EPL Week 20: Arsenal And Manchester United Grab 1-0 Wins
December 30th 2008 15:56
Arsenal – Portsmouth: 1-0
From zero to hero, William Gallas has returned to the hearts of the Emirates faithful by scoring the only goal of the match in the 80th minute on Sunday. Without Fabregas in midfield, the Gunners struggled to dominate the game, and went on to have a tightly disputed contest. Portsmouth's best chance of the game came in the 23rd minute when Crouch's header hit the post. Pompey looked threatening mostly on the right wing, but David Nugent's crosses were never good enough for Crouch.
At the other end, Adebayor twice missed an open net – in the 31st minute, both Campbell and Distin conjugated their efforts to stop the striker after he dribbled past James. Then, in the 59th minute, the striker shoots into the side-netting after James had gone off-position.
With those three points, Arsenal are still hanging on ten points behind Liverpool, but barring a Liverpool collapse and a perfect run from the Gunners, their title hopes are gone.
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Arsenal's line-up: Manuel Almunia; Bacary Sagna, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Gael Clichy; Emmanuel Eboue (Carlos Vela, 65th), Abou Diaby (Aaron Ramsey, 74th), Denilson, Samir Nasri; Nicklas Bendtner, Emmanuel Adebayor.
Manchester United – Middlesbrough: 1-0
From the high-flying offensive powerhouse of last season, Manchester United have turned into a club who leave it late, satisfying themselves with 1-0 wins to keep up with the top two. Despite getting numerous scoring opportunities on Monday, it was only Berbatov who found the back of the net after a terrible clearance by Boro's defense in the 68th minute.
The Red Devils were mostly victims of their fancy passing as they often tried to make the most difficult pass to penetrate Middlesbrough's compact defense. The few long-distance strikes they tried amounted to no good as the defense easily blocked them off. Cristiano Ronaldo had the best chances of his team during the first half but he could only get one shot on goal as the rest came agonizingly close, and that only shot was straight at the keeper. He lacked focus in the second half, mostly due to Emmanuel Pogatetz who didn't hesitate to come up with vicious hits to destabilize the Portuguese winger.
In the end, it's only 1-0 but it's the three points that matter. With two games in hand, the defending champions are only four points away from Chelsea and seven points away from Liverpool which makes their next Premier League fixture – against Chelsea – an important game to look forward too.
Find more videos like this on MySoccerPlace.net - The Real Football Social Network
Manchester United's line-up: Edwin Van der Sar; Rafael (Gary Neville, 62nd), Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, John O'Shea; Cristiano Ronaldo (Ryan Giggs, 84th), Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher (Paul Scholes, 62nd), Park Ji-Sung; Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov.
From zero to hero, William Gallas has returned to the hearts of the Emirates faithful by scoring the only goal of the match in the 80th minute on Sunday. Without Fabregas in midfield, the Gunners struggled to dominate the game, and went on to have a tightly disputed contest. Portsmouth's best chance of the game came in the 23rd minute when Crouch's header hit the post. Pompey looked threatening mostly on the right wing, but David Nugent's crosses were never good enough for Crouch.
At the other end, Adebayor twice missed an open net – in the 31st minute, both Campbell and Distin conjugated their efforts to stop the striker after he dribbled past James. Then, in the 59th minute, the striker shoots into the side-netting after James had gone off-position.
With those three points, Arsenal are still hanging on ten points behind Liverpool, but barring a Liverpool collapse and a perfect run from the Gunners, their title hopes are gone.
Find more videos like this on MySoccerPlace.net - The Real Football Social Network
Arsenal's line-up: Manuel Almunia; Bacary Sagna, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Gael Clichy; Emmanuel Eboue (Carlos Vela, 65th), Abou Diaby (Aaron Ramsey, 74th), Denilson, Samir Nasri; Nicklas Bendtner, Emmanuel Adebayor.
Manchester United – Middlesbrough: 1-0
From the high-flying offensive powerhouse of last season, Manchester United have turned into a club who leave it late, satisfying themselves with 1-0 wins to keep up with the top two. Despite getting numerous scoring opportunities on Monday, it was only Berbatov who found the back of the net after a terrible clearance by Boro's defense in the 68th minute.
The Red Devils were mostly victims of their fancy passing as they often tried to make the most difficult pass to penetrate Middlesbrough's compact defense. The few long-distance strikes they tried amounted to no good as the defense easily blocked them off. Cristiano Ronaldo had the best chances of his team during the first half but he could only get one shot on goal as the rest came agonizingly close, and that only shot was straight at the keeper. He lacked focus in the second half, mostly due to Emmanuel Pogatetz who didn't hesitate to come up with vicious hits to destabilize the Portuguese winger.
In the end, it's only 1-0 but it's the three points that matter. With two games in hand, the defending champions are only four points away from Chelsea and seven points away from Liverpool which makes their next Premier League fixture – against Chelsea – an important game to look forward too.
Find more videos like this on MySoccerPlace.net - The Real Football Social Network
Manchester United's line-up: Edwin Van der Sar; Rafael (Gary Neville, 62nd), Nemanja Vidic, Jonny Evans, John O'Shea; Cristiano Ronaldo (Ryan Giggs, 84th), Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher (Paul Scholes, 62nd), Park Ji-Sung; Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov.
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