As It Happened: Saturday's Premier League
Updated: Saturday, 08 Dec 2012 17:05
Tap here to refresh
Rafa Benitez secured his first Premier League victory as Chelsea manager, while Norwich won by the odd goal in seven against Swansea. Get all results here ...
Barclays Premier League results and reports:
SPL result:
Get in touch: Tweet @RTEsport, email sportonline@rte.ie, or comment using the box below.
Watch highlights on Premier Soccer Saturday - RTÉ Two at 8.00pm
That completes the day's action in the Barclays Premier League. A great day at the office for Fernando Torres and Rafa Benitez.
All the reports, updated tables and future fixtures are available through links in the key points, above.
Full-time in all games.
Results:
Arsenal 2-0 West Brom
Aston Villa 0-0 Stoke City
Sunderland 1-3 Chelsea
Southampton 1-0 Reading
Swansea City 3-4 Norwich City
Wigan Ath 2-2 QPR
GOAL - SWANSEA - MICHU
They're nothing if not game, this Swansea side. A second goal from Michu, coming in the second minute of added-time, reduces the deficit to a single goal. Time for more?
Swansea 3-4 Norwich
Sunderland are making an ultra-late charge and Gardner is the latest to go close. His free-kick flashes past the wall and off the crossbar.
Good late effort from Wickham, whose low, rasping effort is touched wide by Cech. A corner results but it's a shocker - a real shocker!
All the games are moving into injury time. Chelsea, Arsenal and Norwich look set to take all three points, but there is still plenty to play for in the other three games.
GOAL - NORWICH - SNODGRASS
Relief for Norwich manager Chris Hughton, the players and fans as Snodgrass puts two between the teams again.
Swansea 2-4 Norwich
Cracking save from Cech. Johnson struck a lovely free-kick but the Chelsea keeper got across in time to palm it out. The away side were unconvincing in defending the resulting corner, but they remain two clear.
GOAL - WIGAN - McCARTHY
Only moments after going behind, McCarthy equalises for Wigan. The Irishman controls the cross with his first touch and slams it home with his second. He's on a hat-trick now.
Wigan 2-2 QPR
GOAL - QPR - CISSE
QPR have taken the lead, having been behind to James McCarthy's early goal.
Wigan 1-2 QPR
GOAL - SOUTHAMPTON - PUNCHEON
GOAL - JOHNSON - SUNDERLAND
A strike from the outside of Johnson's left foot curls beautifully across Cech and into the net. Surely not ...
Sunderland 1-3 Chelsea
GOAL - ARSENAL - ARTETA (PENALTY)
Another penalty from Arteta doubles Arsenal's lead. They deserve the lead but boy are they frustrating to watch at the moment.
Arsenal 2-0 West Brom
GOAL - SWANSEA - JONATHON DE GUZMAN
The comeback is well and truly on now.
Swansea 2-3 Norwich
Arsenal on the attack against West Brom but Gervinho continues to frustrate in front of goal. A nicely floated cross begs to be finished but his header is desperate, posing more of a threat to the linesman than the goalkeeper.
GOAL - SWANSEA - MICHU
The comeback is on!?! Michu, who has been brilliant this season, and his 51st-minute goal may have breathed some life into this game.
Swansea 1-3 Norwich
It's getting a bit heated at the Emirates.
GOAL - CHELSEA - MATA
Nice finish from Mata, but it came from a first-time left-footed strike from the red-hot Torres. The underside of the crossbar denied the Spaniard a hat-trick but Mata was on hand to strike the rebound home. This is over. Is it all over for Martin O'Neill, too?
Sunderland 0-3 Chelsea
All the games will be back underway shortly. That late first-half penalty for Chelsea could be huge in the life of Rafa Benitez, while Norwich have a three-goal lead to defend. Surely both sides have the three points in the bag.
