Besides Chelsea andManchester City’s matches, there was a full card for the rest of the PremierLeague on Sunday with Liverpool completing the games on Monday night. The gamesthrew up a number of talking points.
Arouna Kone gave Everton thelead at Newcastle with a clinical near post finish early on. The home siderallied and Papiss Cisse turned in a Mike Williamson pull back to equalisebefore the break, shortly after his swinging arm from a corner had struck SeamusColeman in the face and could have seen him sent off (for which he may besubsequently charged).
Ayoze Perez netted his fifth Premier League goal to putthe home side ahead and a mistake by Ross Barclay allowed Jack Colback throughto flick past the keeper for the third. Kevin Mirallas gave the Toffees hopewith 7 minutes to go to reduce the arrears but despite Perez hitting the postlate on, Newcastle still held on for the 3-2 win.
West Ham were unlucky tolose at home to Arsenal in a vibrant London derby. The Hammers were denied acontentious goal from Alex Song as he volleyed in from the edge of the box, withtwo players being deemed to be standing in offside positions (and interferingwith play) and then wasted other presentable chances in the first-half. Arsenalrode their luck and were awarded a penalty when Winston Reid tripped SantiCazorla, who picked himself up to adeptly convert the spot kick.
Minutes laterAlex Oxlade- Chamberlain cut a cross back cleverly from the byeline for DannyWelbeck to net the second.
West Ham continued to knock on the door andCheikhou Kouyate bundled in a partially blocked header to make it 2-1, but theycouldn't quite grab an equaliser, with chances at both ends later on.
Down at the bottom RiyadMahrez came in from the right wing to bend his left foot shot into the net toclinch all three points as the battle of the "City"s saw Leicesterbeat Hull 1-0.
Second-half sending offs for Paul Konchesky of Leicester andStephen Quinn for Hull Interrupted the flow of the game somewhat, with JakeLivermore and Abel Hernandez both hitting the post for Hull as they came close butcouldn't equalise.
Alan Irvine's days in chargeof West Brom may be numbered after another defeat away at Stoke City, despitehis side creating and wasting a number of chances.
City's Mame Diouf workedspace for himself in the box to score the first and was extremely fortunate tobe in the way of a shot from Marko Arnautovic to deflect the ball past BenFoster for his second and confirm the 2-0 result.
Life after Neil Warnockbegan with a 0-0 draw away at QPR for Crystal Palace, as caretaker-boss KeithMillen resumed his deputy role. Rangers almost took the lead when a Leroy Ferpiledriver was turned over by Julian Speroni. Jason Puncheon's drive for Palacewas similarly turned over at the other end by Robert Green to ensure the scoresstayed level. Joey Barton's wild swing at the ball (and Fraizer Campbell) lateon almost gave Palace a penalty after Green had made another fine save.
Spurs and Manchester Unitedboth went into the noon kick-off on good recent runs but were unable to scoreat White Hart Lane. Juan Mata's free-kick struck a post, Robin van Persiefluffed his lines when in on goal and Ashley Young watched his curling shotclawed away by Hugo Lloris in the first-half as United created most of thechances. Spurs came back into the match in the second period but could not breakthe stalemate.
Aston Villa had Fabien Delphsent off shortly after half-time for a lunge on Jordi Gomez at home to Sunderland.The red card seemed to liven the game up, with Gomez striking the post late onand then Leandro Bacuna bringing a fine blocked save from Costel Pantilimon forVilla, as both sides went close.
It ended 0-0.
The Monday night gamesaw Liverpool finally recapture some of the sparkle from last season that hasbeen missing in many of their performances this term, as they convincingly putSwansea to the sword to clinch their biggest win of the season so far. A 4-1scoreline may have been slightly flattering to the home side, given that theSwans missed a number of chances themselves, but was perhaps an indication of aside that found their shooting boots for once. Adam Lallana for one will havebeen pleased with his display as he scored twice in the second-half as the Redsturned on the style, the second a well thought out goal as he wrong footeddefenders and finished neatly. His goals followed on from Alberto Moreno’s openerin a much tighter first-half that saw Liverpool just ahead at the break. GylfiSigurdsson had given the away side hope when he pulled a goal back straightafter Lallana’s first of the night, but the home side were always in controland the result was a formality after old boy Jonjo Shelvey had glanced a headerinto his own net from a corner on 69 minutes. Liverpool briefly threatened torun amok and improve their poor goal difference further, but settled for whatthey had to climb above Swansea into eighth place in the league.