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Last night in the English Premier League, six matches of the 24th round were played. Wednesday's matches were very unsuccessful for the championship leaders - all three teams from the top three lost points. The absolute season leader, London's Chelsea, lost their ninth point this season in Birmingham, where they played a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. The visitors dominated for most of the match, but Luke Moore responded to Arjen Robben's goal in the second half. Nevertheless, the pursuers of the defending English champions did not take advantage of this. Liverpool failed to defeat Birmingham, a team that has been in tenth place for a long time. In the middle of the second half, the hosts took the lead with a goal from Steven Gerrard, but just a few minutes later Birmingham's Xabi Alonso scored an own goal. After these matches, Liverpool is now 18 points behind Chelsea, and 3 points behind Manchester United. However, Rafael Benitez's team has played two fewer games than both of these teams. Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United suffered their fourth defeat of the season. The club, which has already been eliminated from the Champions League after the first stage, lost 4-3 after a tough battle against Blackburn away. Blackburn, currently in 8th place, led 4-1 at one point, but Ruud van Nistelrooy's two goals in the middle of the second half brought some intrigue back. Although the guests failed to change the result, defender Rio Ferdinand was sent off at the 88th minute for two yellow cards received within 3 minutes. Recently, "Blackburn" striker David Bentley, who scored three goals and completed a hattrick, became the hero of the match. If the failures of the aforementioned clubs could be seen as surprises, another slip-up by Arsenal doesn't seem surprising anymore this season. Arsene Wenger's team had to concede a 2-3 loss at home to West Ham United, who are in ninth place. Despite having 8 losses this season, Arsenal with 37 points maintain their sixth position and have not lost hope of securing a spot in the Champions League. All Wednesday's results: 1-1 69` [0 - 1] Khalilou Fadiga 85` [1 - 1] Azar Karadas 3 - 0 14` [1 - 0] Albert Riera 38` [2 - 0] Andy Cole 62` [3 - 0] Darius Vassell 1 - 1 14` [0 - 1] Arjen Robben 78` [1 - 1] Luke Moore 1 - 1 62` [1 - 0] Steven Gerrard 88` [1 - 1] Xabi Alonso (own goal) Damien Johnson was sent off from the field at the 28th minute ("Birmingham") 2 - 3 25` [0 - 1] Nigel Reo-Coker 32` [0 - 2] Bobby Zamora 45` [1 - 2] Thierry Henry 80` [1 - 3] Matthew Etherington 89` [2 - 3] Robert Pires 4 - 3 36` [1 - 0] David Bentley 38` [1 - 1] Louis Saha 41` [2 - 1] David Bentley 45` [3 - 1] Lucas Neill 56` [4 - 1] David Bentley 62` [4 - 2] Ruud van Nistelrooy 68` [4 - 3] Ruud van Nistelrooy Rio Ferdinand was sent off from the field at the 87th minute ("Man Utd").
