Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all win at home for Day 27. Whereas the Gunners and Giroud scoring his 11th and 12th golas of the season, cruise to a 4-1 win vs Sunderland, Manchester City and definitely Chelsea did not have a stress free afternoon. Manchester had to wait the second half and Yaya Toure goal in the 70th minute mark for the Citizens against a great Stoke City defense. Chelsea was, at the opposite, settled for a scoreless draw against a strong Everton side. But, veteran John Terry deviated a free-kick from another veteran Frank Lampard to deliver the Blues and all Stamford Bridge in extra-time. Liverpool and Tottenham are the only two sides to possibly change the hierachy. Sportsbook Review have the latest news on Premier League title race.
Chelsea 1-0 Everton
Coach Mourinho on the performance:
‘It was a very difficult match, in periods one team was dominant and the other had to play very well defensively to cope with that,’ said the Portuguese. ‘We had a very good start, in the first 20 minutes we were in control and had a few good chances and positions to shoot. For the rest of the first half Everton were in control.
‘They are very comfortable on the ball, pass the ball very well and even though they don’t create a lot of chances the quality of their possession is second to nobody in the Premier League. ‘At half time, at 0-0, normally my change would be a different one but I felt I needed to control the game because my team is not a team that scores a lot of goals, so if they scored before us I don’t think we’re a team who would have been able to score two goals and win the game.
‘The reality is that the boys chased it, I feel sorry for Everton because maybe a point would have been fair, but we were the team that were really trying to win, which is our responsibility. A point for them is a good point, a point for us is not good, so I think in the end maybe we deserved it. ‘I never thought we would score so late, I had a hope we could score before that but that’s when you want it, in the last minute.’
Arsenal 4-1 Sunderland
Coach Wenger reacts after a strong performance:
We had a very demanding week physically and mentally and we gave the right response today. We did the job in the first half and we scored two great ‘Arsenal’ goals; one of them scored by Giroud, the other by Rosicky. I am very pleased for Rosicky because today Bergkamp got a statue and I think Rosicky took the Bergkamp role well. Certainly Dennis will have been pleased to have seen him play.
on Giroud’s two goals…
I had no hesitation about his strength of character. Of course you want him to come back into the team and be successful, which he was today because he scored two goals. One great one at the end of great movement and the other a little bit of a gift from Sunderland. He got an assist as well, so he did well.
on confidence levels…
Against Bayern Munich, the target was to have a good performance and a good result. We only had the good performance. Of course we were very frustrated but we had to transfer the positives that we got from this game. Overall, we believe we can still have a go at Bayern. We have shown today we are capable of responding and that is the most important thing. You see City had a difficult game, Chelsea had a difficult game so you see it is difficult for all the teams at the top, but we did the job well.
Manchester City 1-0 Stoke City
Coach Pellegrini on important win:
“I think we didn’t create many chances because Stoke defended very well. They put the team behind the ball and in the box but we showed patience for 90 minutes. “Finally we scored, and we also kept our concentration on set pieces and second balls to keep our clean sheet. “Teams come here to defend and try to get a draw, so we cannot win by three or four goals every match. It is important to win in both ways, by scoring many goals and also to have a clean sheet and to have the patience to score at least one.”
