Concern at Chelsea

Newcastle’s unbeaten record came to an end with a 3-1 loss at league leaders Manchester City while a single goal gave Manchester United 3 points at Swansea and a double from Adebayor against Aston Villa at White Hart Lane on Monday evening moved Tottenham into 3^rd place, but Chelsea suffered another home defeat, losing 2-1 to Liverpool who are behind them on goal difference together with Arsenal who came from behind at Norwich to win with a double from Robin van Persie. Yahubu completed his brace with a penalty deep into stoppage time to earn Blackburn a 3-3 draw at Wigan, and 2 goals from Helguson gave QPR a 3-2 win at Stoke while there were 2-1 home wins for WBA against Bolton and Everton against Wolves with the only goalless match being played between Sunderland and Fulham.

In Germany Bayern Munich lost 1-0 at home to Dortmund while Werder Bremen were hammered 5-0 at Borussia Mönchengladbach with a hat-trick from Marco Rues.

Dinamo Zagreb were brushed aside 6-2 at Real Madrid who scored 3 goals in the opening 9 minutes in the Champions League while Barcelona overcame Milan 3-2 in Italy and Genk were taken to the cleaners 7-0 at Valencia with Soldado netting a hat-trick. Among the English teams only Arsenal managed a win and qualified for the next round with another double from van Persie as they sent Dortmund back 2-1 losers. Manchester United could only draw 2-2 at home to Benfica while Manchester City fell 2-1 to a double strike from Cavani at Napoli and Chelsea who had taken the lead in Leverkusen lost to a last minute goal.   

Narrow wins at the top

League leaders Manchester City got the better of Queens Park Rangers 3-2 at Loftus Road with Jay Bothroyd having scored twice for the Londoners while Sunderland fell to a single goal at Manchester United who were celebrating Sir Alex Ferguson’s 25^th year in charge, and there were also narrow wins for Newcastle who rallied to a 2-1 home victory over Everton and Chelsea who struck once at Blackburn. Liverpool were held to a goalless draw at home to Swansea while Arsenal eased 3-0 past West Bromwich Albion at the Emirates and Tottenham were victorious 3-1 at Fulham. A double Bent effort gave Aston Villa a 3-2 home success over Norwich while Chris Eagles and Klasnic both scored a brace in Bolton’s 5-0 demolition of Stoke City and Wolves moved away from the relegation area with a 3-1 home win against bottom of the table Wigan.

In Spain Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid slaughtered Osasuna 7-1 in the capital while Barcelona needed a last-minute goal to earn a 2-2 draw at Atletic de Bilbao.

Gunners bridging the gap

Robin van Persie netted a hat-trick as Arsenal came from 2-1 down to upset Chelsea 5-3 at Stamford Bridge and climb into 7^th place while at the top Manchester City, despite being reduced to 10 men, picked up a 3-1 home win against Wolves and Manchester United won by a single goal at Everton. A last minute goal earned Norwich a 3-3 home draw against Blackburn while Aston Villa shared 4 goals with hosts Sunderland and ten-man Bolton fell 3-1 at Swansea. A brace from Bale helped Tottenham to a 3-1 home win over QPR while there were 2-0 away wins for Liverpool over WBA and Fulham at Wigan with Moussa Dembele scoring both goals for the visitors. On Monday evening Newcastle sank Stoke 3-1 at the Britannia with a hat-trick from Bemba Ba.

In Spain Real Mallorca were thumped 5-0 at Barcelona thanks to a Messi hat-trick while Real Madrid picked up 3 points with a single goal at Real Sociedad.

Messi bagged another hat-trick in the Czech Republic as Barcelona triumphed 4-0 at Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League while Marseille held Arsenal to a goalless draw in London and Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at Genk. Porto fell 2-1 to surprise package Apoel in Nicosia while Ronaldo scored  both goals for Real Madrid at Olympique Lyonnais and Dinamo Zagreb were hammered 4-0 at Ajax. Manchester United picked up a routine 2-0 home win against Otelul Galati while Manchester City sank Villareal 3-0 in Spain with 2 goals from Yaya Toure and Napoli failed to complete their comeback from a Gomez hat-tick, losing 3-2 at Bayern Munich.

In the Europa League Stoke beat Maccabi 2-1 in Tel Aviv while Hapoel drew 3-3 at PSV Eindhoven and Udinese were undone 4-0 at Atletico Madrid. Fulham enjoyed a cracking 4-1 victory against Wisla Krakow at Craven Cottage with 2 goals from Andy Johnson while Tottenham lost 1-0 at Rubin Kazan and Birmingham came from 2 down to draw at home to Brugge.