Football News: Premier League Results Round Up
English Premier League:
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Arsenal
Chelsea 1-1 Stoke City
Everton 2-3 West Ham United
Manchester City 4-0 Aston Villa
Newcastle United 1-3 Bournemouth
Southampton 1-1 Sunderland
Swansea City 1-0 Norwich City
Watford 0-1 Leicester City
The early match saw second placed Spurs take on third placed Arsenal in a North London derby. Neither will feel entirely satisfied as the ten man Gooners held out for a point. Spurs will feel they should have made more of their man advantage, while Arsenal will feel the referee should have sent off Eric Dier for a blatant shirt pull on Olivier Giroud when already on a booking.
Chelsea looked to have secured the three points only for Mame Biram Diouf to snatch a draw for Mark Hughes' men at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea's season in the Premier League looks to be petering out in mid-table mediocrity, while Stoke will still harbour European ambitions on the back of this result.
Everton fans will be devastated by this home defeat as their side strolled into a two nil lead, despite being down to ten men, but Romelu Lukaku missed a penalty and spurned an easy chance to give the Hammers fresh heart just as they were looking dead and buried. Everton's inability to defend caught up on them as the Toffees showed a complete lack of any defensive solidity, worst of all, at two nil up manager Roberto Martinez took off Aaron Lennon, who had tormented the West Ham defence all day, as well as adding a goal, and freed up the defence to push further forward. Only at 2-2 did Martinez act to try and shore up the defence, but it was too late by then and the East Londoners snatched a winner.
Man City strolled to an easy victory over a Villa side that gave up as soon as the first one went in. The Citizens missed a penalty but it made little difference to the end result as Villa showed no appetite for a fight and succumbed without a whimper.
Another side that folded with little bottle was Newcastle, as they were easily beaten by a Bournemouth side that put themselves near to safety with these three points. It is difficult to see what Steve McClaren works on in training with the Toon, who showed no organisation at the back. Shambolic is the word that best describes Newcastle right now.
Ten man Southampton were extremely lucky to get a draw with a late equaliser against the Mackems. Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce will no doubt be devastated to lose out on two more points that could have created a gap between his team and the relegation places, as the Saints offered little for most of the game.
Swans strolled to an easy victory over a very poor Canaries' side, who, like Villa and Newcastle, look resigned to relegation even with 9 more games left in the season. They will feel disappointed to not make it a more comprehensive victory against a poor Norwich side who look woefully unprepared for the Premier League. While Swansea boast talented players like Gylffi Sigurdsson, who can step up when it matters, Norwich lack any real quality within their ranks.
In the late match, Watford battled hard but were unable to prevent the Foxes from picking up yet another win away from home. Algerian wing wizard Riyad Mahrez scored once more to give the East Midlands side a cushion on top of the league entering into the final stretch of the title race. They had to scrap and fight for this result, so they will be grateful for the return of N'Golo Kante, who once again was at the centre of everything for them. Watford were solid, but once again failed to score, and showed little real quality in the final third. Idion Ighalo and Troy Deeney look out of sorts but still worked hard to try and create something from the crumbs they were fed.
Written by Tris Burke March 06 2016 05:41:39
