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Four games kicked-off simultaneously at 3pm today with Aston Villa recording a thumping 5-1 win against Bolton, Blackburn had to come from behind to beat Portsmouth 3-1 at home, Manchester City dropped points again this week playing out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Burnley and Tottenham were a tad lucky to win 2-0 against Sunderland at home. In the late kick-off Arsenal beat Wolves 4-1 at Molineux to knock Manchester United off from 2nd place for a day at the very least.

The game of the day was easily Manchester City's home draw against Burnley. A match which was supposed to be a banker for City turned into an early nightmare with Joleon Lescott giving away a penalty which the amazing 38-year old Graham Alexander smashed home for a 19th minute lead. Steven Fletcher tapped the ball home on the half hour mark from a super pass by Christopher Eagles to put Burnley two goals to the good. Shaun Wright-Phillips scored a goal just before the end of the first half to lift City, his shot from the edge of the area taking enough of a deflection off former City player Stephen Jordan to beat Brian Jensen in goal. City were in front less than 15 minutes into the second half with Kolo Toure scoring his first goal for the club and Craig Bellamy adding what looked to be the winner just 5 minutes later. However, City were to be denied in the 87th minute when substitute Kevin McDonald popped up to tap the ball home, and hold the Eastlands club to their fifth successive draw.

Aston Villa came into today's game on the back of a 2-1 defeat in midweek away to West Ham. The Villans were desperate to get their season back on track following what has been very much a start-stop campaign. They took out all their frustration today on a decidedly second best Bolton Wanderers side with five different players - Young, Agbonlahor, Carew, Milner and Cuellar - getting on the scorecard. Ashley Young gave Villa the early lead following up John Carew's header and brilliantly tucking away the ball from close range into the roof of the net. Agbonlahor added a second on 43 minutes only for Johan Elmander to give Bolton a lifeline a minute later. Villa came out hungry for more in the second half and an early goal from Carew but the game to rest. James Milner followed up Steve Sidwell's follow up (literally) after the former's penalty was saved by Jaaskelainen and the latter raced in and slammed his shot on the post only for the ball to fall kindly back to a relieved Milner happy to get his name on the scoresheet. Carlos Cuellar added the cherry on top with a well placed header in the 75th minute.

Blackburn went into half time at home against bottom of the league Portsmouth a goal down after on loan Jamie O'Hara gave Pompey the lead in the 15th minute. Big Sam rung the changes at half-time bringing on strikers Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts for the two wide men El-Hadji Diouf and Morten Gamst Pedersen. The move paid instant dividends with Jason Roberts equalizing on 53 minutes with a toe poke from close range. Ryan Nelson put Blackburn in the lead 20 minutes and a third from Roberts guaranteed the points for the home side.

Tottenham were another side looking to start moving back in the right direction following consecutive defeats in the League at the hands of Stoke City and Arsenal. Their luck did change considerably today as Darren Bent missed a penalty and Andy Reid struck a fantastic long range effort against the cross bar as a rather unlucky Sunderland left White Hart Lane with no points to show for their efforts. Robbie Keane had come on the end of a Peter Crouch flick on to open the scoring in the 12th minute and Tom Huddlestone wrapped up the points with a fantastic drive in the 68th minute.

The late kick-off at Molineux was well worth the wait as Arsenal were forced to defend for 20 minutes against an exceptionally hard working Wolves side who completely bossed the early exchanges and were unlucky not to be ahead when Christophe Berra missed a golden opportunity to give the home side the lead. Arsenal were more than fortunate to score against the run of play as some tight pressure from Eduardo forced Ronald Zubar to put the ball into his own net from a corner, and the Gunners were soon up two when a goal bound shot from Eduardo took another deflection off Jody Craddock to give the keeper no chance. If the first two goals had luck written all over them, the third was anything but as a typical free flowing Arsenal move saw Fabregas tuck the ball home from close range after racing from the midfield and having a perfectly weighted ball laid on a plate by Robin van Persie. Andrei Arshavin made it four in the 66th minute with a speculative effort which went through a crowd of players coming out from a corner and could easily have had two or three more as they turned on the style. Craddock was to get Wolves a deserved consolation late in the game as he did brilliantly to lose his marker from a set play and power a header home.

Another great performance from the Gunners, showing good resolve to absorb the early pressure and take their chances while playing their brand of beautiful football. There were a couple of downers for Arsenal as well as they once again failed to keep a clean sheet, and also lost Abou Diaby midway through the first half to injury. Ramsey, who started this game in place of Song had a tremendous outing, showing just why Arsene Wenger rates him so highly, but the injury to Diaby will be a big miss as Arsenal lose another good header of the ball (after Bendtner against Spurs last week) and are likely to continue to get exposed at the back.

There are another four matches scheduled for Sunday, including the big one as Manchester United make the trip to Stamford Bridge to take on league leaders Chelsea.

Saturday Scores:

Aston Villa 5 - 1 Bolton W.
Blackburn R. 3 - 1 Portsmouth
Manchester C. 3 - 3 Burnley
Tottenham H. 2 - 0 Sunderland
Wolverhampton W. 1 - 4 Arsenal

File Photograph Copyright: Alfonso Jimenez

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ahmad January 17, 2010 86.108.5.184 Votes: +0	Real Madrid is the best report abuse vote down vote up

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