Chelsea travelled to Ewood Park knowing they needed all 3 points to keep the pressure on, however a Diouf header saw Blackburn steal a point and Chelsea clearly rocked by a dismal start to 2010. In midweek Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League by Inter Milan and with Terry's allegations still haunting the club they clearly need to find form to turn their season into a success.
Arsenal went 2nd after another professional display at the Emirates. They went ahead within 5 minutes through Denilson only to go down to 10 men when Vermaelen was last man to give away a penalty. However Almunia was the hero with a fine save and when Fabregas scored with 10 minutes to go, Arsenal claimed another 3 points. Wenger now thinks the players are starting to believe and thinks they can go on to lift their first piece of Silverware for 5 years.
With Liverpool losing, 4th place was wide open for Spurs, Man City and Villa to capitalise. Villa hosted Wolves in their own Birmingham Derby. Villa got off to a brilliant start with Carey netting early. But just when Villa looked on track Wolves bounced back with 2 strikes inside the first half. In the second period Villa had to wait till the last 10 minutes to secure a late draw.
Man city travelled to inform Fulham, who have just knocked Juventus out of the Europa League. The Cottages looked tired and two early strikes from City secured the points. Spurs meanwhile had a tough test away at Stoke, however goals from Gudjohnsen and Kranjcar made sure of the points at the Britannia.
In the battle to avoid the drop Hull City had a must win game away at Fratton Park. Hull sacked manager Brown last week and new Manager Ian Dowie took on the massive task to try to keep Hull in the Premier League. However after being 2-1 down they succumbed to massive Portsmouth pressure and Kanu stole the show to fire home the winner in late drama that saw Pompey win 3-2. Wigan had a much needed victory as they hosted fellow strugglers Burnley. Columbian Rodallega scored in injury time to secure all 3 points for Wigan.
In the middle of the table Everton continued their push for a late European spot with a comfortable 2-0 win over Bolton. Goals from Arteta and Pienaar did their chances no harm with a great display in front of the Goodison faithful.
Sunderland also hosted Birmingham and scored early through Darren Bent. Bent now is the 2nd highest English goal scorer behind Rooney and has given Capello some thought ahead of the World Cup in June. Sunderland in the end were too strong for Birmingham who had earlier looked very capable of snatching a result at the Stadium of Light however the Black Cats came out victorious 3-1.
Man Utd
69
Arsenal
67
Chelsea
65
Tottenham
55
Man City
53
Liverpool
51
Aston Villa
50
Everton
45
Birmingham
44
Fulham
38
Stoke City
36
Blackburn
35
Sunderland
34
Bolton
32
Wigan Athletic
31
Wolves
28
West Ham Utd
27
Burnley
24
Hull City
24
*Portsmouth
13
• Portsmouth deducted 9 points for going into administration.
Going into administration means the organisation cannot meet its debtors. Jesus said something about building your house upon the rock and not upon the sand. We realise this applies to spiritual foundations but it also applies to many other applications. Jesus also said that before entering upon a project count the cost.