International sports, football
Villa Park, Birmingham, GenevaLunch - Darren Bent earned the first installment of his £24 million transfer fee from Sunderland when he scored the goal that allowed Aston Villa to beat Manchester City 1-0, Saturday 22 January. He also did a favour to Manchester United, although the Reds did not look like they needed much help as they smashed the other Birmingham team 5-0 with a hat-trick by Dimitar Berbatov.
Man United now top the Premier League by two points from Arsenal, and have a game in hand over their main rival teams. The Gunners strolled past Wigan 3-0, with Robin van Persie scoring all three goals. despite missing a penalty.
At the other end West Ham are still bottom despite drawing 2-2 at Everton, while Wolves lost 0-3 at home to give Liverpool their first League win since the return of Kenny Dalglish.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Guardian
Wembley, London (GenevaLunch) - Wayne Rooney came off the substitutes bench to score the winner in the League Cup final against Aston Villa. Villa went ahead in the 4th minute with a penalty after Nemanja Vidic fouled Gabriel Agbanlahor. Vidic was lucky not to be sent off.
Fulham, London, England (GenevaLunch) - Manchester United lost another Premier League game when they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by Roy Hodgson’s Fulham. The London manager, who once coached the Swiss national team, took full advantage of the shaky Manchester defense which was weakened by many injured absentees. Chelsea were only able to manage a 1-1 draw at West Ham, and this was thanks to a dubious penalty decision. Frank Lampard took it three times before the referee was satisfied. Chelsea now lead Man United by four points.
Manchester City won 4-3 against Sunderland but it was not enough to save the job of manager Mark Hughes, who is being replaced by Roberto Mancini, ex-manager of Inter Milan. Arsenal beat Hull 3-0 to take third place while Aston Villa are next after beating Stoke 1-0.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Times, UK
(video) Chelsea, London (GenevaLunch) - There were five score draws, two away wins and only one home win in a weekend of upsets in the Premier League. Chelsea displayed unusual frailty in defense as they allowed Everton to take a 3-3 draw, the same score that Manchester City managed at Bolton Wanderers. Manor Figueroa scored the best goal of the day for Wigan against Stoke with a free kick from inside his own half. Saturday’s results left Manchester United with the chance of taking the top spot but they lost 0-1 at home against Aston Villa. Arsenal came from behind to win 1-2 at Liverpool.
In Spain, Real Madrid won 2-3 at Valencia to stay five points behind Barcelona with a game in hand.
Links to other sites: Premier League, Guardian
Manual Figueroa scored the best goal of the day:
(GenevaLunch) – Chelsea snatched a 1-0 win over Man United to go five points clear of their great rivals in the Premier League. The game was evenly balanced, with Manchester slightly ahead on points, but John Terry struck for Chelsea in the 76th minute after a number of bizarre referee decisions in favour of the home team.
Chelsea, London, England (GenevaLunch) – Chelsea had a double bonus this weekend as they beat rivals Liverpool 2-0 and saw the current champions Manchester United draw 2-2 with Sunderland. In fact Sunderland almost won the game, conceding a deflected own goal in injury time.
Premier League, England (GenevaLunch) – Chelsea moved to the top of the table with a convincing 3-0 victory over Burnley. Tottenham are also on 12 points from four games after beating Birmingham 2-1 with a late goal from Aaron Lennon, following a Peter Crouch header, which gave Spurs a 2-1 win. They lost Luka Modric to injury, apparently a fractured bone in his leg which will put him out of action for a few months.
(GenevaLunch) – Federico Macheda, a 17-year-old Italian playing in his first senior game for Manchester United, scored a dramatic last minute winner as the Reds came back from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2. Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals for Man U but the defense conceded twice to leave Villa a goal ahead with 10 minutes left.
