EPL Scores – Saturday 31 October
October 31, 2009
In the latest EPL scores Chelsea had a convincing 4-0 win over Bolton Wanderers to go five points clear at the top of the EPL. Manchester United later in the day narrowed the gap to two after a win in their late match against Blackburn Rovers.
Here are all the EPL scores from Saturday October 31:
Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Bolton Wanderers 0-4 Chelsea
Burnley 2-0 Hull City
Everton 1-1 Aston Villa
Fulham 3-1 Liverpool
Portsmouth 4-0 Wigan Athletic
Stoke City 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sunderland 2-2 West Ham United
Manchester City 2-0 Blackburn Rovers
On Sunday Manchester City travel to Birmingham City’s home ground at St. Andrews Ground.
Last week Liverpool made a statement with a win against Manchester United, however that was short lived as a mid-week Carling Cup loss to Arsernal has been followed up with a 3-1 away loss to Fulham. Against Fulham Liverpool dominated early only to see themselves go a goal down after 23 minutes. The goal came with Fulham’s first shot on goal, it was scored by Bobby Zamora. Fernando Torres got Liverpool back to 1-1 just before the halftime break.
The second half was one to forget for Liverpool. They conceded two goals and lost two players. Jamie Carragher and Philipp Degen were sent off. Fulham scored their second goal after 74 minutes through Nevland and then Degen was sent off four minutes later after a foul on Dempsey. Carragher went just three minutes later after he brought down Zamora. Fulham sealed the win with an 87th minute goal to Dempsey. Another day of misery for Liverpool fans and their side suffered the 6th loss from 7 starts.
Chelsea are now on top with 27 points from 11 matches, Manchester United 25, Arsenal 22 from 10 matches and Tottenham are on 19 from 11 games played. Liverpool are in 5th with 18 points however they have Manchester City and Aston Villa equal on points but with games in hand.
Chelsea won their match against Bolton Wanderers thanks to a 45th minute penalty and then a Deco goal on 60 minutes, a Knight own goal and a late Drogba goal in the 90th minute.
Next weekend we see the top two teams face off a Stamford Bridge as Chelsea plays host to Manchester United in the Sunday match.
EPL scores – Liverpool Win Keeps Chelsea on Top
October 25, 2009
In English Premier League action the big match of the round on the weekend of 24-25 October was between the 2008 EPL champions Manchester United and the runners-up Liverpool.
Liverpool were looking to avoid a fifth straight loss, something that had not happened since the 1950′s, while Manchester United were looking to move back to the top of the EPL ladder after Chelsea’s 5-0 win over Blackburn.
As it turned out it was the Liverpool fans who finally had something to celebrate after their clubs run of losses. Fernando Torres had returned from injury to send his team to the lead after 64 minutes after he ran onto a Benayoun pass to blast a shot into the roof of the net. A second goal came late in the match when David Ngog scored in the 90th minute to setup the final 2-0 score.
In other EPL scores on Saturday we saw:
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Aston Villa
Birmingham City 2-1 Sunderland
Burnley 1-3 Wigan Athletic
Hull City 0-0 Portsmouth
Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Stoke City
Chelsea 5-0 Blackburn Rovers
Sunday 25th October
Bolton Wanderers 3-2 Everton
Liverpool 2-0 Machester United
Manchester City 2-2 Fulham
West Ham United 2-2 Arsenal
At the end of weekend action Chelsea are now on top with 24 points, Manchester United 22, Arsenal 19, Tottenham 19, Liverpool 18, Manchester City 18.
Liverpool Slump – When will it end?
October 21, 2009
In the overnight UEFA Champions League match, Liverpool FC managed to lose at Anfield after holding a 1-0 lead at halftime. The final score was 2-1 in favour of Lyon. The loss means that in all competitions Liverpool has lost four straight matches for the first time since 1987.
Does this signal the end of the big four domination in English football? More often than not it has been Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool dominating the top spots. Going from memory I can only remember the year when Liverpool had to get a special entry into the Champions League as Champion as the most recent time the big four did not take the top four sports in the EPL.
To lose four straight matches is a big dissapointment for Liverpool fans, of which I am one. The interesting thing is we could see it go out to at least seven straight as Liverpool will face Manchester United, Arsenal and a return match with Lyon in the next three fixtures.
Do you think Liverpool can turn things around against Manchester United or is it a season to forget already for a team that just last season was pushing hard to win the title and lost only two games all season in the EPL?
Webber Wins Brazilian F1 GP Button Claims F1 Drivers Championship
October 18, 2009
Australia’s Mark Webber has made it a good day in motor sport for Australia. He has followed up from Casey Stoner’s win in the MotoGP at Phillip Island with a win in the Brazilian Formula One grand prix.
More important than Webber’s win was the fact that Jenson Button finally can lay claim to being the Formula One driver’s world champion. After Rubens Barrichello fell from starting on pole to position eight and Sebastion Vettel getting fourth, left Button with an insurmountable lead.
