The Top Teams Enjoy A Breezy Saturday Afternoon

Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester United and Arsenal all enjoyed a stroll in the park on Saturday. Manchester United had a slightly tougher day though with an injury to Javier Hernandez to mar their victory. iSporter Sahil Bhalla reports

Manchester regained their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a thumping 5-1 victory over Norwich on Saturday. Manchester City remains unbeaten with another win. The first thirty minutes of the match were pretty evenly divided with Norwich keeping City on the back foot at the start if the match at the Etihad Stadium. As soon as goal number one came, by Sergio Aguero, the match was well and truly over. City class was written all over it. Samir Nasri, Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli and Adam Johnson ensured win number 12 for City this season. Norwich grabbed a late consolation goal and that’s all they had to cheer about on the day.

Manchester United travelled to Villa Park and the match was virtually a crapshoot. It was really boring from a neutral’s perspective but what was important was that Manchester United pulled out a win and kept City’s lead at the top to only 5 points. They are second at the moment but Tottenham can leap them if they win their game in hand. Phil Jones’ scored the lone goal, giving United the win and himself his first goal of his club career.

The deadlock was broken as early as the 19^th minute but that was probably the only point worth it for the spectator in all of us. Unfortunately for United, was that Javier Hernandez was stretchered off with an injury. This certainly put a damper on the win. Hernandez could be ruled out for as long as a month with a twisted ankle. Villa on the other handed suffered their own problems with Shay Given and Jermaine Jenas both being carried off.

Tottenham comfortably beat a 10-man Bolton 3-0 at White Hart Lane. Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermaine Defoe all scored and secured the three points for them. They claimed a club record equaling sixth successive Premier League win. Bale opened the scoring in just the seventh minute of the match with a great corner taken by Luka Modric. He then proceeded to remove his boots in front of the fans as a tribute to former Wales’s manager and Trotters player Gary Speed.

Gary Cahill was realy unfortunate when the referee branded out a harsh red card to him. It was for a foul on Scott Parker in the 17^thminute. It was all Spurs from them on till the end. This also stretches their unbeaten run to eleven matches.

Chelsea got back to their winning ways albeit with some luck at Newcastle in which Frank Lampard missed a penalty in the 14^th minute. Didier Drogrba, Salomon Kalou and Daniel Sturridge scored for the Blues and they ensured that Chelsea keep their top 4 position in the table, just two points ahead of Arsenal.

Arsenal moved up to fifth position in the table with a resounding 4-0 win at rock bottom Wigan. Mikel Arteta, Thomas Vermaelen, Gervinho and Robin Van Persie scored for the Gunners.

At the bottom of the table, Blackburn secured a very vital 4-2 win against Swansea to move them off last place in the table. It was all Yakubu as he smashed four goals in ninty minutes. Swansea got a first half equalizer with Leroy Lita scoring in the 35^th minute and a goal to make it 3-1 with Luke Moore scoring but it was never really enough.

In the days other game, Queens Park Rangers drew 1-1 against West Brom at Loftus Road. Neither team seemed to have taken any initiative whatsoever and Shane Long’s equalizer nine minutes from time was probably the only thing the neutrals had to cheer about.