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Chelsea 1-0 Stoke

Didier Drogba’s 100th goal for the club helped the Chelsea move equal with Arsenal in their battle for a top 4 position. Roberto di Matteo earned a much needed win in his first game in charge, but they still have a long way to go if they are to regain their Champions League position.

Aston Villa 1-0 Fulham

Andreas Weimann scored his maiden goal for the club as Villa stole all three points from Fulham deep in injury time. Aussie Mark Schwarzer was unable to clear a parried shot which allowed Weimann to help Villa into the top half of the table.

Wolves 0-2 Blackburn

Blackburn moved out of the relegation zone thanks to a superb double from young star Junior Hoilett. Hoilett scored a goal in each half to help the Rovers three points clear of the drop and condemn Wolves to what looks like their inevitable destiny of Championship football.

Sunderland 1-0 Liverpool

Liverpool’s awful run continued as Sunderland moved within 2 points of their opposition. Nicklaus Bendtner finished after Frazier Campbell hit the post, and Liverpool moved 10 points behind fourth place Arsenal, who have a game in hand. Safe to say Liverpool’s top 4 hopes are gone.

Arsenal headed into their home tie in a situation completely unfamiliar, trailing heavily to their lower seeded opponent.

The North Londoners were humiliated at the San Siro by a highly motivated and an extremely opportunistic Milan side. Their game plan was near perfection and Arsenal simply had no answers.

It left Wenger and his team reeling as they teetered perilously over the ledge of falling out of the running of all four of the competitions they fight for each season. The task ahead of them was monumental.

The intention was clear from the home side by just glancing at the clean sheet, attack attack attack.

They could not have asked for a better start as Laurent Koscielny fought through a crowded box to nod home a corner after just 8 minutes. The home crowd were pulled immediately into the game and spurred a first half onslaught that saw Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie score to send the Gunners into the break 3-0 up and seemingly on their way to evening and perhaps winning the tie.

The crowd was buzzing as Arsenal continued to dominate possession and were the only team showing intent to score goals. AC Milan tried to kill the pace of the game every time they had the ball, opting for time wasting rather than adventure, much to the displeasure of the Arsenal players, fans, managers and anyone who wanted to see a proper game of football.

45 minutes came and went and despite their best efforts and the Gunners were unable to back up their stellar first half.

However, the loss was much easier to swallow for the Arsenal faithful. Yes, again they fall out of the Champions League in the round go 16 for the second consecutive time and yes they lost as the higher seed. There were certainly a plethora of negatives.

But it was against an example of a growing mentality that has been bred within this Arsenal squad. I realise I am starting to say the same regurgitated crap that Wenger offers every press conference, but in this case he is right. Where in the past they have been criticised for being immature, timid and cowardly, this new, certainly less talented squad, has found a fighting mentality that is the single reason the club is anywhere near the top 4. Last weekend’s game away to Liverpool was a perfect example.

Liverpool arguably had the more talented team and certainly played the better game, but Arsenal fought back from a goal behind to snatch an unlikely win in injury time. They came back from a 2-0 deficit to the vastly improve Tottenham just a week earlier. They found themselves twice a goal down at Stamford Bridge and again level late in the game before destroying Chelsea 5-3. Against Wolves, Sunderland and Stoke they have found late goals.

Should Arsenal finally go out into the transfer market and invest in the kind of talent that it so desperately needs, without losing this new ally of mental strength, then it will certainly be back on it’s way to regaining their title as a genuine contender to every trophy it goes after. Lukas Podolski is reported to be on his way to the club and will complete a move in the Summer. That is certainly a strong indication of their intentions.

They are still at least 3 signings away from truly threatening Manchester’s sides at the top of England, but they have certainly narrowed the mental gap.

Benfica knocked off Zenit in Portgual 2-0 to take the tie 4-3 on aggregate.

Apoel held a 1-0 advantage over their high favoured opponents Lyon through 90 minutes, meaning the tie would extend into extra time as the aggregate was standing at 1-1. There was no score in the 30 allotted minutes of extra time, so the teams headed into a penalty shootout. Lyon had their final two attempts saved and Apoel stunned the world dns end their home fans into raptures as they moved into the final 8 for the first time in the club’s history.

