Results - week 23

Portsmouth 2-0 Aston Villa
Portsmouth Scorers: Coutinho(Modric), Berardi(Gotze)
MOTM: Luka Modric

West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Manchester United
A below par United performance coupled with some hard work and luck for West Brom lead to a shock result that puts a dent in United’s title hopes. Man Utd had most of the game but their passing was sloppy at times in the midfield and West Brom worked hard to make it even more difficult. Hazard however was once again at the top of his game and his goal looked to have given Unied three points. However the introduction of Kagawa and Januzaj helped give West Brom more of a threat going forward. A huge comeback for the Baggies ended with Remy’s shot taking a deflection off of Howedes and then falling for Kagawa to score the winner.
West Brom Scorers: Bony(Baines) 77, Kagawa(Remy) 89
United Scorer: Hazard(Perez) 62
MOTM: James Mccarthy - Excellent work rate in midfield, he nullified United’s midfielders.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-0 Hull City
7th vs 8th in the league and despite Wolves’ form this game was expected to be tight and thats what we got. The game was bogged down in midfield, and despite the quality of some of the players on show, neither side could break the other down as two strong defences and two in form keepers won the day.
MOTM: Nigel De Jong - Fought James throughout and limited Hull’s main man to a shy performance.

Newcastle United 3-0 Swansea City
Newcastle Scorers: HIguain(Pjanic), Suarez(Callejon), Higuain(Siquiera)
MOTM: Gonzalo Higuain

Southampton 2-1 Leicester City
A tight game between two teams threatened by relegation. Leicester largely had the better of it as they looked more controlled in possession and a threat every time they came forward. Southampton however countered well and their willingness to commit men forward in counter attacks, especially the running of Kolarov and Ramires from deeper positions lead to overloads in dangerous areas. Leicester certainly didn’t deserve to lose this, but Southampton battled well.
Southampton Scorers: Martinez(Kolarov) 23, Mirallas(FK) 78
Leicester Scorers: Eriksen(Herrera) 55
MOTM: Kolarov - Its hard to chose a standout player, however his constant overlapping in attacks meant that Leicester found themselves more vulnerable, particularly when Ramires made runs into the channels to compliment Kolarov.

Manchester City 3-2 Birmingham City
A huge game in the race for top 4 and it was a contest that was full of goals. From the off the home team looked to pour forward in possession, with Birmingham content to contain and counter. They struggled to contain them though, especially when the FBs got forward and they were able to get crosses in, the three CBs looking shaky at times. At the other end though, despite both midfields nullifying each other, Birmingham were able to get the ball to the front three and they put Man City’s back line under pressure, especially with space to counter. In the end though, the home team’s late push won them the game.
Man City Scorers: Tevez(Cazorla) 7, Tevez(Bernat) 57, Kane(Bernat) 90+1
Birmingham Scorers: Reus 18, Dzeko(Srna) 73
MOTM: Carlos Tevez - was in irresistible form, the back 3 struggled with him all game.

Everton 2-2 Chelsea
A big game for both sides as Chelsea looked to close the gap to the top and Everton increase their gap to the bottom sides. Chelsea looked in control of the game for much of the first half as they bullied Everton in midfield and didn’t allow them to get a foothold on the ball, causing a lot of problems with the two wide men. They raced into a two goal lead as their class shone through. However a petulant kick out from Neymar after a clumsy tackle from Walker lead to the Brazilian seeing red just before half time. Fan brought on Depay as he looked to keep up the pressure on Everton but this meant that Everton began to get into the game in the middle, with their diamond midfield proving the difference in the second half. Montolivo and Jorginho in particular really stepped up their performance and Sakho was a constant handful to the CBs, in the end the extra man meant Everton could sneak a draw.
Everton Scorers: Sakho(Montolivo) 67, Hernandez(Criscito) 84
Chelsea Scorers: Neymar(Benzema) 5, Sanchez 16
MOTM: Jorginho - His energy in the second half allowed to take advantage of having the extra man, without his constant work rate Chelsea would have been comfortable.