The Premier League saw some interesting results this weekend, including an exciting draw between Manchester United and Chelsea. The current Premier League champions started off well, pressurising the Chelsea goal and putting in some deadly crosses and shots, but it was Korean winger Ji-Sung Park who opened the scoring after eighteen minutes. After the break, however, Manchester United started to look tired and Chelsea optimised on this fully, with Joe Cole and Anelka shooting several times unsuccessfully before substitute Kalou drew level for Chelsea with ten minutes remaining. Manchester United were infuriated by the referee’s decisions, booking seven players. Sir Alex Ferguson stated that ‘he did not see a bad tackle in the whole game’, while Chelsea manager Phil Scolari said that players should show more respect to the referee and his decisions. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/
In other results, Manchester City thrashed Portsmouth by six goals to nil, with all of the goals coming from different scorers it was a brilliant and exciting match. Arsenal beat Bolton 3-1 at the Reebok Stadium while Liverpool were held to a draw by Stoke City.
Hull continued their brilliant start to the season, drawing against Everton in a thrilling four goal game, but West Brom, who were also promoted this season, didn’t do so well, losing at home to Aston Villa.
Other games included a draw between Tottenham and Wigan, while Blackburn beat Fulham and West Ham scored three against Newcastle in Zola’s first match as the London side’s manager, while the need for a new managerial setup at Newcastle becomes even more clear.
The Carling Cup fixture were played this week, one of which held a shock result for Manchester City fans who’s team lost on penalties to League One side Brighton. The score after ninety minutes and the thirty minutes extra time was 2-2. Mark Hughes, the City manager, said that ‘the team lacked the professionalism to get the win’, adding that he was both embarrassed and angry at the result. http://www.mcfc.co.uk/default.
The Carling Cup also saw Arsenal trash Sheffield United, scoring six past a clueless Championship side.
Liverpool also got through to the next round, and will be accompanied by Watford, Burnley, Leeds, Rotherham, Stoke and Swansea.
Manchester United will also be competing in the fourth round after beating Middlesborough 3-1, although the game was overshadowed by an awful tackle by Pogatetz on Manchester United youngster, Rodrigo Possebon. Pogatetz received an instant red card for the foul which put the nineteen year old in hospital, but Sir Alex Ferguson was still enraged by the tackle, saying that ‘it was an absolutely terrible tackle’, adding that ‘what gets me about challenges like that is that the opponent always claims he has done nothing wrong’. There were fears that Possebon had suffered a broken leg from the tackle, although it turned out to just be a very painful encounter. Pogatetz did, however, apologized for the tackle, claiming that it was ‘a misjudged tackle’, adding that he wished the Brazilian a speedy recovering, and promising that he would ring up Possebon to apologize personally for the tackle. http://football365.com/story/