Around The English Premier League – Round 37

Manchester City is holding the reins of the Barclays with an advantage of eight goals over the Red Devils, after a triumph conquered by Yaya Toure.
By Camilla Mancini

The Manchester clubs will continue on war until their very last match of the campaign, since this round brought no changes on the top of the standings, for both sites triumphed on this round. In fact they are not only still tied in points, but separated by the same amount of goals, for they shared the same score in their 37th fixtures. The Citizens got underway the Sunday’s football itinerary with their visit to the Toons and after bringing the triumph to the table, opened a three-points-gap that only lasted an hour, until United’s own match. Sir Alex Ferguson’s men instead hosted Swansea for the closing match of the day, which they won with two goals on first half.

At the Sports Direct Arena the goals arrived within the last 20 minutes of the encounter better late than never, although from the very beginning the Sky Blues were dominant. In fact during the game’s first third Silva, Aguero and Tevez put the pressure on Tim Krul, who had to clear shots from the Ibero-American trio. The Magpies had their chances after the first 30 minutes, but were stopped by Joe Hart. Reaching the mid-time break the Citizens were controlling and attacking again, as well as in the beginning of second half, but suddenly they started to lie back allowing the hosts possession.

At the hour the Italian boss, Roberto Mancini felt his team needed a change and substituted Nasri with Nigel De Jong, who helped Toure move forward behind the strikers. The adjustment in the Citizens alignment produced a perfect effect on their performance and at 70′ it brought the first mark. While taking the ball closer to the rivals’ box, Gnegneri Toure Yaya fooling Cabaye that was following him closely, made a passed to Sergio Aguero that only touched the ball to return it to the Ivorian, which had time to get in a better location to charge the goal. Then reaching the end (89′) the midfielder attacked again and at close range stroke the ball over Krul and conquered the double lead over Newcastle.

Later on Sunday, Manchester United received the only Welsh club from the Premier League, Swansea City and as mentioned before defeated the visitors with two goals. The first one was from Paul Scholes in the 28′ and four minutes to the interval Ashley Young got in the score sheet as well. The clash ended up in 2-0 victory for the hosts, but the amount of goals clearly wasn’t enough to shorten the advantage City has in Goal Difference. However the win has left Ferguson optimistic about the chance his men have next Sunday, May 13th 2012, of acquiring their 20th title; though to obtain it the Red Devils need City to lose against QPR and or crush Sunderland with and advantage of at least 9 goals –which seems a little improbable to happen.

On the other hand Blackburn is the second club officially relegated to the 2012-13 Championship, after confronting Wigan on Monday 7th. The Latics certainly needed to beat the Rovers to be out of danger, for it was on the 17th spot, just 2 points above Bolton that remains 18th. Now Wigan is safe with 40 points two positions above and left Queens Park Rangers in the hot seat, waiting for the Sky Blues.

The other results from Round 37: Arsenal 3-3 Norwich; Wolves 0-0 Everton; QPR 1-0 Stoke; Fulham 2-1 Sunderland; Bolton 2-2 West Brom; Aston Villa 1-1 Tottenham; Blackburn 0-1 Wigan; Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea.