Chelsea maintain momentum; United second as Arsenal beaten

New Delhi News.Net
Sunday 22nd November, 2009 (IANS)

Chelsea maintained momentum at the top of the English Premier League extending their lead with a comprehensive 4-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers while several of their rivals lost points.

In Saturday's matches, Michael Essien scored two of Chelsea's goals but Arsenal were shocked 0-1 at Sunderland and Liverpool's title hopes faded further as they were held 2-2 by Manchester City.

Manchester United leapfrogged Arsenal into second place when they beat Everton 3-0 in the day's late match to keep Chelsea's lead down to six points.

Florent Malouda put Chelsea ahead on five minutes and Essien's double made it 3-0 within 22 minutes.

The icing on the cake came in the 56th minute when Joe Cole scored his first goal in more than a year after his horrible run of luck with injuries.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti praised Essien's efforts.

'Essien is one of the most important players in midfield in the world,' the Italian said. 'He can play on the right and in the centre with the same results, he is very important to us.

'This season he has maintained a good physical condition, he is very strong, but he also has a lot of other qualities as a midfield player.'

Darren Fletcher smashed United's first goal in the 35th minute and second-half goals from Michael Carrick and Antonio Valencia secured all three points for the home side.

Arsenal dominated Sunderland in the first half but were undone by a corner headed in by Darren Bent.

Arsene Wenger denied that his side missed the injured Robin van Persie, saying some of his players did not perform to their usual standard.

'We have a game in hand,' Wenger said. 'I didn't expect them to drop points against Wolves at all. It's very different when you have an international break and then play away from home.

'I feel there's a massive difference. If we had played Sunderland at home today, we would have won the game.'

Liverpool needed an equalizer from Yossi Benayoun to snatch a point against Manchester City, but they remain seventh, now 13 points behind Chelsea.

City stay sixth, one point ahead of Liverpool after their sixth successive draw.

For Liverpool, it's now one win in 10 matches and their injury problems suffered another blow after Daniel Agger and Ryan Babel were taken off within their first 20 minutes.

Liverpool took the lead four minutes into the second half when Martin Skrtel got on the end of Steven Gerrard's free kick to score his first goal for the club.

Liverpool sat back after the goal and they paid the price when an unmarked Emmanuel Adebayor headed the equalizer from a corner in the 68th minute.

With substitute Carlos Tevez prominent, City looked the more dangerous and took the lead seven minutes later when Stephen Ireland finished off a neat move.

But their lead lasted only 74 seconds as David Ngog's shot was deflected and Benayoun slid in for the equalizer. Shaun Wright-Phillips had a shot well saved by Reina while Lucas wasted a free header in the last minute.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez praised his side's character in overcoming more injury adversity and backed them to get back into the top four when the likes of Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson return.

'City have quality but if we can improve and play at our level we'll be in the top four,' Benitez said.

'We won six games in a row and I am sure when we have players back we'll start winning games in a row.'

Emile Heskey scored his first Premier League goal in seven months to rescue a point for Aston Villa with a 1-1 draw at Bolton, lifting them to fourth place.

West Ham United were 2-0 up within 11 minutes at Hull City, but a Carlton Cole own goal, a Kamil Zayatte effort and a penalty by Jimmy Bullard put Hull ahead at half-time.

Bernard Mendy was sent off for Hull on 53 minutes and West Ham snatched an equalizer through Manuel Da Costa (69) to seal a 3-3 draw, while Birmingham City beat Fulham 1-0 in the other match.

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