Gunning in the goals

Chelsea marched on with a 2-0 home win over Wolves while Arsenal moved into 2nd place after celebrating a 3-0 victory away to Manchester City whom they overtake on goal difference. Manchester United’s 2-1 win at Stoke leaves them with the same number of points and sandwiched between Arsenal and Manchester City while Tottenham are 2 points behind the pack after drawing 1-1 at home to Everton. West Bromwich Albion are sitting pretty in 6th after defeating Fulham 2-1 at the Hawthorns, followed by Sunderland after their 1-0 home win over Aston Villa. Newcastle won 2-1 at bottom club West Ham while Liverpool earned the same result at home to Blackburn.
In Spain Cristiano Ronaldo scored 4 times as Racing Santander fell 6-1 at Real Madrid and Lionel Messi scored both goals as Barcelona won at Zaragoza while the most eye-catching result in Europe was the PSV’s 10-0 demolition of Feyenoord at Eindhoven in the Dutch league.
Theo Walcott scored twice as Arsenal knocked the Toon Army out of the Carling Cup with a 4-0 at Newcastle while Stoke lost 3-1 at West Ham in extra time, and Javier Hernandez came off the bench at Old Trafford to settle the match 3-2 in United’s favour against Wolver Hampton Wanderers.

City aiming for the top

A 3-2 win at Blackpool took Manchester City a step closer to Chelsea who fired blanks in their draw at Aston Villa while Arsenal came from behind to beat Birmingham 2-1 at the Emirates and Tottenham won by the same score line at Fulham. West Bromwich Albion bounced back to earn a 2-2 draw at Manchester United, and Newcastle fought back at home to cancel out N’Zogbia’s double for Wigan while troubled Wolves and West Ham drew 1-1 at Molineux and the Merseyside derby ended in a 2-0 win for Everton at Goodison.
Eduardo returned to the Emirates in the Champions League to score a consolation goal for Shakhtar Donetsk as they were outclassed 5-1 by Arsenal and in Moscow Zhirkov scored a corker with Anelka adding another to make it 2-0 to Chelsea against Spartak while Ronaldo and Özil scored early goals to give Real Madrid a home win over AC Milan. Ten-man Ajax won 2-1 at home against Auxerre who were reduced to 9 players late on in the match while FC Basel picked up a 3-1 win at Roma, and a brace from Messi for Barcelona sent FC Copenhagen home with a defeat. A superb second-half hat-trick from Gareth Bale at Inter was not enough to bale Tottenham out as the Londoners who had keeper Gomez dismissed had gone 4 down early in the match, and in the Europa League Adebayor netted a hat-trick for Manchester City as they registered a 3-1 home win against Lech Poznan while Liverpool draw 0-0 at Napoli.

Joy and frustration on a goalless day for England

Montenegro remain unbeaten and on top of group G after holding England to a 0-0 draw at Wembley on Tuesday evening. The outstretched legs of Peter Crouch failed to steer the ball goal-bound and his towering header flew over the bar in a first half dominated by a toothless England side that came out with more bite after the break to test Božović in the Montenegrin goal through efforts by Rooney, Gerrarld and Barry, but Montenegro almost stole the 3 points when Jovanovic hit Hart’s crossbar with a dipping volley moments after getting away with a handball in his own box.
Earlier in the day a goalless draw in Romania saw the England under 21s qualify for the 2011 Euro championships in Denmark having beaten the Romanians 2-1 at home the previous

Blues lead the way

Didier Drogba netted again against Arsenal and Alex da Costa sealed victory with a rocket of free-kick at Stamford Bridge to keep Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table with Manchester City moving into 2nd place after their 2-1 win at home to Newcastle United. Manchester United were held to a goalless draw at Sunderland while Tottenham replied to an Aston Villa goal with a double from Rafael van der Vaart at White Hart Lane and Fulham drew 1-1 at West Ham, as did Bolton at West Brom. Blackpool rocked Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield and Everton were 2-0 winners away to Birmingham while Wolves lost 2-0 at Wigan and a single goal at Stoke put Blackburn on the losing side.
In Spain Real Madrid hammered Deportivo la Coruna 6-1 while Barcelona could only draw 1-1 at home to Real Mallorca, but Valencia remain at the top of La Liga after their 2-1 home win against Athletico de Bilbao.
In Italy Juventus drew 0-0 at Inter who were replaced at the top by Lazio after winning 1-0 at home to Brescia.

Flop of the top

Manchester United twice came from behind to earn a point at Bolton in a week when their 2 closest rivals at the top were both defeated, with Chelsea losing to a Tevez goal at Manchester City and Arsenal failing to complete a comeback from 3 down against West Brom at the Emirates. Tottenham lost 1-0 at West Ham and a double from Bent gave Sunderland a point at Liverpool while Fulham v Everton and Birmingham v Wigan ended goalless. Wolves and Newcastle lost 2-1 at home to Aston Villa and Stoke respectively.
In the Champions League Arsenal overcame Partizan 3-1 in Serbia and Chelsea put 2 past Marseille without reply at the Bridge while AC Milan drew 1-1 at Ajax and Real Madrid won 1-0 away to Auxerre. Manchester United defeated Valencia 1-0 in Spain and 2 penalties in Russia resulted in a 1-1 draw for Barcelona against Rubin Kazan while Tottenham cruised past Twente Enschede 4-1 at White Hart Lane with van der Vaart missing a penalty and scoring a goal before his dismissal half an hour from time. Samuel Eto’o netted a hat-trick as Inter crushed Werder Bremen 4-0 at the San Siro while Benfica fell 2-0 at Schalke and Copenhagen triumphed by the same score line at Panathinaikos.
Liverpool drew 0-0 away to Utrecht in the Europa League and Juventus drew 1-1 at Manchester City while Napoli shared 6 goals with their Romanian hosts Steaua. Bate Borisov hammered Alkmaar 4-1 in Belarus while Savilla were 1-0 winners at Dortmund and Sporting Lisbon thumped Levski Sofia 5-0 in Portugal.