Carlos Tevez gave Manchester City a fourth-minute lead with a neat goal which was levelled by Birmingham 19 minutes later when Serbia striker Nikola Zigic scored from close range.
City suffered a setback when defender Micah Richards, who first needed several minutes of on-field treatment, was carried off on a stretcher following a head injury. However, they subsequently regained the lead when, four minutes before half-time, Aleksandar Kolarov curled a 25-yard free-kick around the wall for a fine goal.
But City failed to press home their advantage and were punished when the hosts equalised through Craig Gardner’s penalty 13 minutes from time. “If that was a penalty then there would be five penalties in every game,” a frustrated Mancini told the BBC.
Suarez debuts in style
New Liverpool striker Luis Suarez marked his debut by coming off the bench to score the Reds’ second goal in a 2-0 win over Stoke.
Liverpool went ahead in the 47th minute at Anfield when Raul Meireles crashed the ball in after Stoke had failed to clear a Steven Gerrard shot. Suarez, a £22.6 million signing from Ajax on transfer deadline, came on for Fabio Aurelio shortly after the hour mark. And in the 79th minute he sealed Liverpool’s third straight clean sheet win under Dalglish when he rounded the goal-keeper and rolled the ball in despite a despairing attempt by Andy Wilkinson, who deflected the strike into his own net, to hack clear.
“We’re all delighted with that result - and three clean sheets in a row is a great return,” said Dalglish. “Everyone’s pleased for Luis too. He hasn’t even trained with us yet but he showed what he’s all about tonight and I can’t wait to get working with him.”
West Ham climbed off the bottom of the table with a 3-1 win away to Blackpool. Victor Obinna gave the Hammers a 24th-minute lead which was doubled Robbie Keane scored on his debut to grab his first league goal since November 2009.
Charlie Adam replied for Blackpool but barely two minutes later the visitors sealed their win when Obinna let fly with a superb 30-yard shot.
Tottenham defeated Blackburn 1-0 while Fulham and Bolton followed suit and claimed victories with an identical score-line against Newcastle and Wolverhampton respectively.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 4th, 2011.
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