English Premier League Saturday: United, Bolton, Sunderland See Saturday Wins

Saturday in the Premier League proved to be quite the exciting day. 24 goals were scored across seven matches in England’s top flight while a few games turned out to be gems.

Here’s a quick final round-up:

Though you can never be too certain about close offside calls, camera angles often distorting what an assistant referee would see on the field, the camera that captured the play was even with the pass. In addition, the line at the top of the 18 yard box provided a nice point of reference. Roberts seemed offside.

Eight minutes later, Wigan winger Charles N’Zogbia was able to pull the goal back. From a dead ball, 20 yards out, N’Zogbia got his shot over the well, curling into the upper right hand corner for the Latics’ opening goal.

We’re all square at a goal a piece at Old Trafford. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake has just come on for Wolves to quickly find the leveler upon his arrival. United continue to lack any real spark in attack, their opening goal the only moment of quality they’ve produce on the day.

Wolves’ goal came after a decent enough counter attack and was finished when Matt Jarvis (there’s that name again) found Ebanks-Blake who took a touch to create space from Vidic and finished on the turn. United now find themselves in another situation where they’ve given away a lead in the Premier League, a terrible stat United fans assumed they’d seen the last of.

The goal came from a dead ball deep down Blackburn’s right attacking flank. Twelve yards from the byline, Pedersen stood above the ball and looked set to serve a standard cross in front of goal. Instead, the left-footed ball was played to the far post, curling into the upper corner for the match’s opening score.

With it, the home side has taken the lead, threatening to jump out of the relegation zone at Wigan’s expense.

Normally when you say a goal is deserved you’re referring to a dominant team finally translating their control to the scoresheet. Shortly after halftime at St. Andrew’s, deserved goal was illustrated differently, as Frederic Piquionne beat Ben Foster to his far post, giving West Ham a 0-1, 49th minute lead.

West Ham had been the better team throughout the first half, so much so that you felt a goal would come, but their control had less to do with their efforts than what had been granted them by Birmingham City. Brum was predictably and disappointingly conservative, allowed an attacker heavy team to reach the final third with little resistance. With Mark Noble out of this match, West Ham is thin and weak in midfield, yet Brum is allowing the Hammers to get the ball to their area of strength: and attack featuring all of Piquionne, Luis Boa Morte, Carlton Cole and Victor Obinna.

Blackpool and Everton came into today’s match in eighth and ninth place, respectively, with the winner likely to climb into a Europe League spot.

We have been waiting for Sunderland’s record signing to get a start, but after picking up a knock last week against Newcastle, if looked as if Asamoah Gyan would have to wait another week to breaking into the Black Cats’ starting XI. But an upturn in health had the Ghanaian in today’s lineup against Stoke, with the striker paying early dividends for Steve Bruce’s team.

An easy finish from four yards out by the former Rennes man has Sunderland up 1-0 nine minutes into today’s match, with the attacker finishing a a string of one-touch passes with a conversion off a Darren Bent shot. The Cats build through their right side with a number of quick passes, seeing six players involved in a build-up that ended with Bent’s shot from the edge of the six. A save by Thomas Sorensen went straight to Gyan, who finished an uncontested goal.

With the victory, Bolton temporary moves to fifth place in league, sitting on 15 points with a +1 goal difference. They’re slotted right above Spurs, whose fourth loss of the season not only drops them to sixth but also leaves the Champions League club in danger of falling into the league’s bottom half come Sunday night.

But the story of the match was Davies, who played a part in each goal. Davies scored the opener with a left-footed finish from 19 yards. A brilliant spot kick was the eventual match winner, and his header set-up the insurance tally.

The Scottish right back evades two tackles from the Bolton defense to score the first goal for Tottenham. Hutton cuts inside from the right, puts out his left foot and curls the ball into the top corner of the Bolton goal. While Spurs have started eight of their eleven league matches by giving the opposing side a lead, do they have the time to find two more goals?

Bolton certainly hope not. Should they take all three points from this match, they’ll move ahead of Tottenham in the league table, even on points but ahead on goal difference. The Trotters have had a fun time running through the Spurs defense, but they need to remember to not make the same mistakes in their own half.

Bolton’s season of good football had yielded few results ahead of today’s match against Tottenham, but with a two goal lead early in the second half against Spurs, Owen Coyle’s approach looks set to pay-off with three for the Trotters. At least, that’s how things stand after 56 minutes at the Reebok, with right back Gretar Steinsson putting Bolton up 2-0.

While it was a great build-up from Bolton, questions have to be asked of the Spurs defense. When Kaboul vacated that space to go play Davies, who was supposed to fill that spot? Right-center half William Gallas? Or, more likely, Sandro, whose poor day may be continuing? More study will be needed, but Sandro seems on his way for a match rating of two or three. For the young Brazilian, this has becoming a learning experience.

It makes you sound rather foolish, ESPN.