Lionel Messi continued to baffle the world with one of the greatest individual performances in the history of European football. Barcelona held a 3-1 advantage heading home to the Camp Nou, meaning the match was over before it began. Don’t tell that to Messi, who set out on a murderous tear, scoring 5 stunningly beautiful goals, becoming the first player in the history of the Champions League to do so. Barcelona won the game 7-1 and the tie 10-2, the second highest aggregate win total in history. They’re a silly team.

In what will most likely go down as the most costly managerial appointment in the history of professional football, highly touted Andres Villas Boas was fired from Chelsea yesterday after just 8 months of service.

Chelsea had produced their worst record since Roman Abramovich took over the club back in 2003, sitting 3 points outside of the top 4 and an astonishing 20 points off first place with under 10 games remaining.

Their seven losses thus far this season is their worst total since before Jose Mourinho, and their three home losses is largely to blame. Stamford Bridge has become the most formidable fortress in English football with Chelsea at one time going over four and a half years without losing at home. . Jose Mourinho never lost a home game with the club.

Andres Villas Boas was supposed to lead this ageing Chelsea team into a new era. The highly touted Portugese was a product of the Mourinho coaching tree and, like Mourinho, garnered great respect from winning the Portugese Leage with Porto. Villas Boas did so in just his first season in charge.

Chelsea made the decision to buy him out of his contract at a record fee reported to be around 12.5 million pounds. They believed he was worth every penny of it.

Villas Boas, as I expected, failed to take control of Chelsea’s hugely egotistical locker room and as a result, lost his job.

It was unfair for Chelsea to do what they did with Villas Boas. They took him from a team he had managed just one full season and threw him into the harshest environment in football. He had pressure to spend, a team full of declining stars who don’t know it and an owner that constantly enforces too much of his power onto the team. The situation is hugely unhealthy and he never stood a chance.

The best thing for Chelsea to do would have been to bring in Villas Boas under a more senior manager for a significant period of time and allowed him to adjust not only to British football, but to the way the club ran. Yes he was a scout for Chelsea before he left for Portugal, but he had nothing of a serious role in the club and would not have seen the true workings of it.

However, I will be the first to admit I did not like the way Villas Boas composed himself, and as such, I can see why the players didn’t like him. Villas Boas never took responsibility. As a player, you want to see the manager take responsibility when it is appropriate to, rather than offering excuse after excuse. Only once in the tumultuous stint AVB had at the club did I hear him take responsibility for a poor performance. That came several days ago. Clearly too late.

Villas Boas would begin his media conferences blaming referees, sideline officials, weather, pitches, scheduling and basically anything else he could concoct to avoid taking blame. The Chelsea playing group is strong and if you show them any sign of weakness they will destroy you before you know it. AVB clearly didn’t have the personality to control the club and succeed in this league. Perhaps the unbelievable pressured situation he was thrown into is to blame, but I just don’t think he is cut out for the Premier League.

Either way, Chelsea Football Club is in a truly terrible position. It is three points outside the Top 4 and fading. Whilst their direct rivals are beginning to peak, they continue to decline. Their roster is truly past their prime and the youth system in place is very much secondary compared to the other big clubs of Europe. There is no foreseeable light at the end of the tunnel for the West Londoners.

Nonetheless they have reconfirmed their position as the EPL’s walking punchline. If 50 million pounds wasted on the misfiring, shadow of what he once was Fernando Torres wasn’t bad enough, close to 30 million pounds on a vastly inexperienced coward in Villas Boas will do the trick.

In the marquee fixture of the day Tottenham hosted Manchester United, looking to recover from their annihilation at Arsenal last weekend.

Tottenham largely dominated the first half but were stunned just before the break when Wayne Rooney nodded a well worked goal.

Ashley Young then produced a wonderful individual half of football, finishing some lovely build up play from Nani to smash home a volley, then nailed a long range strike past Brad Friedel. Tottenham scored a late consolation goal through Jermaine Defoe but they will feel hard done by, losing 3-1 despite controlling the game for the most part.

In the Tyne-Wear derby, Newcastle were looking to take advantage of Liverpool’s loss to consolidate fifth place in the league in their battle for a EUROPA place. Sunderland took the lead through a penalty from loanee Nicklaus Bendtner but were stunned as Shola Ameobie fired in an equaliser in the 92nd minute. This was following a penalty miss earlier in the game from scoring sensation Demba Ba.

