Matic and Chelsea lose it at the Bridge; Malaga stun Barcelona; Manchester United defeated by Swansea; Bayern win big
Chelsea began the match in typical fashion dominating proceedings at Stamford Bridge and forced Burnley goalkeeper Thomas Heaton to make some crucial saves. Chelsea drew first blood when Branislav Ivanovic scored yet again, after Eden Hazard dribbled past the Burnley defence and put in a cross resulting in an easy tap-in for the Serbian, who also broke the deadlock against PSG in the Champions League. The table-toppers had two first-half penalty shouts declined amidst much controversy.
Leading 1-0 at half-time Chelsea seemed to cruising to yet another home victory when all hell broke loose. Ashley Barnes made a high-footed tackle on Nemanja Matic’s shin which seemed to be a foul and was lucky to stay on the pitch. But Matic was incensed after the referee’s inaction and pounced on Barnes sending the latter to the ground and the former was given his marching orders. Ramires was brought on, replacing Oscar, to fill the void left by Matic’s dismissal but to no avail as Burnley equalized through Ben Mee headed effort after a corner, sending the travelling supporters into raptures. Mee pulled away from a host of Chelsea defenders and sent the ball flying past Courtois. Chelsea managed to hold on to a draw but Jose Mourinho will be furious with his side’s display.
The world’s best attacking trio was unable to break through the Malaga defence as Barcelona lost at home, squandering a chance to go top of the table. Malaga rode on Dani Alves’ horrifying error to grant Real Madrid the chance to 4 points clear when they play Elche on Monday. Juanmi intercepted Dani Alves’s pass to Claudio Bravo to put the ball into an empty net and held on to their lead till the final whistle frustrating Barcelona throughout the match.
Arsenal were fortunate to win against city rivals Crystal Palace away from home, via goals from Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud. The game was quite frankly a dull affair with Arsenal comfortable with their two goal cushion. After Danny Welbeck was felled in the box by Souare, Cazorla sent Julian Speroni the wrong way to give the Gunners the perfect start. Giroud doubled the lead in the dying moments of the first-half after the Frenchman poked home after Welbeck’s shot was parried by Speroni. A dull game ensued after the first-half until the last ten minutes. Glenn Murray reduced the deficit for the Eagles after Wilfried Zaha’s shot fell kindly into Murray’s path after a corner. He could’ve equalized in showy fashion had it not been for the post to deny him. So close yet so far for Crystal Palace.
Manchester United failed to capitalize on their good form against Swansea but opened the scoring after Ander Herrera broke the deadlock after a brilliant piece of play. The hosts didn’t have to wait long to level things up after Ki Sung-Yueng poked in the ball past David De Gea after a lovely cross from Jonjo Shelvey. Swansea were on the way to a double over United this season after Bafetimbi Gomis deflected in a shot by Shelvey past De Gea. United were unable to hit back after the Swans took the lead and slipped to 4th place after Arsenal’s victory. Louis Van Gaal quoted after the match – Today we played well. Only we forgot to score.
In the late kick-off, Manchester City sent Newcastle home crying with a 5-0 thumping. After Vurnon Anita fouled Edin Dzeko just 25 seconds into the game, Sergio Aguero converted the penalty and it was one-way traffic from that moment on. Nasri made Newcastle pay for not leveling things up at the end when he controlled the ball brilliantly in the opposition half and fired the ball into the roof of the net. Dzeko made it 3-0 by the 35th minute when he unleashed a half-volley past hapless ‘keeper Tim Krul. City continued to torment Newcastle when David Silva finished off a wonderful piece of play to make it 4-0. Newcastle’s miserable was compounded when Silva scored his second, just two minutes later scoring a half-volley of his own. Manchester City capitalized on Chelsea’s setback and have reduced the deficit at the top to 5 points.
In other fixtures in the Premier League, Stoke City battled past Aston Villa while Hull City narrowly beat QPR with identical margins of 2-1. Sunderland and West Brom fought out a stalemate leaving both sides in the bottom half of the table.
Bayern Munich strolled past Paderborn with a massive margin of 6-0 with Lewandowski, Robben and Ribery all scoring braces. Lewandowski but the table-toppers firmly into the lead at half-time with two goals but after the sending off of Florian Hartherz, there was no way back for the hosts after Robben scored the resulting penalty and Bayern ran riot on the pitch.
Borussia Dortmund are firmly on the road to recovery after an abysmal start to the season, winning their 3rd Bundesliga match in a row, this time against Stuttgart. Dortmund survived a late scare against the hosts but managed to hang on to win 3-2, with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan and Marco Reus scoring.
Juventus were saved the blues by Andrea Pirlo yet again, this time against Atalanta, thumping in a goal from 30-yards, ensuring a 2-1 win for the table-toppers.
Tags: Barcelona Bayern Champions League Chelsea Malaga Manchester United Matic Swansea UEFA
