Chelsea chase the title

A bitter blow at Bolton virtually ended Arsenal’s hopes of a league title after they lost 2-1 to a last minute goal while Manchester United picked up 3 points with a late goal at home to Everton. Fernando Torres finally scored fro Chelsea who moved into 2nd place with a 3-0 win over West Ham at the Bridge. Dzeko also got on the score sheet with the only goal for Manchester City at Blackburn while a Maxi Rodriguez hat-trick helped Liverpool demolish Birmingham 5-0 at Anfield, and Jordan Henderson scored twice in Sunderland’s 4-2 home win over Wigan. There were 1-1 draws for Fulham at Wolves, Newcastle at Blackpool and Stoke at Aston Villa while WBA picked up a vital point in their 2-2 draw at Tottenham. The most notable result in the Spanish league was Real Madrid’s 6-3 victory at Valencia in which Higuain bagged a hat-trick. In midweek matches there were 3-0 home wins for Stoke against Wolves and Fulham against Bolton with Clint Dempsey netting a brace.
Manchester United returned from Schalke with a 2-0 advantage in the Champions League semi-final while a double from Messi was the difference between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Spanish capital. In the Europa League Falcao scored 4 times as Porto pummelled Villarreal 5-1 while Benfica still have plenty to do after their 2-1 win over Braga in Lisbon.

Top draws give Chelsea hope

While Manchester United were being knocked out of the FA Cup 1-0 by Manchester City who will meet Stoke in the final after their 5-0 belittling of Bolton, Chelsea moved into 2nd spot of the Premier League after 3-1 wins away to WBA and at home to Birmingham, overtaking Arsenal who on Sunday opened the scoring against Liverpool with a penalty deep into stoppage time at the Emirates only to concede from the spot with the last kick of the game and were pegged back from 3-1 up to draw away to Tottenham on Wednesday. Manchester United failed to capitalise on Arsenal’s misfortune, managing only a goalless draw at Newcastle while in other league matches Everton and Birmingham picked up 2-0 home wins against Blackburn and Sunderland respectively and Blackpool lost 3-1 at home to Wigan while a last minute goal gave Aston Villa a 2-1 win at West Ham.
In Spain Real Madrid and Barcelona shared the point in a league match with penalties from Ronaldo and Messi, but on Wednesday it was an extra-time header from Cristiano Ronaldo that gave Real Madrid the Copa del Rey against their illustrious rivals.

United on course

Manchester United took a step closer to the Premier League title with a routine 2-0 home win over Fulham while Arsenal kept their hopes alive with a 3-1 victory at Blackpool and a single goal at Chelsea was enough to give the hosts all 3 points against lowly Wigan. Peter Crouch netted twice at White Hart Lane as Tottenham defeated Stoke 3-2 and West Brom won by the same result at Sunderland while Birmingham drew 1-1 at Blackburn. Daniel Sturridge scored twice as Bolton sent West Ham away 3-0 losers and Everton won by the same score line at Wolves while Newcastle lost 1-0 at Aston Villa. Andy Carroll scored a brace in front of his home crowd as Liverpool sent Manchester City packing 3-0 on Monday evening.
After prolific first-leg wins Barcelona and Real Madrid will meet in the semi-finals of the Champions League having won their away matches 1-0 against Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham respectively, while the other semi-final will be between Manchester United and Schalke who won their home matches 2-1 against Chelsea and Inter Milan.
In the Europa League 3 Portuguese teams reached the last 4 to join Spanish side Villrreal who triumphed 3-1 at Twente. Porto disposed of Spartak 5-2 in Moscow and a 2-2 draw at PSV Eindhoven was enough to see Benfica through while Braga who played 60 minutes with 10 men held on to a 0-0 draw against Dynamo Kiev and progressed thanks to their 1-1 away draw a week earlier.

Rooney swears to make a difference

Wayne Rooney helped Manchester United to a 4-2 win with a hat-trick at West Ham after Mark Noble had put the Hammers 2 up in the first half, but was later handed a 2 match suspension for letting off steam in front of the cameras, while Arsenal failed to break down the 10 men of Blackburn at the Emirates and fell further behind the leaders. Chelsea could only manage a 1-1 draw at Stoke and Tottenham played out a goalless match at Wigan while Manchester City showed intent with the 5-0 thumping of Sunderland. Newcastle tore visiting Wolves apart 4-1 while Darren Bent scored both goals for Aston Villa who drew at Everton and a double for Bobby Zamora helped Fulham to a 3-0 home win over Blackpool. Chris Brunt scored a brace for West Bromwich Albion as the home side came from a goal down to defeat Liverpool While Birmingham enjoyed the same result at home to Bolton.
In the Champions League former Arsenal player Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice for Real Madrid who humiliated Tottenham 4-0 with the visitors down to 10 men after the 15th minute dismissal of Peter Crouch while Schalke shocked Inter 5-2 at the San Siro. A goal from Rooney was the difference in United’s favour at Chelsea while Shakhtar Donetsk took a 5-1 battering at Barcelona.
In the Europa League a hat-trick from Falcao put Porto in the driving seat with a 5-1 home win over Spartak Moscow while Benfica also took a huge step towards a semi-final place with a 4-1 victory at home to PSV Eindhoven. Braga returned to Portugal after a 1-1 draw at Dynamo Kiev and Twente Enschede were taken apart 5-1 at Villarreal.