Premiership Weekend Roundup: April 21-22

Tottenham 2 - 2 Arsenal: Umpteenth verse, same as the first: Arsenal totally dominate a game, but can't put the ball in the net, while their opponents score from one of their few chances. - and once again they dominate a match, opponents score from one of their very few chances. In this case it was an equalizer in the dying seconds of the game from Jermaine Jenas, who I normally dislike, but I'll make an exception here because that was schadenfreudelicious. Arsene Wenger commented after the game, "I don't know what they created apart from the goals." Well, yes, that is kind of the point, sunshine.

Liverpool 2 - 0 Wigan: Another stroll for Liverpool. There aren't many more obvious ways to say "We're saving ourselves for Chelsea" than by leaving Steven Gerrard on the bench. The game was wrapped up -- along with next year's Champions League spot -- by the time he came on, thanks to two goal from Dirk Kuyt. Who Rafa will probably drop on Wednesday, just because.

Manchester United 1 - 1 Middlesbrough: Boro apparently are some sort of bogey team for United. Last year they got thumped away at the Riverside and drew at Old Trafford; this season they've done marginally better (winning away in the league, drawing and then winning in the FA Cup), but all three of those games included a crucial penalty in United's favour. They could have used on on Saturday, too, but instead they were lucky not to have one awarded against them, after John O'Shea took down Dong Gook Lee in the box. Which brings us to the ongoing problems with the defence: ok, yeah, they've got a lot of injuries. But the back line has held up pretty well in the past few games. The difference this week was that the rest of the team wasn't producing. It looked to me like they got kind of panicky, knowing that they desperately needed a goal, and so they were trying to force things -- either fucking around on the ball too much or hurrying their passes -- rather than just letting things flow. As for Sir Alex's decision to leave Rio limping around until halftime? In hindsight it looks bad, but then, I probably would've done the same thing.

Newcastle 0 - 0 Chelsea: Fortunately, United's slip didn't really matter, because Chelsea also drew against Newcastle. How the hell do you not score against Newcastle and their Patented Comedy Defending?

Other results
Aston Villa 0 - 0 Portsmouth
Bolton 1 - 3 Reading (Reading scored three times in the last 6 minutes to steal the win. And I laughed, because I really dislike Bolton.)
Charlton 1 - 1 Sheffield United
Fulham 1 - 1 Blackburn
Watford 1 - 1 Manchester City
West Ham 1 - 0 Everton