Merseyside is still celebrating two spectacular victories. Steven Gerrard, so disappointing in England’s disastrous last outing, opened the scoring with a fabulous freekick in Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Newcastle and was man-of-the-match despite being booed throughout. Nigeria’s Yakubu and Australia’s Tim Cahill were both on target twice as Everton ran riot 7-1 at home to Sunderland.
Arsenal, who included one Englishman in their 15-man squad, are three points clear at the top with a match in hand after beating visitors Wigan 2-0 with late goals. Second-placed Manchester United lost ground after going down 1-0 at lowly Bolton and having furious manager Sir Alex Ferguson ordered from the touchline. Frenchman Nicolas Anelka scored early on.
Irishman Stephen Ireland’s last-minute volley secured third-placed Manchester City’s 2-1 home victory over Reading. Chelsea, lying fourth, won 2-0 at bottom club Derby whose “equaliser” at 1-0 was wrongly ruled out for offside. Michael Essien, Chelsea’s Ghana star, was red-carded late on.
Portsmouth gained a fifth successive away win, Nico Kranjcar scoring with an unstoppable freekick. The Croatian’s early goal had put the skids under England three days earlier at Wembley.
Ian Holloway, Leicester’s fifth manager in seven months, celebrated his first match in charge with a 2-0 Championship win at his home-town Bristol City.
Scotland’s top two, Celtic and Rangers, won 3-0 at home to Aberdeen and 3-1 away to Falkirk respectively.
* This weekend, Chelsea host West Ham in a big London derby and Celtic visit Hearts.
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News