In the final clash of the day Fulham obliterated Wolves to move to three points behind Liverpool as they strive for EUROPA positions. Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a stunning hat trick, with Clint Dempsey continuing his strong form from international duty mid week, scoring a brace.

Robin van Persie’s incredible run of goal scoring continued in the most spectacular and baffling of instances yesterday at Anfield as Arsenal fought back from a 1-0 deficit.

Arsenal were outclassed in every aspect of the game except for the scoresheet. It is not often Arsenal’s midfield is outplayed but they struggled to gain possession and hold onto the ball.

Liverpool looked dangerous early and had several shots denied by the stunning Woicech Szczesny.

19 minutes into the game Suarez set off on another terrific run, linked up with Dirk Kuyt and dived over the sliding Szczesny. Replays confirmed most people’s reactions, that Suarez had added to his list of footballing felonies with yet another dive in the box, but Liverpool were rewarded for his cowardice and Kuyt stepped up to take the penalty.

Szczesny, and karma, had other ideas, as the young Pole instinctively denied Kuyt on the penalty strike then acrobatically dived to deny the tap in. He is truly the unsung hero of Arsenal’s season thus far. He has had little to no protection at times but he has held his own in the last line of defense, and at just 21 years of age, he is surely a superstar of the future, if he is not already.

It didn’t take long for Liverpool to respond though, peppering the Arsenal goal with shots and crosses, forcing the nervy gunners defense into tentatively clearing the ball at every occasion. Jordan Henderson countered off an Arsenal turnover and played a low cross into the six yard box where Laurent Koscielny deflected it into his own net, attempting to clear it out of bounds.

Anfield went into raptures as they believed they were on their way back into the race for fourth position.

Liverpool continued to press and several times almost had a second.

Bacary Sagna delivered an inch perfect cross, on a rare Arsenal attacking raid, finding van Persie at the near post who cooly played it past Pepe Reina for an equalising goal in the 31st minute.

Arsenal nervously held on till half time, with Liverpool strongly in control of the match.

After the break Arsenal were noticeably more patient with the ball as they set about attempting to even the possession rates.

Mikel Arteta suffered a sickening but accidental blow to the head from the shoulder of Jordan Henderson and was taken straight to hospital with a severe concussion. It was a huge blow to Arsenal as he has been one of the keys to their turnaround this season.

Liverpool still looked more likely to break the deadlock, but Arsenal began to build in the last 10 minutes of the game.

The fourth official revealed a lengthy 8 minutes of injury time, much to the joy of the Kop as they believed they had the better chance of taking all three points. How wrong they were.

Alex Song played a stunning lofted ball for Robin van Persie in the 92nd minute of the match, who struck it first time with the inside of his foot and past Reina to give Arsenal an astonishing lead with a handful of minutes remaining in injury time. The away fans echoed a roar that was heard in North London as they continued their stunning second half performances.

Liverpool failed to provide another serious attempt on goal before the whistle was blown and Arsenal had taken all three points.

After the game Kenny Dalglish and most of the media said Arsenal didn’t deserve to win the game. I am never a believer of someone not earning a win. If you score more goals than your opponent you deserved the points. Liverpool certainly didn’t deserve nothing, but taking away what Arsenal did is unfair and unjustified.

Robin van Persie was again man of the match, but even he admitted that Woicech Szczesny was the best player on the pitch.

Arsenal move three points clear of Chelsea in the battle for fourth, and amazingly sit just 4 points behind Tottenham, who host Manchester United tonight.

Blackburm and Aston Villa played out a dull 1-1 draw leaving both clubs still fighting for the Premier League status, right at the edge of the drop zone.

Manchester City were hugely wasteful at home to a hapless Bolton team that really had no chance from the opening whistle. Gael Clichy scored his first goal for the club and just the second Premier League goal of his career. Their 2-0 win sees them move 5 points clear at the top with Tottenham hosting Manchester United tomorrow.

Loanee Drenthe scored again for Everton but new signing Bobby Zamora equalised shortly after the opener, with both sides earning a point. QPR’s goal difference is all that is keeping them out of the relegation zone whereas Everton continue their surge up the ladder.

