Around the English Premier League – Round 23

Manchester United has a chance to steal the first place once again after its victory against Stoke City.
By Camilla Mancini

The Round 13 fixtures were played between January 31st and February 1st, with five matches played each day. On the first day the Premier's top 4 clubs had their encounters and no matter what their final score was they had their spot safe. However the Citizens have been left at the mercy of the Red Devils once more, as they were tied a month ago at 45pts and now are at 54pts. On the other hand Tottenham keeps following United's steps with just 5 points behind, while Chelsea carries 42pts and now has to beware of the Toons.

Manchester City went west to visit Everton on Tuesday and even though it looked like an easy rival for the leaders of the board, the Toffees managed to surprise Mancini's side on the field and conquered 3 more points to move from the 14th to the 10th spot. During the first half Samir Nasri and Denis Stracqualursi missed their chances to get on the score sheet, for Nasri the problem was that a ball hit the bar and for the Argentinean it was a great shot that got cleared-off. However the most booed person of the first hal8f was a spectator that caused a 5-minute delay, when few minutes before the end of first half the man entered the field and handcuffed himself to Hart's post. Be that as it may the match continued and as second half started it was clear that the Toffees were strengthen, while City was missing Touré Yaya that has left a hole in the middle field. The opportunity came at 59' when the former Red Devil, Darron Gibson, scored his first goal since he transferred to Everton on January 13th. There was nothing left to do after 1-0 and the Toffees took revenge for their defeat on the 1st leg game against the Citizens.

United instead, had better luck than its nemesis and on its meeting with The Potters they scored a penalty on each half. The first penalty was awarded to Jermainne Pennant for a foul committed over Paul Scholes and it was charged by "Chicharito" Hernandez at the 38th minute, when he gave the 1-0 lead to his club. The second penalty was awarded when Antonio Valencia was fouled by Jonathan Walters at 50'; this time Dimitar Bervatov was the one that successfully charged from the area. The truth is that the Red Devils did a good job even though they didn't count with most of their best players. In the end the 2-0 was more than enough to reach City, although Sir Ferguson stated they could've had a couple more.

For the Spurs it was also a good day, for they finished 3-1 against the straggler Wigan that continues on the bottom of the standings. The goals for Tottenham were converted by Luka Modric and Gareth Bale, who scored twice; on Wigan's side the consolation goal was accomplish by James McArthur within 10 from the end. The victory comes just in time because the next 4 fixtures won't be easy ones for the Spurs; first they will meet Liverpool, then followed by Newcastle, two weeks later Arsenal and then on March's first week the toughest of this four, United. The Toons by the way just retook the fifth spot and are just 3 points behind Chelsea, which couldn't do better than 1-1 on its encounter with Swansea.

The other matches from round 23: Wolves 0-3 Liverpool; Aston Villa 2-2 QPR; Sunderland 3-0 Norwich; Fulham 1-1 West Brom; Bolton 0-0 Arsenal; Blackburn 0-2 Newcastle.