Half-time scores:
Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Aston Villa 0-0 Stoke City
Sunderland 0-2 Chelsea
Southampton 0-0 Reading
Swansea 0-3 Norwich
Wigan Athletic 1-1 QPR
GOAL - CHELSEA - TORRES (PENALTY)
Penalty to Chelsea. Seb Larsson with a pointless slide tackle on Ramires.
Torres steps up to take the penalty and it's sublime. Keeper dives to his right as the ball is placed beautifully into the other corner.
Sunderland 0-2 Chelsea
Half-time between Aston Villa and Stoke. Scoreless!
Grant Holt, who assisted Bassong's goal on 40 minutes, is now on the scoresheet. This is some surprising scoreline: Swansea 0-3 Norwich
Sebastian Bassong was a constant threat against Sunderland last week and the Norwich player has doubled his side's advantage over Swansea this afternoon, scoring with his head.
Swansea 0-2 Norwich
Good save from Myhill. A poorly struck shot was controlled brilliantly by Gervinho, who struck it with his second touch. Myhill got down low to push it away from the goal, before it was cleared for a corner.
Mertesacker almost made it a lot harder for his side. Jumping to meet a speculative cross, he raised his arm above his head and deflected it away from the crowd. Should have been a penalty.
Should Arsenal win today, it will be their 250th home league victory in the Premier League - 171 of them came at Highbury
Arsenal should have doubled their lead against West Brom.
A brilliant through-ball from Cazorla was run on to by Gervinho, who hit the ball across the goal. Jack Wilshere came sliding in but he was unable to direct it into the open goal.
Sunderland have begun to get a foothold against Chelsea. They haven't managed to really threaten, but it must be frustrating for the away fans, who suffered in similar circumstances last week.
Arsenal have taken the lead against West Brom, thanks to a penalty from Mikel Arteta, while QPR are back level with West Brom, courtesy of Ryan Nelsen.
Arsenal 1-0 West Brom
Wigan Athletic 1-1 QPR
Chelsea have had the lion's share of the possession to this point and are deserving of their early lead. When Sunderland played Norwich last week, they were abysmal in the first half but picked up significantly in the second. How they failed to get something from that game remains a mystery to me, but they'll need to be even better to come back against Chelsea.
On the flip side, of course, Chelsea were one up against West Ham last week and they ended up losing the game 3-1. Hope springs eternal for Sunderland!
A couple of goals to report.
James McCarthy has given Wigan the lead against QPR, while Steven Whittaker has opened the scoring for Chris Hughton's Norwich.
Wigan Athletic 1-0 QPR
Swansea 0-1 Norwich City
Oscar is brought on to replace Romeu.
Chelsea temporarily down to 10 men, with Romeu having to leave the pitch injured. He came down awkwardly and picked up a knock.
David Luiz strikes a free-kick from just outside the box, right in front of the goal. He gets it over the wall without any problem but it doesn't come down quickly enough. In any case, it was down the centre of the goal and wouldn't have troubled Mignolet.
GOAL - CHELSEA - TORRES
Tenth goal of the season for the Spaniard.
Mid-height cross from Hazard and Torres adjusts himself to catch it on the volley with his right foot. No chance for Mignolet. Got to be said: cracking goal.
Rafa Benitez' Chelsea made have disposed of inferior opposition in their midweek Champions League tie but the pressure on the manager will become unbearable if his side does not get a result at the Stadium of Light, against Sunderland.
An early chance for Torres, who scored twice against the Norwegian side (you know who I'm talking about), but Mignolet proves up to the task.
No early goals in the six Premier League games.
Just to tie up the loose end of the Derby v Leeds tie in the Championship, Derby wrapped up the three points with a 3-1 victory.
The games are just getting underway now and while the top-of-the-table action will be happening at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow, there are some very important games this afternoon.
It's a green day down at Derby as the third goal has been scored by the home side's Richard Keogh. Derby lead 2-1.
Team News: Wigan v QPR
Wigan: Al Habsi, Boyce, Lopez, Jones, Stam, McCarthy, McArthur,
Beausejour, Gomez, Di Santo, Kone. Subs: Pollitt, Maloney,
McManaman, Boselli, Fyvie, Golobart, Redmond.
