London cup failure

Arsenal returned from their midweek mauling in Milan to surrender 2-0 at Sunderland in the FA Cup and Millwall lost by the same scoreline at home to Bolton Wanderers while the 2 other London clubs struggled to earn replays, with Chelsea coming from a goal down to draw 1-1 at home to Birmingham and Tottenham drawing blanks at minnows Stevenage. In other matches Blackpool came unstuck to 2 early goals at Everton and Norwich had their wings clipped 2-1 at home to Leicester while 2 goals at Crawley Town saw Stoke City through despite the visitors playing most of the match with 10 men, and Liverpool rocked Brighton 6-1 at Anfield thanks to 3 own goals.

In Spain Lionel Messi scored 4 times as Valencia were battered 5-1 at Barcelona while 2 goals for Karim Benzema helped leaders Real Madrid to a 4-0 home win over Racing Santander.

In the Champions League Chelsea lost 3-1 at Napoli while there were 1-0 home wins for Basel and Marseille over Bayern Munich and Inter respectively and Real Madrid drew 1-1 at CSKA Moscow.

City sailed 4-0 past reigning Europa League champions Porto in Manchester to go through 6-1 on aggregate while Stoke were knocked out 1-0 at Valencia and Manchester United lost 2-1 at home to Ajax but progressed to the next round 3-2 on aggregate.

North London rising

Arsenal came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Sunderland with a last minute goal from Thierry Henry but remain 10 points behind Tottenham who demolished Newcastle 5-0 at White Hart Lane while at the top Manchester City picked up another 3 points with a single goal at Aston Villa and 2 goals in quick succession from Rooney gave Manchester Untied a 2-1 victory at home to Liverpool. Jamie Mackie scored twice but Queens Park Rangers lost 3-2 at Blackburn and Swansea lost by the same result at home to Norwich with Danny Graham scoring twice for the Swans and Grant Holt netting a double for the victorious visitors. Bolton lost 2-1 at home to fellow-strugglers Wigan, and Stoke were beaten 2-1 at Fulham while Chelsea lost 2-0 at Everton. Mick McCarthy was sacked as Wolves were humiliated 5-1 at home to West Bromwich Albion with Peter Odemwingie claiming a hat-trick.

In Spain Real Madrid extended their lead at the top after a Ronaldo hat-trick gave them a 4-2 home win against Levante while Barcelona lost 3-2 at Osasuna for whom Dejan Lekic scored twice.  

In the Champions League Arsenal were thumped 4-0 away to Milan with Robinho netting a double and Bayer Leverkusen lost 3-1 at home to Barcelona with 2 goals from Sanchez while Benfica lost 3-2 at Zenit St Petersburg and Lyon gained a slender 1-0 lead to take to Apoel Nicosia.

Manchester United opened their Europa League account with a 2-0 win at Ajax and Manchester City triumphed 2-1 at Porto while Stoke were toppled by a Topal wonder strike at home to Valencia. Metalist were the biggest winners hitting 4 without reply at Red Bull Salzburg with Cristaldo on target twice for the Ukrainians.          

The catch-up game

With Manchester City winning 3-0 at home to Fulham, United needed a win to end the week level at the top but found themselves 3 down at Chelsea and had to fight back to earn a 3-3 draw with Rooney scoring twice from the spot while ten-man Blackburn were gunned down 7-1 at Arsenal with van Persie scoring a hat-trick to send the Gunners into 5^th place ahead of Liverpool whose 0-0 home draw with Tottenham on Monday evening was also a favourable result for Newcastle who had picked up a 2-1 win at home to Aston Villa. Norwich beat Bolton 2-0 while the dismissal of Cisse at QPR helped Wolves come from behind to win with 2 goals in the second half and Swansea enjoyed the same scoreline at West Brom. Sunderland won by a single goal at ten-man Stoke who had Huth sent off and Everton drew 1-1 at Wigan.

In Spain there were narrow wins for the top 2 as Real Madrid won 1-0 at Getafe and Real Sociedad lost 2-1 at Barcelona who defeated Valencia 2-0 in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey at the Camp Nou in midweek.

In FA Cup replays the away teams all prospered with Blackpool scoring 3 at Sheffield Wednesday without reply, Millwall getting a last-minute 3-2 winner at Southampton and Sunderland winning 2-1 in extra-time at Middlesbrough.

The biggest talking point of the week was the resignation of Fabio Capello as England manager.      

Cup and League week

With FA Cup matches being played at the weekend a full fixture of league matches took place in midweek. On Friday evening Watford were knocked out of the cup 1-0 by their visitor from Tottenham and Fulham lost 2-1 at Everton while among other matches at the weekend Queens Park Rangers lost 1-0 at home to a controversial Chelsea penalty and Manchester United were beaten 2-1 at Liverpool.  Crawley Town claimed another scalp 1-0 at Hull and Newcastle lost by the same result at Brighton while Birmingham triumphed 4-0 at Sheffield United with Adam Rooney scoring twice. Millwall scored late to earn a 1-1 draw and a trip to Southampton and Swansea lost 2-1 at Bolton while there were 2-0 wins for Stoke at Derby and Leicester at home to Swindon. Arsenal came from 2 down at home to defeat Aston Villa 3-2 with the help of 2 van Persie penalties and West Bromwich Albion lost 2-1 at home to Norwich while Middlesbrough drew 1-1 at Sunderland.

In the Premier League a brace from Bale helped Tottenham win 3-1 at home to Wiagn while Liverpool won 3-0 at Wolves and Chelsea drew 1-1 at Swansea. Manchester United are level on points with Manchester City after winning 2-0 at home to Stoke while City lost 1-0 at Everton. Djibril Cisse scored on his debut for QPR at Aston Villa but the hosts came from 2 down to earn a draw and there were draws 1-1 for West Brom at Fulham and 0-0 for Arsenal at Bolton while Norwich lost 3-0 at Sunderland and Newcastle won 2-0 at Blackburn.

In Spain Real Madrid won 3-1 at home to Real Zaragoza while Barcelona coyuld only draw 0-0 at Villarreal. The big match in the Dutch Eredivisie saw Feynoord defeat Ajax 4-2 with Guidetti claiming a hat-trick.