Brazil has not treated its home drivers well the past two years and has been a happy hunting ground for the Brits. Who can forget the dramatic race last year when Lewis Hamilton stole the title from Felipe Massa in the closing seconds of the race. This year Barrichello had luck go against him after he suffered a puncture to take away any hope he had to force a decider in Abu Dhabi.
The race overall was not without drama. Once again there was some first lap casualties as Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso crashed out of the race. Trulli was not impressed with Sutil and had a confrontation with the Force India driver as the two walked away. The race stewards likewise were not impressed with Trulli and hit him with a US $10 000 fine for his behaviour. They ruled the crash a “racing incident”.
McLaren were also fined US $50 000 for unsafely releasing Heikki Kovalainen with his fuel hose still attached during a pitstop. Kimi Raikkonen who trailed Kovalainen in the pits was showered with fuel and was briefly engulfed in flames as the fuel caught fire. Luckily nothing worse came from that incident.
Back to the on track action Button managed to avoid the cars flying off around him and jumped several places early in the race as we saw the safety car used to clean up after lap one incidents. He then later worked his way through the field to complete the race in fifth spot.
So after a blistering start to the season when Button won six of the opening seven GP’s Button is finally champion with one race left to contest in 2009.
Congratulations to Jenson Button the 2009 Formula One Driver’s Champion. Along with individual honours Brawn GP also wrapped up the constructors title.
Button is now on 89 points, Vettel moved to second on 74, Barrichello is third on 72. The race win takes Mark Webber to 61.5 points for fourth place in the driver’s championship.
Here are some quotes regarding Jenson Button from past British champions.
“Jenson’s done a fantastic job. He was out of a job over Christmas, and really he didn’t know that this season was going to happen. He’s been there through all the pain and I’m really delighted for him.” – Damon Hill 1996 Formula One World Champion.
“Brawn have done an amazing job and Ross a master. But it takes a driver to get the job done at the end of the day, and Jenson did it. Well done to him.” – Sir Jackie Stewart Threetime Formula One World Champion.
Full list of results for the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix
Sam Stosur Sixth Time Lucky
October 18, 2009
Australia’s Sam Stosur was 0-5 when playing in WTA tournament finals going into the Japan Open. The good news was that she was playing an opponent who holds a 1-9 record in finals.
To make it even more likely that Stosur would claim her maiden WTA title was that she had won her last four of five match against her final opponent Francesca Schiavone.
After a fairly close set Stosur dominated the second to take the title 7-5, 6-1. Stosur won the first set after getting the first break of the match in the 12th game of the first set.
Now that Stosur has finally won a tournament I guess the next step is to win a top level tournament of even a Grand Slam singles. It would be great to see her hold the trophy aloft at the 2010 Australian Open.
F1 – It is now Barrichello or Button?
October 17, 2009
After rain played a big part in qualifying at the Brazilian F1 grand prix it appears that the title ambitions for Sebastian Vettel have ended. Rubens Barrichello on the other hand is in the best position possible to challenge F1 driver’s championship leader Jenson Button. The Brazilian grabbed pole position in front of his home fans. Button will start from 14th position while Vettel is all the way down at 16th. The Formula One drivers championship now looks likely to only be a race for Button and Barrichello.
In Q1 the rain fell which resulted in the session being delayed for 14 minutes as officials waited for conditions to improve. More rain and more delays was the order of the day. Q2 started 18 minutes late before heavy rain ended it after just two minutes. It then took over two hours before the cars could make it out onto the track to complete the qualifying.
Who knows what will happen in tomorrow’s race however it would appear extremely unlikely that Vettel could go all the way from 16th on the grid to get a race win. If he does he would really deserve to be champion. Even if he did he still has to get another win in the final race of the season while at the same time Button and Barrichello get poor results.
Mark Webber is where his team mate would like to be as the Australian will start the race from P2 and Adrian Sutil continued the late season form for Force India as he grabbed P3.
01. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:19.576
02. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:19.668
03. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:19.912
04. Trulli Toyota 1:20.097
05. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:20.168
06. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.250
07. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:20.326
08. Kubica BMW-Sauber 1:20.631
09. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:20.674
10. Alonso Renault 1:21.422
11. Glock Toyota 1:21.960
12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.231
13. Grosjean Renault 1:22.477
14. Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.504
15. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes no time
16. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:25.009
17. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.052
18. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.192
19. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 1:25.515
20. Fisichella Ferrari 1:40.703
EPL Scores – Oct 17 – Bizarre Beach Ball Goal Sinks Liverpool
October 17, 2009
Here are the EPL scores from the matches played on October 17.
Aston Villa 2-1 Chelsea
Arsenal 3-1 Birmingham City
Everton 1-1 Wolverhampton Wolves
Manchester United 2-1 Bolton Wanderers
Portsmouth 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Stoke City 2-1 West Ham United
Sunderland 1-0 Liverpool
Chelsea gave up top spot on the EPL ladder after going down 2-1 to Aston Villa. It was the second successive away defeat for Chelsea. Aston Villa moved into sixth spot following the win and have a game in hand over the top three. A win in that game could see them in third.
