© EuroFootball.com
On Sunday, two matches of the 12th round were played in the English Premier League. After them, the situation at the top of the league table remained unchanged - "Man Utd" continued to lead, followed closely by London's "Chelsea".
In the central duel, two championship favorites - London's "Arsenal" and "Liverpool" faced off. However, there wasn't much intrigue in this match - the "Gunners" proved their superiority by claiming a solid 3-0 victory at the new "Emirates" stadium.
At the start of the match, the initiative belonged to the hosts - they controlled the ball much more and played sharper. It's no surprise that the first goal came just over a minute into the game - Robin van Persie found himself in front of the goalkeeper and sent the ball into the empty net.
However, the score on the scoreboard didn't change, as the Dutchman, in an attempt to mimic the legendary Diego Maradona, tried to deceive the referee by clearly handling the ball. The referee punished the forward with a yellow card for this incident.
Later on, "Liverpool" recovered and the game evened out. In the 13th minute, after a pass from Xabi Alonso from the flank, Peter Crouch managed to beat the goalkeeper who had replaced the injured Jens Lehmann in the goal, but his goal was also disallowed for an offside violation.
As the game went on, both teams struggled, and when the home fans could have started to worry, "Arsenal" broke ahead - after a brilliant pass from Alexander Hleb at the edge of the penalty area, Cesc Fabregas found Matheu Flamini, who with a precise shot from a few meters doubled the lead by beating Pepe Reina.
Recovering from such a blow did not help the visitors, and the major break - in the second half, after just 10 minutes of play, following a few short and accurate passes, defender Kolo Toure broke through against the "Liverpool" goalkeeper and effortlessly doubled "Arsenal's" lead to 2-0.
As further events showed, this was the final point in this match. Although "Liverpool" coach Rafael Benitez finally pushed a tragically playing Steven Gerrard towards the center in the middle of the second half and replaced the unnoticed Peter Crouch with Craig Bellamy, the 80th minute turned into a humiliating defeat.
After a corner kick, the visitors' defenders and goalkeeper, in an inexplicable way, left completely unmarked French legionnaire William Gallas, who effortlessly netted the third goal into the "Liverpool" net from a few meters away. After this mistake, a heated argument broke out between S. Gerrard and John Arne Riise.
As the match was coming to an end, Emmanuel Adebayor could have scored a fourth goal, but after coming on as a substitute, the forward, finding himself alone against the opponent's goalkeeper, shot unsuccessfully.
With this victory, "Arsenal" players, after playing 11 matches, climbed to third place with 21 points. Meanwhile, "Liverpool", still with 17 points, is in ninth place.
In the next match, the "Reading" club achieved their first victory in four consecutive matches, surprisingly defeating the defending champions "Chelsea" 3-1 and overcoming the sensational "Tottenham".
By the way, it was the London team that rightly scored the first goal of the match when in the 24th minute, striker Robbie Keane converted an 11-meter penalty after Ibrahim Sonko fouled Hossam Ghaly.
Nevertheless, the balance was restored in the 38th minute - Nicky Shorey's excellent left-footed shot left no chance for goalkeeper Paul Robinson. Interestingly, this was the first time the ball flew towards the "Tottenham" goal area.
Furthermore, in the last minute of the first half, "Reading" pushed forward - Steve Sidwell managed to break free from Didier Zokora marking him and headed the ball in to make it 2-1.
In the second half, "Tottenham" couldn't regain the earlier advantage. Nearly the first opportunity to equalize the score came in the 78th minute when substitute Jermain Defoe's shot missed the goal entirely.
Miss one, score one - the golden rule of football was confirmed in this match. Later on, in another attack, "Reading" striker Kevin Doyle scored his third goal against P. Robinson, securing the fifth victory for "Reading" in the league.
Sunday results:
3 - 0
41' [1 - 0] Mattheu Flamini
56' [2 - 0] Kolo Toure
80' [3 - 0] William Gallas
3 - 1
24' [0 - 1] Robbie Keane (from an 11-meter penalty)
38' [1 - 1] Nicky Shorey
45' [2 - 1] Steve Sidwell
79' [3 - 1] Kevin Doyle
