After seeing Manchester United scrape a late 1-0 win against local rivals Manchester City in a dramatic early kickoff (reported in a previous article) we still had selection of other big games to look forward on a busy Saturday.
Hull City and Burnley were hoping for some points today to put them in good stead for the relegation battle and whilst Hull managed a 0-0 draw away to Birmingham, Burnley slipped up and lost 2-1 away to Sunderland; with goals from Campbell and Bent helping the Black Cats to victory.
Stoke City looked assured of a win against Bolton after an early goal from Kitson put them ahead and they threatened to extend that lead for the rest of the game. But Bolton fought back late on and Taylor grabbed a brace, hitting in a deflected Freekick before scrambling in a cross to give Bolton a surprise 2-1 win and a vital three points.
Fulham were fairly relaxed today at home to Wolves, saving themselves for their Europa League exploits no doubt, and they cruised to a 0-0 Draw whilst Blackburn and Everton fought in one of the busiest games of the day. Arteta slotted in an early penalty to give Everton a lead that they looked comfortable with, but Blackburn fought back and with twenty minutes to go N’zonzi grabbed an equalizer for them. Yakubu and Roberts both played ‘supersub’ for their sides to take the game from 1-1 to 2-2 in the space of three minutes, and Cahill left it late to tap in a 90th minute winner for Everton.
The final kickoff of the day was a late one between Tottenham and Chelsea, another derby and another match between a side hunting for fourth (Spurs) and one aiming for the title (Chelsea). Manchester United would have been watching, hoping for luck to stay on their side and for Spurs to grab a win and the red side of Manchester was surely smiling when Terry gave away an early penalty which Defoe converted to put Tottenham into a 1-0 lead.
Chelsea came back at Spurs and had a goal from Malouda disallowed, but just when Spurs seemed pinned back and on the run, they broke on the counter attack and moved to a 2-0 lead thanks to a right-footed strike from Gareth Bale. Things became worse for Chelsea in the second half when Terry collected two Yellow cards and was sent off the field. The Blues struggled to get any foothold in the game after that and Tottenham looked more likely to score, Lampard managed to poke the ball in with two minutes of stoppage time to play but Spurs held on to claim a deserved 2-1 win.
It was a good day for the gamblers and a great one for the In-Play punters.
