Translated material
Wenger reserve
Arsenal won in Manchester without nine key players
The top three simultaneously played away matches against ambitious opponents. Manchester City received a lesson in skill from Arsenal, who broke away from Chelsea and Manchester United, who both ended their matches in draws. The heroes of winter transfers began to become heroes of their teams.The winter transfer window in the English Premier League turned out to be quite eventful, which had an impact on the results of the very next round after its closure. The most striking event was the story of Benjani Mwaruwari, third on the season's scorer list. An event that cannot yet be called a transition, purchase or transfer. Manchester City are negotiating the acquisition of the Zimbabwean. The last thing to do to complete the deal was to carry out a medical examination of Mwaruwari and send the necessary documents from Manchester to Portsmouth. What happened next defies logical explanation. Mwaruwari misses two planes to Manchester, the third is cancelled, and as a result, Eriksson and the doctors wait for the striker only late in the evening. The documents arrive at Portsmouth at five minutes to twelve (five minutes before the transfer window closes), but the problem is that they were not completely filled out.
Now the federation will consider the forward’s case. In the meantime, he is out of football, and 19-year-old student of the club Daniel Staridge plays in the City attack. He plays great for a debutant - two goals in the team's last two matches, but his efforts were not even enough to defeat Derby in the last round. On Saturday, City hosted Arsenal. In the previous 12 matches, the hosts showed an excellent result at their stadium - nine wins with three draws, and the power of their game was a revelation for specialists. The Londoners were missing nine players from the main squad before the game - three at the African Cup, and six were immediately healing from injuries. The place of the injured Almunia was taken by Lehmann, who made some noise in January, but never left for his homeland. The remaining gaps were closed by: Senderos (center of defense), Diaby (left winger) and Sagna, who covered the entire right side in Eboue’s absence.
The latter's performance was one of the reasons for Arsenal's confident victory. It is known that much of the edge in City's attacks comes from Martin Petrov. On Saturday, Petrov was almost invisible on the field. But this was not enough for the Frenchman; at the same time he dealt with Ball, who was defending on his flank, and organized the first goal. In the hosts' defense, only the returning Richards could be noted. His titanic efforts in supporting his partners saved the team from a well-deserved defeat. Wenger, who played two forwards in attack, made no mistake. Da Silva scored a must-watch goal, and Emanuel Adebayor scored twice and almost caught up with Cristiano in the scoring match.
The main result of the meeting was not personal achievements at all. The ambitions declared by the City management are clearly at odds with reality. The hosts looked completely inert and toothless throughout the match. With the score 0:2, it seemed that Manchester was maintaining the advantage gained in the first cup game. The team showed itself to be completely incapable of dictating its will to the leader for any appreciable period of time. The only goal - a fusion of an accidental mistake by Clichy and the activity of the inert Chorluka throughout the match - only confirmed this conclusion. However, Wenger’s lesson can only be used for future use; now you can work on mistakes, taking time away from unnecessary buffoonery.
Arsenal scored three points and could calmly wait for the result of the match in London, where Tottenham were waiting for Ferguson’s team. Ramos was not afraid to field two new defenders for the match with the leader - England national team player Woodgate and Hutton, who shone for Rangers in the Champions League. The defensive scheme built by the Spaniard played superbly throughout the match, preventing United from playing their usual supersonic football. Ronaldo, who was completely excluded from the game by Chimbonda in the first half, was forced to run left from the Frenchman in the second half. Sir Alex replaced the rest of the midfielders by the 60th minute, which is an unprecedented case for Manchester.
The unproven trio of Hargreaves, Scholes, Giggs was replaced by a trio: Carrick, Nani, Anderson, which somehow cheered up the guests. Before this, the Londoners completely dominated the field. And the goal scored by Berbatov in the 21st minute was, although not controversial from the point of view of the law, fully deserved by the game of the Londoners. Pressure, arrogance and pressure are the three main features of Saturday's Tottenham. The performance of the team, which recently made it to the League Cup final (5:1 in the return match with Arsenal, if anyone doesn’t remember), is clearly getting better, and one thing was missing to win at Manchester United: luck. In two moments this manifested itself very clearly. At the beginning of the second half, Berbatov takes Keane one on one, and he without hesitation hits the center of the goal. The second was Manchester's goal, scored in the last seconds after a corner kick. How the hosts' defenders blundered Tevez remains unclear. The result is a draw (1:1) and a visual guide on how to play against Cristiano.
The meeting between the local club and Chelsea in Portsmouth, which ended, like the game in London, with a score of 1:1, showed a completely different level of intensity. Equal fight. Arrhythmia of halves - quiet first, bright final. Ballack's head, smashed and bleeding. Goals from newcomers Anelka and Defoe. And another recent recruit, Diara, has shown himself to be so integrated into the machinery of Harry Redknapp's team that fans have already learned to chant his name. “We faced a strong opponent. So I consider the result acceptable,” the words of the Blues coach Abraham Grant after the match, while paying tribute to the hosts, hid the disappointment. The opportunity to catch up with Manchester United was missed.
Liverpool finally scored. Of course, there is nothing surprising in the home victory over Sunderland (3:0). But for Bennitez's side, who have drawn four times and lost once in their last five league matches, it is undoubtedly an achievement. The first full game in the Premier League was played by Martin Skrtel, who played the entire match and contributed to setting a club record. Jose Reina was able to reach the mark of 50 clean sheets in the championship before anyone who had ever defended the goal of the “Reds” before him. It took the Spaniard 92 matches to achieve this.
Results of other matches: Wigan - West Ham - 1:0, Blackburn - Everton - 0:0, Reading - Bolton - 0:2, Birmingham -- Derby -- 1:1, Newcastle -- Middlesbrough -- 1:1, Fulham -- Aston Villa -- 2:1.
English Championship
| 1. Arsenal | 25 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 52--18 | 60 |
| 2. Manchester United | 25 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 49--12 | 58 |
| 3. Chelsea | 25 | 16 | 6 | 3 | 38--17 | 54 |
| 4. Everton | 25 | 13 | 5 | 7 | 40--23 | 44 |
| 5. Liverpool | 24 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 40--17 | 43 |
| 6. Aston Villa | 25 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 44--33 | 41 |
| 7. Manchester City | 25 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 32--28 | 41 |
| 8. Blackburn | 25 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 32--31 | 39 |
| 9. Portsmouth | 25 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 35--26 | 38 |
| 10. West Ham | 24 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 29--22 | 36 |
| 11. Tottenham | 25 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 45--41 | 29 |
| 12. Newcastle | 25 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 28--43 | 28 |
| 13. Middlesbrough | 25 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 22--38 | 26 |
| 14. Bolton | 25 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 26--34 | 25 |
| 15. Wigan | 25 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 24--40 | 23 |
| 16. Sunderland | 25 | 6 | 5 | 14 | 24--45 | 23 |
| 17. Reading | 25 | 6 | 4 | 15 | 30--52 | 22 |
| 18. Birmingham | 25 | 5 | 6 | 14 | 24--37 | 21 |
| 19. Fulham | 25 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 25--43 | 19 |
| 20. Derby County | 25 | 1 | 6 | 18 | 13--52 | 9 |