Didier Drogba had given Chelsea the lead after 15 minutes but then poor marking on corner kicks allowed two goals to be scored by Aston Villa. In the 32nd minute Richard Dunne headed into the Chelsea net and then twenty minutes later James Collins netted his first goal for Aston Villa.
Liverpool dropped to 8th spot on the EPL ladder after the Saturday Oct 17 EPL scores. The way the goal that was scored to condemn Liverpool to a 1-0 loss was quite bizarre. A red beach ball had been thrown on the pitch and in the fifth minute a Darren Bent shot was deflected by the beach ball and past Pepe Reina into the net. Reina could only look on in horror as the goal was awarded.
Sunderland had shown in their match against Manchester United that they are in good form so it was a tough match for Liverpool. With Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both out of the team it is a shadow of the team from last season that is taking to the field in 2009-10 for Liverpool. They have now suffered four losses from nine starts.
Jermain Defoe had an interesting return to his old club. Now playing for Tottenham, Defoe scored a goal against Portsmouth in the 45th minute to make the score 2-0 after Ledley King had scored in the 29th minute. Defoe was last sent off for a stamp. A Kevin-Prince Boateng goal in the 59th minute made for an interesting end to the match however the 10-man Spurs team held on for a 2-1 win. They are now in third spot on the EPL ladder.
After Chelsea’s loss to Aston Villa, Man Utd moved to the top of the EPL following their 2-1 win over the Bolton Wanderers. A Zat Knight own goal gave United the lead after just four minutes. An off-target Michael Owen header was instead of being cleared sent to the back of the net by Knight. United went two up in the 33rd minute after Antonio Valencia scored his first goal for United. Bolton got one back in the 75th minute through Matt Taylor.
A James Beattie double for Stoke City has kept West Ham United second from bottom. He scored from the penalty spot in the 10th minute and then netted the winner in the 69th minute after Matthew Upson headed an equaliser in the 34th minute. West Ham manager thought his side played well and told the players to continue to put in the effort as they are close to turning the corner.
In other EPL scores the goals came late in the match between Wolves and Everton. Kevin Doyle put Wolves one up in the 75th minute only to see Chelsea level the match with an 88th minute goal to Russian winger Diniyar Belyaletdinov.
Arsenal racked up their fourth successive home win after two goals in three minutes put them in control of the match. Robin van Persie and Abou Diaby both scored within the first 18 minutes. Lee Bowyer pulled one back in the 38th minute to make Arsenal fans slightly anxious before a late Andrey Arshavin goal sealed the win.
Sam Stosur into Japan Open Final
October 17, 2009
A 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 win over Danish top seed Caroline Wozniacki has taken Sam Stosur into her second WTA tour final for 2009. She will be hoping to get her maiden tour title when she faces Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
Stosur has been runner-up in her previous five finals. Schiavone does not have a much better record as she is 1-9 she has at least won a title which came in 2007 when she won on clay at Bad Gastein.
Schiavone reached the final with an easy win over India’s Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-1.
Stosur’s most recent final defeat came at the Los Angeles tournament in August when she lost 6-4 6-3 to Flavia Pennetta.
22 Teams Now Decided for 2010 World Cup
October 15, 2009
Following action in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying on Wednesday 14 October we now know of 21 teams that will join host South Africa in next years finals.
Two teams from Europe added themselves to the list. They were Switzerland who had a 0-0 draw against Israel and Slovakia who defeated Poland in freezing conditions.
Already qualified were Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands. The best eight second placed teams now enter a home and away playoff to be held on 14 and 18 November.
Playoff teams will consist of Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, France and Republic of Ireland. Teams will be seeded on the basis of the FIFA world rankings which are due out on 16 October. The draw will take place on Monday October 19 in Zurich.
In the South American zone it was Argentina who pulled off the win in a winner take all matchup with Uruguay. The winning goal came in the 84th minute when substitute Mario Bolatti scored. It was the first win in Uruguay for Argentina in 33 years so the pressure was immense.
In the North, Central America and Caribbean zone it was a heart-breaking 2-2 draw for Costa Rica. It was not until they 5th minute of extra time that the USA tied the score. Costa Rica handed the automatic spot to Honduras and now must get past Uruguay to reach the finals in South Africa.
Socceroos win against Oman in AFC Asian Cup qualifying
October 14, 2009
After two odrinary matches with A-League players on hand the Socceroos finally put a full strength team on the pitch in an Asian Cup qualifying match.The result was a draw and a loss.
Playing at home in Melbourne the Socceroos looked ordinary in the first half against the group leading team from Oman. They actually were outplayed by the visitors.
In the second half the Socceroos stepped up and looked more in control. They should win a match like this as they are the top ranked team in Asia.
The match sprung to life when it was again Tim Cahill who scored for Australia after 74 minutes. After Scott Chipperfield got deep into the Oman area he crossed and Josh Kennedy just missed from close range. Cahill slipped in at the back post to knock the ball back across the goal and just inside the post to score a vital goal.
The win was not super impressive however a win is a win and they now move to equal top in the group with Oman. The next match in the group comes on 14 November when Kuwait plays Indonesia, on the same night Australia will play Oman away from home.
