Aston Villa continued their campaign for fourth spot today with a home match against West Ham. Rivals for that Champions League spot include Manchester City and Tottenham who both dropped points on a busy Saturday, leaving the doors wide open for Villa to step through today.
Aston Villa seemed to be in control for much of the game although their goal was under threat from a decent looking West Ham side from time to time. Chances fell the way of Agbonlahor but with luck and Robert Green on their side West Ham kept Villa out. John Carew did have the ball in the net but it was ruled as offside whilst Nouble nearly opened the scoring for the Hammers very early on. The game ended 0-0 but the point wasn’t enough to move West Ham out of the relegation zone.
Blackburn were helped to a rare win – their first in twelve games – when Samba and Nelson gave them a 2-0 victory over Fulham. The away side dominated and Rovers struggled to control the game, with both of their goals coming from set pieces. Fulham missed their fair share of chances as Blackburn used this victory to stay three points clear of the relegation zone.
The final match of the day saw Arsenal win comfortably away to Bolton. Fabregas opened the scoring on twenty-four minutes and although many chances fell to Bolton (with plenty going the way of Matthew Taylor) they failed to make them pay and Merida rounded off the 2-0 victory for Arsenal with twelve minutes left to play.
