Around the English Premier League – Round 28

Manchester United retakes the precious throne of the Premier League and Arsenal continues charging points to harass the Spurs.
By Camilla Mancini

Manchester United finally got the chance to grip the first spot after 5 weeks holding in second place with just two points less than City. The opportunity arrived on Sunday, when the Red Devils hosted West Bromwich Albion at the same time that Manchester City was playing against the Swans at the Liberty Stadium in Wales. With two goals from Wayne Rooney -one on each half of the match- and 0 from the Sky Blues, the Red Devils acquired the leading position, that although they know quite well, they did miss it during most of this season.

So, like in most of the fixtures from this round, the luck was on the hosts’ side in Wales and even though the Sky Blues had several clear chances to score during the second half, it was going to be a triumph for Swansea. The only goal of the meeting was headed at 83′ by the striker Luke Moore, who had entered five minutes before in replacement for Danny Graham. Swansea’s victory could’ve been worst for the Citizens, for at the very beginning of the match Scott Sinclair missed the opportunity to score a penalty a shot. In the end the inconstancy that the Manchester clubs have shown against some unforeseen rivals at some points of the season leaves us with uncertainty about: for how long can United keep the first position or if City will be able to steal once again and hold on in there until the end.

On the other hand, still in the third position are holding the Spurs, with the same 53 points from a month ago, when they beaten Newcastle; since then Arsenal, Manchester United and now Everton have defeated Tottenham. Those losses are of grave cost for the Spurs that after having an advantage of 10 points between them and the fourth-placed are now just one point away from Arsenal. Anyway at least for David Moyes was a happy day, as he got to celebrated on Saturday his 10-year anniversary as Everton’s boss with the 1-0 victory over the Spurs. The triumph was achieved during the first half by the debutant Nikica Jelavic, who moved from QPR to the People’s Club in January.

Arsenal and Chelsea were other two of the victorious host of the 28th round, earning 3 more points that leaves them now with 52pts and 49pts respectively. As a matter of fact the Blues had a great week, since they not only beaten Stoke City with a single goal from Drogba’s in their Premier League match, but they were also qualified to the Champions League quarter-finals earlier in the week. Unfortunately for the Gunners, they didn’t have the same luck in the UEFA competition, but in the Premier they won 2-1 against the Toons and thanks to that they are just one point away from stealing the third position.

Liverpool had to play on Saturday at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland and two days later hosted Everton for the match they were missing. On the first game the Black Cats not only left the Reds goalless, but also in second half (56′) the Denmark Nicklas Bendtner put the mark in with a shot at close range to save the day for his team. On Tuesday Liverpool did a lot better against Everton thanks to Steven Gerrard’s performance, which carried with the team and placed 3 goals to save the Reds from the losing streak they were in. The 31-year-old Gerrard is the first player from Liverpool to achieve a treble in almost 30 years and Kenny Dalglish must be quite glad that he pulled off on Saturday.

The other matches from round 28: Bolton 2-1 QPR; Wolves 0-2 Blackburn; Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham; Norwich 1-1 Wigan.