Nail-Biters and Blow Outs

There was nothing in between this weekend: the games either made you want to pull your hair out in suspense or sit back and relax as one team or another was run into the ground.

Blow Outs

Arsenal 4-0 Wigan Athletic

Thomas Vermaelen(25, 49), Emmanuel Eboue (59), and Cesc Fabregas (90) all aided the Gunners in their thrashing of Wigan, putting them in 7th place behind a 3-way tie for 4th place between Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Manchester City.

Real Madrid 5-0 Xerez

It almost looked like Real Madrid was going to secure the win with only one goal under their belt (Ronaldo, 1) but then in the span of seven minutes the Spanish giants netted three goals, scored by Ronaldo (75), Guti (78), and Karim Benzema (82) before Ruud Van Nistelrooy sealed the deal in the 89th minute. They are now tied with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid for first place.

Barcelona 5-2 Atletico Madrid

A score by Ibrahimovic in the first minute sealed the deal for Barcelona and set the tone for the rest of the game. They were up 4-0 by halftime (Messi 16, Dani Alves 30, Seydou Keita 41). Atletico made an attempted comeback when Kun Aguero (45) and Diego Forlan (84) got a goal a piece, but in the 90th minute Messi put a stop to that, netting his second of the game. The Catalan superteam is in the three- way tie for 1st place with Real and Atletico.

Nail Biters

Manchester United 4-3 Manchester City

Michael Owen was dubbed the hero of this game, allowing United to scrape by with a win in the same minute that Craig Bellamy of City leveled with the former European champions. It was literally a game of seesaw throughout. Wayne Rooney opened the scoring early in the 2nd minute before Gareth Barry leveled in the 16th. In the 2nd half Darren Fletcher hit back twice (49, 80) and was twice answered by City's Craig Bellamy (52, 90). Owen, as previously stated, was the saving grace. He entered as a sub for Dimitar Berbatov in the 78th minute, who still isn't quite living up to expectations.

Liverpool 3-2 West Ham United

As usual, Fernando Torres scores two goals when I'm not watching the game! The Spanish international opened the scoring in the 20th minute, which was quickly answered by a penalty kick by Alessandro Diamanti of West Ham in min. 29. Dirk Kuyt pulled the Reds ahead, but three minutes later the score was again leveled by West Ham's Carlton Cole. After 30 minutes of tense play Torres struck again in the 75th minute. Liverpool was able to hold the lead for the remainder of the game.