Saturday, April 5, 2008

Chelsea close the gap Arsenal slip up



Arsenal's challenge for the Premiership seems to be fading after they drew 1-1 against Liverpool at the Emirates in Saturday. It was the second match of their trilogy and a match that Wenger couldn't afford to either lose or draw. While Liverpool had a 5 point cushion over fourth spot challengers Everton so Rafa had the luxury of resting some key players for the Champions League return leg at Anfield. Arsenal on the other hand couldn't rest any of them and they already had several players injured with Van Persie joining the list recently.

Arsenal who missed some early chances found themselves through a Crouch goal before half time. But they came back and scored through Bendtner, who had missed some simple ones in the 54th minute. Torres came on for the final 10 minutes while Arsenal searched for the elusive 2nd goal. Liverpool once again held firm to earn a point. Arsenal may trail Manchester United by 8 points by the end of the Sunday.

Click here for the match highlights


Chelsea on the other hand kept up the fight to United with a 2-0 win over Manchester City at the Eastlands. Chelsea who need to overturn a 2-1 setback against Fenerbahce would have breathed easy after they saw Arsenal slipping up. But they needed to win against a City team that had done very well at home but had been falling apart recently. But it no imagination it was an easy game.
Chelsea kept Ballack and Joe Cole on the bench. Chelsea took the lead from a Richard Dunne own goal, similar the own goal Chelsea got against Fenerbahce but this time it was on the right side. And City who also had some chances kept trying and Chelsea got their second through Kalou after 54min and that gave some breathing space for Chelsea who went on to win. Now only they appear to challenge United in the title race.
Click here for match highlights

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