Weekend Round-up
On Sunday Manchester City confirmed that the takeover of the club would take place on the 23rd September and then proceeded to wallop Portsmouth 6-0 in front of their new chairman.
Now dubbed the ‘Richest Club in the World’ City had six different scorers as they ran the Pompey defence ragged to move up into fifth place.
Manchester United had seven booked and could face a £25K fine from the FA after their 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. United took the lead through Ji-Sung Park but Kalou equalised with ten minutes to go to move Chelsea to second behind rivals Arsenal and leave United stuck in fifteenth with five points from four games.
Liverpool thought they had scored early only to see Gerrard’s goal chalked out by the referee for offside and then despite having a couple of double chances they couldn’t score and the game ended all square at 0-0.
Arsenal moved to the top of the league after coming back from a goal down at Bolton to win 3-1.
Gianfranco Zola saw his managerial career at Upton Park get off to a great start as they beat managerless Newcastle 3-1 to leave the St James’ Park team in the bottom three.
Tottenham remain rooted to the bottom after a 0-0 draw at home. Hull City slipped a couple of places after a 2-2 draw at Everton, where Everton were 2-0 after 50 minutes and Sunderland moved into eighth after beating local rivals Middlesbrough 2-0, Stuart Downing missing his second penalty of the season.
Aston Villa are in 4th place after beating local rivals West Brom 2-1 on Sunday. Carew and Agbonlahor scoring the goals to take O’Neill’s side into the Champions League spot.
Blackburn beat Fulham 1-0 in the other game in the division.
Just when I thought I’d seen most things in the game on Saturday we saw one of the most bizzare decisions ever with Reading being awarded a goal after the ball went at least three yards wide of the post. Reading have said they will replay the game while Watford seem happy to take the point!
Elsewhere in the Championship Birmingham suffered their first defeat when they lost 1-0 to Blackpool at St Andrews, while Black Country rivals Wolverhampton beat Preston 3-1 to leap above them with a Iwelumo hat-trick before he saw red as did Wolverhampton ‘keeper Wayne Hennessey.
Mike Astley is obviously suffering from a type of ‘Life on Mars’ scenario with Kenny Dalglish the latest name being put into the frame for the vacant Newcastle job.