Premier League leaders Manchester United dropped points against West Ham at Upton Park last night whilst Chelsea moved ahead of Arsenal into third place with a win against fellow London club Fulham.
Fulham 0:3 Chelsea
Chelsea’s defenders showed the other departments how to do it by scoring all the goals in their sides 3-0 win against Fulham. Fulham nearly shocked the visitors early on, but Bryan Ruiz hit a volley over from five yards. Then, on the thirty minute mark, centre-back David Luiz crashed in an outrageous strike from 35 yards – a definite contender for goal of the season! Thirteen minutes later, fellow centre-back John Terry made it 2-0 when he beat Phillipe Senderos at the back post to direct in a header. The Chelsea captain scored his second on seventy-one minutes and killed the game off with another back post header after a flick on from Fernando Torres, ending a run of three defeats away from home. Chelsea are now one point ahead of Arsenal rivals and seven points behind Manchester City with a game in hand, but their main objective will be to fend off the challenges of Arsenal and Tottenham.
West Ham 2:2 Manchester United
Manchester United could only manage a 2-2 draw against West Ham but are still top of the table and thirteen points ahead of Manchester City, who have a game in hand. Like the game last Monday against their Manchester rivals, United struggled for long parts and didn’t look as dangerous in attack as normal. West Ham took the lead after sixteen minutes when Andy Carroll directed a header across goal and Rivardo Vaz Te dove onto the end of it to head it into the back of the net. West United levelled on thirty-one when Shinji Kagawa pulled the ball back after an amazing run for Antonio Valencia to simply tap in. On fifty-five minutes West Ham took the lead again when Mohamed Diame received the ball with his back to Wayne Rooney, knocked it into space with an amazing touch and curled the ball past three players and David De Gea into the net. Twenty-two minutes later, Kagawa was involved again when his shot ricocheted off both posts before finding Robin van Persie who slammed the ball into the goal, even though he looked
suspiciously offside. Nonetheless, a point was rescued for United in their campaign to win the title back from their Manchester neighbours.
