The Centre Circle

Bad news for Barcelona, good news for Arsenal. Zlatan Ibrahimovic picked up a calf strain in the warm up for yesterday evening’s game versus Athletic Bilbao and it has been confirmed that the injury will rule him out of the second leg Champions League quarter final tie against  Arsenal on Tuesday night. Ibrahimovic, who was due to start Saturday night’s game, scored both goals at the Emirates Stadium last Wednesday and has been in fantastic form of late. He may also miss El Classico next weekend when Barcelona play their deadly rivals Real Madrid.

This is a big blow for Barcelona who may replace him for the Arsenal and Real Madrid games with Henry or maybe Bojan who scored twice tonight in place of the Swedish international. The other scorers were Jeffren and the inevitable goal from Messi in an easy 4-1 win over Athletic at the Camp Nou.

Goals from Saturday’s 4-1 win for Barcelona against Bilbao below – sorry they don’t have English commentary…

At the Emirates, Arsenal took early control but it was Wolves who had the best early chance, Michael Mancienne, on loan from Chelsea hitting a 25 yard drive which shaved the bar. Eduardo should have then scored as Arsenal responded, miss-kicking when in front of goal. In the second half Carl Henry was harshly red carded for a tackle on Rosicky. Arsenal pressed and pressed and in the dying moments the pressure exerted finally paid off. Substitute Nicklas Bendtner broke Wolves hearts scoring in the 94th minute with a diving header from a Sagna cross. A priceless goal in their pursuit of Chelsea and Man Utd, and the umpteenth time that Arsenal had scored in the last 10 minutes of the game this season. How important will this goal be come the end of the season? Arsenal now go to the Nou Camp in good spirits, and are just 3 points behind Chelsea.

There was a crazy game at Sunderland. The home team hit very early at The Stadium of Light with two Spurs old boys doing the damage. Frazier Campbell’s diving header was saved by Gomes after 30 seconds but Darren Bent buried the rebound against his old club. Then the north east club got a penalty. Walker handled after Gomes palmed out a Steed Malbranque shot and Darren Bent finished expertly from the spot to get his second. Then Sunderland got a second penalty, Campbell was brought down by Modric, but this time Bent couldn’t complete a first half hat-trick as Gomes made a great save. Into the second half and amazingly there was a third penalty given to Sunderland by referee Lee Mason. Palacios fouled Jordan Henderson and Gomes saved his second spot kick of the afternoon from Bent who was never destined to get a third. Sunderland then had a goal disallowed from Anton Ferdinand after Campbell apparently fouled Gomez. Spurs gave their fans hope when Peter Crouch pulled one back, nodding home from a Nico Kranjcar cross however Sunderland clinched their three points with a rasping volley from Bodo Zenden.

At Stoke, Ricardo Fuller kept up his good form from the previous week by latching onto a Kitson header and finishing expertly with the outside of his right boot. Stoke’s Liam Lawrence then wrapped up the points late in the second half, side-footing a neat finish. The game was marred was by a nasty head injury to Hull’s George Boateng who was taken off on a stretcher and onwards to hospital.

Aston Villa took the lead at the Reebok Stadium via a superb curling strike from Ashley Young. Slack defending allowed the Villa winger to place a shot into the top corner past a despairing Jaaskelainen. Hard though Bolton tried, they were unable to find an equaliser with Villa who took the three points and moved closer to Spurs at that time in fourth spot.

At Portsmouth, David Dunn for Blackburn went close in the first half when he struck a post. At the other end Jamie O’Hara’s header was cleared off the line by Gael Givet. Just before half-time Blackburn hit the post for a second time, Chris Samba this time the unlucky player. Portsmouth were hampered in the second half when Van den Borre was sent off for his second bookable offence but they held on for a 0-0 draw which preserves their Premiership status, for now…

At Turf Moor in the late game, Man City raced into an unassailable 3-0 after just seven minutes. First Adebayor chested down the ball when half cleared from a corner and lashed home, then Bellamy sped between two Burnley defenders and finished well. Tevez added the third who tapped home after Jensen was unable to handle an Adebayor shot. After 20 minutes, it was 4-0. Patrick Viera headed home after an Adam Johnson corner.  This was starting to look embarrassing and it got worse for sorry Burnley as Adebayor got his second and City’s fifth breaking the offside trap to finish sweetly. City made it six in the second half, Vincent Kompany, finishing with his head from a corner. By now the only thing threatening a thumping City win was the weather, the rain starting to form puddles on the pitch. After 71 minutes the Burnley fans finally had something to cheer as Steven Fletcher struck a consolation high into the net from the left hand side of the penalty area. The rest of the game fizzled out as Man City declared on six, a win that moves them up to fourth in the league.