QPR: Green, Bosingwa, Nelsen, Hill, Traore, Diakite, Derry,
Mbia, Wright-Phillips, Mackie, Taarabt. Subs: Murphy, Ferdinand,
Cisse, Granero, Da Silva, Hoilett, Faurlin.
Referee: Phil Dowd
Team News: Sunderland v Chelsea
Sunderland: Mignolet, Bardsley, Cuellar, O'Shea, Rose, Johnson,
Gardner, Larsson, McClean, Sessegnon, Wickham. Subs: Westwood,
Campbell, Kilgallon, Colback, Vaughan, Bramble, Saha.
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Ramires, Romeu,
Mata, Moses, Hazard, Torres. Subs: Turnbull, Lampard, Oscar,
Ferreira, Marin, Azpilicueta, Bertrand.
Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)
Team News: Arsenal v West Brom
Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs,
Wilshere, Arteta, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Giroud.
Subs: Martinez, Rosicky, Podolski, Ramsey, Squillaci, Coquelin,
Jenkinson.
West Brom: Myhill, Reid, Olsson, McAuley, Ridgewell, Brunt,
Morrison, Mulumbu, Gera, Odemwingie, Long. Subs: Daniels, Popov,
Rosenberg, Dorrans, Lukaku, Tamas, Fortune.
Referee: Mike Jones
Team News: Aston Villa v Stoke City
Aston Villa: Guzan, Lowton, Baker, Clark, Lichaj, Herd, Holman,
Westwood, Bannan, Benteke, Agbonlahor. Subs: Given, Ireland,
El Ahmadi, Bent, Delph, Weimann, Williams.
Stoke: Begovic, Shotton, Huth, Shawcross, Cameron, Walters,
Whitehead, Nzonzi, Whelan, Etherington, Jones. Subs: Sorensen,
Palacios, Upson, Kightly, Crouch, Wilkinson, Jerome.
Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire)
Team News: Southampton v Reading
Southampton: Kelvin Davis, Clyne, Fonte, Yoshida, Shaw,
Puncheon, Cork, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Rodriguez, Lambert. Subs:
Boruc, Hooiveld, Steven Davis, Ramirez, Ward-Prowse, Do Prado,
Mayuka.
Reading: Federici, Cummings, Mariappa, Morrison, Shorey,
Robson-Kanu, Leigertwood, Tabb, McAnuff, Roberts, Le Fondre.
Subs: Taylor, Pearce, Hunt, McCleary, Guthrie, Harte, Samuel.
Referee: Jon Moss
A couple of other Irish footballers have been on the mark this morning, Conor Sammon giving Derby the lead on 15 minutes, before Paul Green equalised for Leeds on 45 minutes.
All over in Rugby Park.
Kilmarnock 1-3 Celtic
Cillian Sheridan has pulled one back for Kilmarnock, but the 90th-minute goal is mere consolation.
Make that 3-0 for Celtic now. Samaras with a 74th-minute goal.
Just under an hour to the six 3pm kick-offs in the Barclays Premier League. The team news for all games will be coming through shortly.
There are less than 20 minutes left up in Kilmarnock and Celtic lead 2-0, with the goals having come from Scott Brown and Joe Ledley.
Celtic have taken the lead against Kilmarnock, Scott Brown with the goal, on 27 minutes.
Celtic, fresh from their Champions League exploits, are currently in action away at Kilmarnock. There are almost 20 minutes gone in that game and it remains scoreless.
Michael Owen blames mismanagement at Liverpool for the injuries that have blighted his career, adding that he would have had a longer, more successful career had he joined Manchester United sooner.
Seems a very strange statement to make. Sure, United have dominated the English scene for some time, but he's also assuming that he would have fitted into the team, taking the place of some of the top strikers that have graced the side over the years.
I understand what he's saying, but I doubt the validity of it. What's your opinion? Why not contact us on Twitter, or by e-mail (all details above).