English Premier League Tuesday, Halftime Updates: Manchester City, Fulham Take Comfortable Leads Into Halftime

Manchester City continues to make the claim as title contenders, while Fulham has had a remarkable bounce-back at the Brittania. Those results along with a score tie at the Hawthorns, no goals at the Stadium of Light, and Spurs barely missing out on a late goal at White Hart Lane. Here's your halftime update:

Manchester City 3-0 Aston Villa: So do we take the City or Villa angle? For City, five changes from Sunday have not slowed the Citizens, with goals from Mario Balotelli (penalty kick), Joleon Lescott (controversial header) and David Silva setting-up Balotelli's second (insult to injury), ripping open Villa. For the Lions, it's been a combination of poor play, bad breaks, and the negative momentum of the entire Houllier era. This is the type of performance you usually see from severely broken teams.

Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Newcastle United: Roman Pavlyuchenko put a Alan Hutton cross off the post in the first half's closing minutes, ending a half when Spurs have been the marginally better side, though Newcastle have had their chances. You would think Spurs are the more likely team to score, but when you see Andy Carroll headers looping just over the cross bar, you realize Newcastle is one random cross away from a goal. Spurs need to approach the second half with that in mind, given these are three points they should be expected to get.

Sunderland 0-0 Blackpool: A relatively open match has seen almost all the chances fall to Sunderland. D.J. Campbell had two good looks, but all of Darren Bent, Danny Welbeck and Asamoah Gyan have had chances to give the home side a lead.

Stoke City 0-2 Fulham: Chris Baird has his first two goals of the year, giving the Cottagers a 2-0 lead going into the 11th minute. That cushion's allowed Fulham to play the patient, responsibly football that's been too conservative for most of the season's circumstances. Today, it should guide them to three points. If it doesn't ... well, let's stay positive.

West Brom 1-1 Blackburn: An early Nikola Kalinic goal gave way to a half dominated by the Baggies, though that's not unexpected. Given the way these two teams play, you would expect West Brom to look more ambitious. That style led to a 17th minute equalizer (Jerome Thomas) and a number of close calls throughout the period. Blackburn gets to halftime with the score 1-1, and with Rovers' prowess on set pieces, all it will take is s foul and a little pragmatic physicality to put Blackburn back on time.