Around the English Premier League – Round 17

Tottenham and Chelsea tied 1-1 on their Thursday’s match, while the Manchester clubs’ rivals were shattered.

By Camilla Mancini

The curious thing about Round 17 is that there were no changes on the standings, some clubs earned more points with their triumphs, but each one hanged onto their positions, making it almost like a Christmas present for some. For example, the Spurs that were in the fight for the third spot alongside Chelsea, with the draw they may have not distanced more from The Blues but at least they were able to keep the position. Even more helpful was their own tie for the Wolves, who could’ve entered the relegation zone for the first time this season if they would’ve lose against the Canaries.

Manchester City continues at the lead but now with Manchester United just two points behind; and at the speed the Red Devils have been reinforcing, they might steal the first place from the Citizens soon. At the moment both clubs are doing a great job and on their last matches they show off what they got. The Citizens hosted Stoke City on Wednesday 21 and throughout the 90 minutes took control over the ball, with some few exceptions, like Marc Wilson’s approach. The first goal came at 28’ with Sergio Agüero shooting the ball straight to the right corner. The 2-0 was placed by Adam Johnson with a long-range shot to the bottom of the net. By the beginning of second half Agüero turned into a sniper and kept firing at the Potters goal and although the Argentinean never stopped trying to score, he was only able to score once more at 53’ to set the 3-0, since Thomas Sorensen stopped him from scoring more.

For the Red Devils, the recap from their match against Fulham doesn’t have much difference from their neighbors’ tale against Stoke, except for a couple more goals. The Cottagers suffered their toughest defeat of the season with the 0-5 against Ferguson’s men. The Red Devils started the butchery within five minutes from the beginning with Danny Welbeck assisted by Luis Nani, who few more than 20 minutes later headed the ball in to the hosts’ goal. Right before the end of first half Ryan Giggs placed the 3-0 with a shot from inside the penalty area. The last two goals were left for the fixture’s end, first was the striker, Wayne Rooney that now counts with 13 goals for the season and right in the last minute Valencia provided the cross that gave Dimitar Berbatov the chance to settle things at 5-0.

The Spurs and the Blues had a thrilling game that couldn’t go further than a 1-1, pretty fair really, because both clubs fought hard enough to take the lead. However the draw was set early in the fixture, the first score was performed by Adebayor at 7 minutes from the beginning, when he intercepted a cross from Garreth Bale. To even things up in the 22’ Ashley Cole made a pass that was caught by Sturridge, who hit the ball straight to the bottom of the right side of the goal.

The other matches from round 17: Wolves 1-1 Norwich; Blackburn 1-2 Bolton; Newcastle 2-3 West Brom; Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal; Wigan 0-0 Liverpool; QPR 2-3 Sunderland; Everton 1-0 Swansea.