win pushed United three clear of Manchester City who travel to North London to the Emirates stadium to take on Arsenal later today. Wednesday’s most entertaining match sees second in the table take on third as Arsenal will have the chance to reverse that standing with a win at home. Three points will catapult Arsenal to 42 and leave City on 41.

Earlier in the season, Arsenal traveled to Eastlands in Manchester and saw out a 0-3 win with goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Niklas Bendtner. None should forget the fact the City’s Dedryck Boyata was sent off in the game’s fourth minute for a last man foul on Marouane Chamakh. It was clear from that minute on that City had been affected by the sending off which lead to a consolidation of sorts by boss Roberto Mancini as City would have to play a man down for the duration of the afternoon.