Arsenal 1-0 Wolves

Sunderland 3-1 Tottenham

Stoke 2-0 Hull City

Bolton 0-1 Aston Villa

Portsmouth 0-0 Blackburn

Burnley 1-6 Man City

On the day when the boxing Heavyweight Championship of the World was due to be contested in Manchester and David Haye, the current holder paraded his championship belt on the pitch before the match, how appropriate that two of the Premiership’s biggest hitters met head to head at Old Trafford, trying to land a knock-out punch to their rival. Ferguson versus Ancelotti, Manchester United versus Chelsea, red versus blue; last week everyone was anticipating Rooney v Drogba but we were denied this particular sub-plot (50 goals on the season between them) as Rooney was injured and Drogba was left on the substitute bench, having not fully recovered from a recent knee problem, so it was left to those second on the bill Berbatov & Anelka to lead the line and to try to strike the winning blow.

Both teams lined up in similar fashion 4-3-3 and the early sparring saw a slightly sprightlier Chelsea team on the front foot against a more sluggish looking United who seemed not to have recovered from their mid-week trip to Munich. The only chances of note in the first 15 minutes were Joe Cole having a scuffed shot for Chelsea, and Patrice Evra breaking down the left & hitting a low shot that Cech handled easily. Then after 19 minutes, Chelsea struck first. Malouda on the left was allowed to run way too far without a serious challenge on him. On reaching the by-line, he pulled back the ball for Joe Cole to guide a sneaky back heel past Van de Sar in the United goal – only his second of the season. Five minutes later, Park was caught by Zhirkov on the edge of the box, but to the disappointment of the United players and fans, Mike Dean the referee (who has a history of giving penalties, 16 in 24 games this season!) waved away the appeals. The man in black it seemed was in a more lenient mood today, as minutes later Gary Neville appeared to blatantly barge over Anelka as he broke into the box – again no penalty was given. On the stroke of half time, Berbatov was cut down un-necessarily by Terry on the right of the box, but Giggs’ free kick only met a Chelsea head. As half time came, United trooped off clearly having been second best to face the wrath of Sir Alex, after not having had a threatening effort on the Cech goal in first 45 minutes.

The second half began and again Chelsea came out quicker, nearly breaking through early on. Joe Cole turned in midfield, and played a fabulous ball cutting through the United defence to the on-running Ferreira, who jabbed the ball past Van de Sar, but unfortunately for him, also past the far right hand post. The Old Trafford crowd were already starting to get restless, but their mood improved after Evra volley a couple of yards wide. The volume level was raised a touch more as Fletcher went on a run from central midfield, passing to Park who screwed his shot wide. United were now buoyed by this and Berbatov had two chances, heading narrowly wide from Giggs’ right wing cross, then minutes later heading over the bar from Neville’s centre. This was more like it and the pressure mounted, Chelsea at times desperately defending their own box, like a fighter pinned on the ropes. With 20 minutes to go Ancelotti pulled off Cole and Anelka with Kalou and Drogba, Ferguson responded by substituting Scholes for Marcheda. The decisions from both managers had immediate effect. Firstly, Chelsea having cleared their heads after surviving a United battering for 10 minutes made it 0-2; Kalou played a pass through to Drogba who finished emphatically controversially from an offside position. Minutes later, Nani jinked past a couple of Chelsea defenders and his cross-shot fell to Marcheda after Cech parried, making it 1-2. United desperately tried to fight back and as 90 minutes ticked up, Giggs played a lovely pass through to Berbatov who’s half volley couldn’t beat the Chelsea goalkeeper. However, Chelsea held on in injury time to deservedly rack up a huge victory.

United have lost five of their seven league games after playing in Europe and I think it is proof that they do not enough squad depth to cover, especially in attack. They now have to go away and recover before their next test in midweek versus Bayern Munich. How they could have done today with the extra punch of the injured Rooney up front.

Quotes from Ancelotti: "We wanted to be top after this match. It was hard but we played really well. Champions League matches take up a lot of energy and that is why we started the game so quick. We knew that if we played with a high intensity they could have some problems.Now we are the favourites, yes. That's normal when we are back at the top of the league. But nothing is decided. We have to stay composed, quiet and maintain focus in our game."

Quotes from Ferguson "What I can't understand is the linesman's directly in front of it. He has no-one near him and he gets it wrong. A game of that magnitude, you really need quality officials and we didn't get them today. It was a poor, poor performance. Five games left, they're two points ahead and four goals better than us - they're in the driving seat. Chelsea are favourites now, there's no question. I'm certain we'll respond but we could win the next five games and not win it."