Manchester United were beaten at home by Everton, while Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool all won in the Barclays Premier Leag...
Manchester United were beaten at home by Everton, while Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool all won in the Barclays Premier League.
The defending Champions United fell further adrift of the pacesetters after losing at home to Everton for the first time since 1992.
Bryan Oviedo's goal four minutes from time gave Everton victory over their former manager David Moyes' United and meant the top five teams in the Premier League all picked up wins on Wednesday evening. Here are the lessons learnt.
Losing to Everton is an embarrassment for Moyes
Everton under Roberto Martinez will take points off plenty of big teams this season and will have a good go at finishing in the top four.
But losing to them at Old Trafford is an embarrassment for David Moyes. Everton under Moyes never won a Premier League game at Old Trafford in 12 attempts. They never won at Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool, either.
But Martinez has broken that run in his first season at Goodison Park, which suggests Everton's poor run had more to do with Moyes than his players.
Bendtner Still Has It In Him
Nicklas Bendtner is not an excellent striker by any means, despite what the Dane's notoriously massive ego might lead him to believe.
Yet he was never as bad as many made him out to be when he deputized for Olivier Giroud earlier in the season after hardly playing first-team football in the last two years. Bendtner might be a bit slow and his goalscoring touch is rusty at best, but he is a competent short-term option in relief of Giroud.
It is difficult for him to lose confidence, but his goalscoring performance will no doubt buoy his self-belief when given game time in Giroud's absence. And, almost as importantly, Arsenal fans need not discount the ability of the team's striker to score when he leads the line.
Reinforcement in January is still needed, but Arsenal do have some depth up front.
Hazard Takes Charge In Oscar’s Absence
The last time Chelsea were in the North East they suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of Newcastle United.
Thanks to Eden Hazard, it was a very different story against Sunderland on Wednesday.
The Belgian was in an inspired mood, not only bagging a brace, but helping Chelsea back into the game with an assist for Frank Lampard, who nodded home the Blues' equalizer to cancel out Jozy Altidore's 14th-minute opener.
Yaya Toure's Finishing Were Top Notch
Fernandinho may have been the most important of Manchester City's summer transfer window acquisitions. Not just for what Fernandinho does, but for what his defensive efforts permit Yaya Toure to do.
In past seasons, Toure had to patrol City's midfield two ways for 90 minutes. As such, his forays into the offensive half seemed like he was tethered by an invisible bungee, lest he get committed too far upfield.
With Fernandinho intercepting so many opposition passes these days, though, Toure's role is more of an opportunistic third striker. Which is great, since Toure's finishing is of striker class.
Toure's brace against West Bromwich Albion came from a sweet sidefoot redirection of an Aleksandar Kolarov cross that left Baggies keeper Boaz Myhill clutching at air and a brutishly effective penalty kick.
On a day where City's strikers managed but one goal between them, Toure doubled their output and carried the Sky Blues to victory.
Villa don't need Christian Benteke
OK, of course I am joking. Any player with that much talent is needed in the team, but Villa have survived without Benteke's goals since the striker suffered an injury in the 1-0 victory over Norwich in September.
Villa have picked up nine points and have scored seven goals since the Belgian’s return from injury—a period of which he has failed to find the net.
Players from a number of positions have chipped in with goals over recent weeks: Gabriel Agbonlahor, Libor Kozak and Fabian Delph all getting on the scoresheet in the win over the Saints.
Benteke was dropped for the visit to the South Coast—coming on with 24 minutes to play—and Paul Lambert's men managed to cope just fine in his absence.
The Champions League Will Be a Better Place with Luis Suarez in It
Anfield was in awe of Luis Suarez Wednesday, an evening when his goals were met not so much with celebration but with gasps of astonishment.
Even the most frequent of match-goers were struggling to find a time that they saw anything like the show that Suarez put on.
It wasn't much the fact that he scored four goals, as others have done that before and will in the future, but it was more the sheer quality of them. Numbers one, three and four could easily win a BBC Goal of the Month competition on their own.
Profiting from playing in a team that keep the ball and have now developed a ruthless streak, Suarez is displaying the form of his life. He surely will be playing in the Champions League next season, as he deserves to, but contrary to the popular belief of many, he might just be playing there with Liverpool.
What a prospect that will be.
Brendan Rodgers Gets It Right at the Back
It wasn't a night to talk about Liverpool's defending, although Simon Mignolet and company will be frustrated at allowing Norwich's Bradley Johnson a consolation goal, but Brendan Rodgers' decision to reunite Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel as the Reds' two centre-backs was the right one.
Sometimes you have to just go with what you know, and although Kolo Toure has been impressive since he arrived at the Reds, and Mamadou Sakho possesses the capabilities to be a top-class defender, Agger and Skrtel know each other's games and seem to bring a calmness to proceedings.
Admittedly, there were a few stray passes out from defence from Skrtel in particular here, but at a time of the season when Liverpool will need to stay strong in order to keep amassing vitally important points, theirs should be the pairing that the manager trusts the most.
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