A Michael Essien goal after half an hour saw Chelsea bounce back from Sunday’s defeat to Liverpool to open a four-point lead after Manchester United were held 0-0 by Manchester City in a dour stalemate at Eastlands. Chelsea’s delight at victory was tempered, however, by a red card for Essien deep in injury time for a second bookable offence and now faces a three-match ban.
Meanwhile, City and United drew in a cagey encounter where goal-scoring opportunities were thin on the ground. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was dismayed that his team were unable to break down their neighbours.
“Some of our football was very good, we were very confident, had good composure on the ball,” said Ferguson. “But we needed to make the chances, we needed to win the match. And in that sense we had only two chances from open play so that’s a bit of a disappointment for us.”
Arsenal cruise
Arsenal eased past struggling Wolves 2-0 at Molineux. The Gunners took the lead with one of the fastest goals of the season, Marouane Chamakh netting his seventh goal of the campaign in less than a minute to set his side on the way to victory. Chamakh added a second in injury time to leave Arsenal in third place.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s revival suffered a blip as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Wigan. The Reds looked to be on course for a fourth consecutive league victory after Fernando Torres slotted his fourth goal after seven minutes. But Wigan netted an equaliser early in the second half through Hugo Rodallega.
Newcastle were brought crashing down to earth in a 2-1 home defeat by Blackburn. Morten Gamst Pedersen and Jason Roberts fired the Rovers to victory.
In other matches, Aston Villa won 3-2 against Blackpool, Everton claimed a 1-1 draw against Bolton and the West Ham and West Brom match ended 2-2.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2010.
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