Premiership Weekend Roundup [Football]

Now that the games have been played and things are starting to shape up in the table, lets look at the games this weekend...

Manchester United 1 - 0 Everton

United cemented their place atop the Premier League with a 1-0 victory over Everton. David Moyes' record against United is rather poor and Everton went into this game relying on a rock solid defense to keep the score respectable and considering United's only goal came from a penalty, which came about when Arteta fouled Carrick in the Everton box, this is probably a good result. Ronaldo was the penalty taker and his cool stroke into the Everton net sealed the win for United.

Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea

Thanks to two late goals from Fernando Torres, Liverpool move into second place in the league three points ahead of Chelsea. The game was a typical high tempo affair with very little for the neutral to enjoy and referee Mike Riley had to keep his cool and make sure the game did not boil over, which for the most part he did. Chelsea fans will be disappointed with his decision to send off Frank Lampard in the 60th minute after a challenge on Xabi Alonso but in truth this did not change the game too much for Chelsea as Liverpool had most of the play and Chelsea were poor going forward. Scolari would have probably taken a draw after the sending off but it wasn't to be.

Torres scored his first goal, a header, with 90 seconds left of normal time which came from a cross from Fabio Aurelio. Torres then netted his second deep in to injury time when he took advantage of an Ashley Cole error.

Bolton 3 - 2 Tottenham

Kevin Davies is having a good season for Bolton and this continued with his late winner against Spurs on Saturday. Wanderers fans might have been forgiven for thinking Deja Vu after seeing their side go two goals up before letting Spurs back in to bring the scpre to 2-2.

Puygrenier put a header past Cudicini to make it 1-0 to Bolton and then Bolton went further ahead on 64 minutes with a lovely goal from Kevin Davies slotting the ball in the top-right corner. Darren Bent then got two goals for Spurs and the striker showed no lack of confidence with his simple finishes to bring it level. The game looked to be heading towards a draw but Kevin Davies powered a header past Cudicini to seal all three points for Bolton.

Middlesbrough 0 - 0 Blackburn

Yet another draw for Big Sam leaves Blackburn in the bottom three as Rovers failed to capitalise on a poor Middlesbrough performance. Chances were kept to a minimum as both sides lacked a killer instinct and an injury time miss by Jason Roberts pretty much summed up the game.

Stoke City 1 - 0 Manchester City

Mark Hughes was disappointed with his side after failing to score against a resolute 10-man Stoke City. The only talking points of the game was the sending off of Rory Delap and the goal from James Beattie. Delap took umbrage at Wright-Phillips' lunging tackle on Danny Pugh and tripped the former Chelsea wide man from behind before kicking the ball into Wright-Phillips' torso.

Wright-Phillips was lucky not to be sent off himself after appearing to retaliate to Delap's outburst but instead of City capatalising on the advantage of an extra man they let James Beattie power a header from the back post giving Joe Hart no hope at all. Let's hope Shay Given knows what task he is letting himself in for.

Aston Villa 0 - 0 Wigan

Villa missed the chance to go level on points with United with a goalless draw against a strong Wigan side. Villa hammered the Wigan goal in the second half hitting the post on one occasion and having two shots cleared off the line by Wigan's Paul Scharner. This was a very good game with the scoreline perhaps not doing the game justice. Steve Bruce will be happy with the point, which his side worked incredibly hard for.

Arsenal 0 - 0 West Ham United

Arsenal see this as two points dropped as they failed to close the 5 point gap between themselves and Aston Villa with the goaless draw at the Emirates. Arsenal dominated the game from start to finish with West Ham's efforts severely restricted and thus bringing an end to Carlton Cole's run of goals. Arsenal did not create many clear-cut chances and their worries were added to by the injuries to Abou Diaby and Emmanuel Eboue. The focus now seems to be on signing Andrei Arshavin before the 5pm deadline on Monday.

Fulham 3 - 1 Portsmouth

This was a nightmare game for Tony Adams who will have to start turning things around very soon if he is to keep Portsmouth in the Premier League. Fulham were very good in this game and their 3-0 lead after 80 minutes reflected this. Goals from Johnson and Nevland were enough to end this as a contest with David Nugent's goal a mere consolation to what was a bad day at the office for Tony Adams.

Hull City 2 - 2 West Brom

One of these teams is in a relegation fight. Arguably the other will be if they keep struggling to close out games. Hull twice gave away the lead to allow West Brom to snatch a point from an entertaining game at the KC Stadium. Bernard Mendy put the Tigers ahead after latching on to Ian Ashbee's long ball and rounding keeper Scott Carson. On-loan striker Jay Simpson leveled the game for Albion after being set up by James Morrison in the penalty area. Craig Fagan then put Hull back in the lead but the Tigers hearts were broken when Chris Brunt scored a vital penalty to make it honours even.

Newcastle 1 - 1 Sunderland

Three points in this game will have been vital for both teams so its perhaps fate that meant this one ended with the spoils shared. In typical North East derby fashion the game started with a quick tempo and the action was end to end with both teams carving out small chances. It was Sunderland who opened their account with Cisse scoring a cool rebound finish after seeing his first effort deflected by Harper.

Cisse and Jones made life difficult for the Newcastle defense but the visitors managed to step up a gear and create opportunities for themselves. It was in the 68th minute that Newcastle equalised with a controversial penalty decision. Malbranque was controversially adjudged to have felled Taylor inside the box and it was Shola Ameobi who stepped up and blasted the ball past Fullop to make it 1-1. Sunderland then upped their tempo and put Newcastle under pressure but in the end a poor effort from Michael Chopra meant the game ended with both sets of supporters applauding what was a terrific contest.