United glad for Gunners’ gift

Manchester United left it late to break the deadlock and pick up all 3 points at home to Bolton while Arsenal found themselves 2 goals behind but fought back to earn a point at West Brom. Chelsea continued their climb with a double at home to Manchester City while Liverpool enjoyed the same result at Sunderland, and Tottenham were held to a goalless draw at home to West Ham. Blackburn Rovers fought back to earn a home point with a last minute goal after Charlie Adam had put Blackpool 2 up and a last minute goal for Wigan gave the hosts a 2-1 win over Birmingham while Fulham lost 2-1 at Everton and Newcastle were taken apart 4-0 at Stoke.

Manchester semi joy

Arsenal were left with only the league to aim for after 2 goals at Old Trafford set up an FA Cup semi-final clash between Manchester United and Manchester City who ended Reading’s brave run in the cup with a single goal at the City of Manchester. Bolton scored a last minute winner in a 5 goal thriller at Birmingham and will meet Stoke City in the other semi-final after their 2-1 home win over West Ham.
Manchester witnessed another cup success when Hernandez scored twice as United sent Marseille home 2-1 losers in the Champions League after a goalless first leg while Inter came from behind to break German hearts with a late winner, beating Bayern Munich 3-2 to go through on away goals. Real Madrid strolled 3-0 past Lyon at the Bernabeu while a goalless match at Stanford Bridge was enough to see Chelsea through to the quarter-finals at the expense of FC Copenhagen.
A 1-0 Europa League win in Manchester was not enough to save City from elimination against Dinamo Kiev while Liverpool bowed out of the competition having fired blanks at home to Braga who are one of 3 Portuguese teams to make it to the last 8 with Benfica drawing 1-1 at Paris Saint-Germain and Porto achieving a 2-1 home win against CSKA Moscow. Another Russian team to be knocked out were Zenit St. Petersburg despite winning 2-0 at home to Twente Enschede, but Spartak Moscow reached the next round after brushing Ajax aside 3-0 in the Russian capital. PSV Eindhoven triumphed 1-0 at Glasgow Rangers and Villarreal made it through after a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in Spain.

Unhappy Arsenal close the gap

A Dirk Kuyt hat-trick at Anfield gave Liverpool a 3-1 victory over their bitter rivals Manchester United, and Arsenal the chance to close the gap on the league leader, but the Gunners could only manage a goalless draw at home to Sunderland having had a goal disallowed. At the wrong end of the table Wigan lost 1-0 at Manchester City, and Wolves Shared 6 goals with visiting Tottenham while West Ham enjoyed a 3-0 home win over Stoke and WBA moved out of the bottom 3 with a 3-1 success at Carling Cup winners Birmingham. There were 3-2 home wins for Bolton against Aston Villa and Fulham against Blackburn while Chelsea won 3-1 at Blackpool with 2 goals from Frank Lampard. Everton overtook Newcastle with a 2-1 win at St James’ Park and a 1-1 home draw in midweek against Birmingham.
Arsenal travelled to Barcelona in the Champions League where the controversial dismissal of van Persie helped the host win 3-1 and knock the Londoners out of Europe with a double from Messi while Tottenham held Milan to a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane to progress to the next round where they will be joined by Shakhtar Donetsk who brushed Roma aside 3-0 and Schalke who came from behind to defeat Valencia 3-1.
In the Europa League first-leg matches Liverpool lost 1-0 at Braga and Manchester City have a 2 goal deficit to make up after their visit to Dynamo Kiev.

Birmingham glory denies Arsenal silverware

A last minute defensive error handed Birmingham a 2-1 win over Arsenal and the Carling Cup. In the league Manchester United swept their hosts Wigan aside 4-0 with Hernandez grabbing a brace, but lost their vital midweek clash 2-1 at Chelsea while Ashley Young scored twice at home for Aston Villa who thumped Blackburn 4-1 before being knocked out of the FA Cup 3-0 in a midweek match at Manchester City who had earlier been held to a 1-1 draw by visiting Fulham in the league. A double from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake helped troubled Wolves to a 4-0 home triumph over Blackpool while Jermaine Beckford scored both goals for Everton against Sunderland and Liverpool went down 3-1 at West Ham while Newcastle v Bolton and Stoke v WBA finished one apiece.
Reading pulled off an FA Cup shock 1-0 win at Everton, but there were no surprises at the Emirates as Arsenal strolled 5-0 past Leyton Orient in their replay to set up a trip to Manchester United in the next round.
In a tempestuous Scottish FA Cup replay, 3 Rangers players saw red as they lost 1-0 at Celtic.