Premiership round-up

Aston Villa 1-1 Crystal Palace
Palace started brightly with Wayne Routeledge forcing Villa captain Olof Melberg to clear off the line, Andy Johnson hit the sixth minute opener controlling superbly from a diagonal ball to slot home. Lee Hendrie hit back just after the half-hour with a curling 25-yard shot to share the points at Villa Park.

Fulham 1-0 Southampton
Tomasz Radzinski sealed all three points for Fulham with a 24th minute header, to increase the pressure on Saints coach Steve Wigley.

Wigley could be Chairman Rupert Lowe’s second managerial casualty of the season as Southampton perch just above the drop zone.

Liverpool 3-0 Norwich
Liverpool dominated Norwich at Anfield with goals from Baros, Garcia and Cisse.

In the absence of captain Steven Gerrard, Spanish international, Xabi Alonso, led the midfield superbly.

Norwich manager Nigel Worthington said: “Liverpool were very, very good in the first half. You have to hand it to them, they were sheer quality on the day.

“Alonso was in a different class, you would pay top money anywhere in the world to see top class performances like that.”

Manchester City 0-1 Arsenal
“They have so much strength, I just think they are the best team and it would be no suprise to me if they went on to win the European cup this year,” was the verdict of Manchester City Boss Kevin Keegan following their 1-0 home defeat.

Arsenal stretch their unbeaten streak to 47 games and remain two points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table.

Newcastle United 3-1 West Bromwich Albion
Patrick Kluivert netted his fourth goal in as many games to open the scoring at St James’ Park. Milner and Shearer put Newcastle three up before Geoff Horsfield headed a late consolation.

Darren Purse’ red card in the 63rd minute handed the home side the initiative.

“When you go down to 10 men against a talented side or a side with talented players, then your going to have problems, ” said West Brom boss Gary Megson.

Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Manchester United
Spurs succumbed to a Ruud Van Nistelrooy penalty to lose their first game of the season – much to the disgust of boss Jacques Santini.

The former French National team coach was dismayed to see referee Pete Walton in the United dressing room at half time, minutes after awarding them a penalty.

United are looking in fine form and will be boosted by the return of Wayne Rooney for the Champions League clash with Fenerbache on Tuesday.

Middlesborough 0-1 Chelsea
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are becoming 1-0 specialists as they grind out a late winner at the Riverside.

Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard combined for the goal to preserve the team’s goal a game record and maintain second position in the league.

Mourinho is now preparing for Chelsea’s midweek clash with former club Porto in the champions League.

“A lot of the players who are here were my players before I left,” said Mourinho, “but there are no friends in football during the 90 minutes of a game.”

Bolton Wanderers 1-1 Birmingham
Muzzy Izzet cancelled out Jaidi’s 16th minute opener for Bolton capping an excellent midfield display.

Sam Allardyce’s side will be disappointed not to have taken all three points after a Henrik Pederson goal was ruled out for offside.

Bolton midfielder Gary Speed commented: “We have taken points off Arsenal Manchester United and Liverpool this season, and if we had performed as well against Birmingham as we did against those sides we, we’d have won.”

Played Sunday
Portsmouth 0-1 Everton
Tim Cahill headed the late winner for Everton in the 80th minute but kept his shirt on for the celebration to stay out of referee Dermot Gallagher’s book. Cahill was dismissed two weeks ago against Manchester City for lifting his top.

“It’s easy for a referee to spot a player lifting his shirt, but the ref’s need to be spotting the bad tackles,” said David Moyes,

“They are trying to make ref’s look really busy but nobody is bothered if someone celebrates its just part of the game.”

Everton continue their assault on the Premiership and now lie just three points off leaders Arsenal.

Playing Monday
Charlton v Blackburn Rovers