Stoke’s quest for a second consecutive EUROPA berth added momentum with a 1-0 win at home to Norwich. Stoke sit level with Fulham in 8th, just three points behind Liverpool.

West Bromwich Albion condemned Chelsea to near rock bottom as they fall further behind Arsenal in the race for Champions League positions. McAuley’s late goal the only of the match.

Swansea knocked off Championship bound Wigan 2-0 at the DW. Wigan have spent the majority of the last decade in the top flight but have finally ran out of steam.

In a truly unfamiliar circumstance, Arsenal came into their annual hosting of the North London derby desperately in need of 3 points to keep pace with the top 4 of which their opponents were firmly a part of.

Roles reversed and that is your typical North London derby, but this game had a zest about it that we haven’t seen in a very long time. And boy did it deliver.

Spurs were hugely motivated to complete their first sweep of the Gunners in decades, to hold pace with the two Manchester sides and condemn their neighbours to a darker place than they were previously in.

Arsenal were largely their predictable 1-11, although Yossi Benayoun surprisingly got the nod over starlet Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, in a move that to me suggested that Wenger wanted to control the game through possession, setting the tempo and not allowing Modric and Parker time to pick apart Arsenal’s suspect defense. Also it gave Arsenal the midfield stability for Gibbs and Sagna to roam forward and allow Walcott to play more centrally.

Tottenham started Adebayor with Saha, and both made their presences known early. Adebayor picked out the newest addition in Saha, who stayed composed and fired a deflected effort past a helpless Szczesny. It was the dream start for Tottenham as Arsenal had their heads down early.

However the home side slowly dragged themselves back into the game and were well in control from about the 10th minute onwards. It wasn’t until yet another defensive hiccup allowed Bale to accelerate through and offer his last ditch performance for an Oscar as he theatrically tumbled over the outstretched Szczesny, with Mike Dean awarding the penalty after some conjecture.

Adebayor stepped up, much to the horror of the home crowd of which he has heinously insulted over the past 24 months, and cooly stroked it past the young Pole. It couldn’t have been a worse start for Arsenal, who were staring down the barrel of another heavy defeat at home to their rivals.

But they continued to fight on and launched attack after attack at the Spurs goal as the away side failed to find any consistency in possession. With barely a handful of minutes left in the first half, Walcott played a clever back heel to van Persie who fired agonisingly wide, but it fell to Benayoun who found Arteta to lob it into the box and encourage a vicious header from Bacary Sagna to give Arsenal hope once more. Moments later Robin van Persie added to the growing legend that is this season with a stunning curling shot from outside the box to send the home team level right on half time.

Tottenham were clearly rocked and came out from the interval as cold as they entered it, allowing Arsenal to take full advantage. Tomas Rosicky combined with Sagna on the left to neatly flick a left footed shot past Friedel, sending the success starved home crowd into an unparalleled frenzy. The perfect time for the Czech international’s first goal of the season.

From then on it Arsenal continued their dominance as Tottenham upheld their decline. The much maligned Theo Walcott offered his best Usain Bolt impression as he tore down the middle of the park to collect a lovely pass from the hold up play of van Persie and gorgeously chip the ball over Friedel giving Arsenal a 4-2 lead. Not long after his first, Walcott made a superb run through the heart of the defense, perfectly controlled a stunning chip from the ever improving Alex Song and fired a low shot past the Spurs keeper from a tight angle to finish the rout.

It was eerily reminiscent of the Arsenal Chelsea game earlier in the year, where Arsenal were outclassed early but continued to fight and earned a dramatic and dominating win against their London rivals. They showed the same spirit in the face of a 2-0 deficit at home to their closest and most bitter rivals and even better results ensued.

The win sees Arsenal move above Chelsea into fourth and to within 7 points of Tottenham.

The Gunners now have the unenviable task of heading to Anfield to take on Liverpool, boosted by their Carling Cup success.

Manchester United required a goal from their long time star Ryan Giggs playing in his 900th game for the club as they downed a spirited Norwich side 2-1 to keep the pressure on City.

Stoke City knocked off Swansea 2-0 to move them closer to their goal of retaining their EUROPA position.

Greater lowdown on the Arsenal Tottenham showdown to come.