City smash United

Manchester City widened the gap at the top after destroying ten-man United 6-1 at Old Trafford while nine-man Chelsea lost by a single goal at Queens Park Rangers. Aston Villa who also had a player sent off lost the lead and match 2-1 at home to West Brom while van Persie came off the bench at the Emirates to net a brace in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Stoke and van der Vaart scored both goals in Tottenham’s 2-1 success at Blackburn. Wolves denied Swansea an away win with 2 late goals to draw 2-2 and 2 late goals at Bolton decided the match in Sunderland’s favour while one goal was enough to give Newcastle a home win over Wigan. Norwich held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw at Anfield but 2 goals right at the end gave Everton a 3-1 victory at Fulham.

In Spain a Ronaldo hat-trick helped Real Madrid to a 4-0 win at Malaga while Barcelona were held to a goalless draw at home to Sevilla with Varas saving a Messi penalty as 2 of the visiting  players saw red. In Germany Bayern Munich lost 2-1 at Hanover.

In Carling Cup matches Manchester United picked themselves up from their weekend humiliation to win 3-0 at Aldershot while Chelsea got the better of hosts Everton 2-1 in extra time and Southampton lost 2-0 at Crystal Palace. Suarez scored both goals for Liverpool who triumphed 2-1 at Stoke and Arsenal came from behind to beat Bolton 2-1 with 2 goals in quick succession at the Emirates while one goal at Cardiff sent Burnley out of the cup. Manchester City were too powerful for Wolves devouring their hosts 5-2 while Newcastle scored 2 goals at the death to force extra-time at Blackburn who sealed a 4-3 win in the 120^th minute.     

City clear

A convincing 4-1 home win over Aston Villa sent Manchester City 2 points clear of United who drew 1-1 at Liverpool while Chelsea kept up the pressure by beating Everton 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. Anthony Pilkington scored twice for Norwich who sent Swansea back 3-1 losers and Bolton won by the same score at Wigan while Blackburn drew 1-1 at Queens Park Rangers and Stoke hot 2 at home to Fulham. West Bromwich Albion beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 in the Black Country derby while van Persie scored another double as Arsenal defeated Sunderland 2-1 at the Emirates and Tottenham drew 2-2 away to Newcastle.

In Spain Real Madrid swept Betis aside 4-1 with another hat-trick from Higuain while Barcelona put 3 past Racing Santander with 2 from Messi.

In the Champions League 2 penalties from Rooney gave Manchester United a win at Otelul Gulati and Manchester City recovered from an early goal to score a last gasp winner at home to Villareal while Aaron Ramsey scored the only goal of the match in stoppage time for Arsenal at Marseille and Torres scored twice as Chelsea gunked Genk 5-0 at the Bridge.

In the Europa League Birmingham recorded a famous victory in Brugge with their 2-1 winner coming deep into injury time and Stoke put 3 past Maccabi with both teams having a player sent off at the Britannia Stadium while the controversial 29^th minute dismissal of Dembele in Krakow was the talking point in Fulham’s 1-0 loss to Wisla and an unstoppable rocket of a free-kick from Pavlyuchenko was the difference between Tottenham and Rubin Kazan in London.   

A matter of goals

Two goals against Norwich at Old Trafford was enough for Manchester United to top the table on goal difference ahead of City who after a goalless first-half cruised to a 4-0 win at Blackburn while a hat-trick from Lampard helped Chelsea batter Bolton 5-1 at the Reebok Stadium, but it was Fulham who filled their boots with Andy Johnson claiming a hat-trick in their 6-0 slaughter of Queens Park Rangers at the Cottage. The controversial early dismissal of Everton’s Jack Rodwell helped Liverpool win 2-0 at Goodison despite missing a penalty and there were 2-0 home wins for Aston Villa and Swansea against Wigan and Stoke respectively while Sunderland had to come back from 2 early goals to earn a point at home to West Bromwich Albion. Arsenal lost the North London derby 2-1 at Tottenham and Newcastle won by the same scoreline at Wolves while in Italy the outstanding result was 10 man Inter’s 3-0 home defeat to Napoli who could afford the luxury of missing a penalty and in Spain Barcelona won 1-0 at Sporting Gijon while Real Madrid were 4-0 winners at Espanyol with a hat-trick from Higuain.