SPORTS ROUND UP

 By Branham

... in the last minute easing off Mason Greenwood over Axel Tuanzebe who lately has carried the cross over being the root cause of the match determining goal...

A Saturday the 6th afternoon marked the advent of a packed weekend as far as European football is concerned. In the EPL, an early kick-off minnows Aston Villa stunned 'The Gunners' in an early lead with a 2nd minute Ollie Watkins goal. An aggressive Villa team displayed a superb match full of blitz at their home stadium Villa Park, marked with Bertrand Traore assisting O.Watkins with a superb cross-cut effort that was deflected past a helpless Arsenal goalkeeper straight into the back of the net.  Despite the Gunners enjoying a second half near-perfect ball possession, they found the Villa defense impenetrable.

 

Alll in all, Villa managed to collect all the 3 points managing to complete a league double over Arsenal for the first time since the inaugural Premier league season in 1992/93. It certainly was a bitter pill to swallow by the under-pressure Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta who suffered a second successive loss having lost to  Wolverhampton Wanderers with 9 men in the mid-week weekend fixture.

To culminate Saturdays EPL was a fierce hard fought battle between second placed United against Everton,The Tofees. It all looked like a sealed win in the first half which ended with Everton trailing'The Red Devil's' by two goals. Edinson Cavani's 24th minute opener silenced their opponents before Portuguese playmaker Bruno Fernandes added a second and seemingly last nail on the coffin goal in the 45 th minute marking a couple seconds to halftime.

In the second half, the visitors bounced back rejuvenised. Abdoulaye Doucore and James Rodriguez proved the host's wrong with two back to back goals in the 49th and 52nd minute respectively. Rock hard United midfielder Scott McTominay brought the home team back at the top with a 70th minute header. United appeared all set to win the game with their players showcasing their talents in the rest of the match little did they know what fate lay in store for them as Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the Everton finisher finished them off with a last minute goal prompting a 3-all draw. 

 

Securing a point at Old Trafford appeared as a dream come true to the Everton team.The result left United fans and pundits across the board fuming over the tactical substitution Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made in the last minute easing off Mason Greenwood over Axel Tuanzebe who lately has carried the cross over being the root cause of the match determining goal. 

The United coach later on speaking to Sky Sports News asserted, guns blazing that United were nowhere near title chasers. His sentiments came seemingly in the wake of the unbelievable last minute draw.

 Laliga Santander: It saw Deportivo Alaves hitting Real Valladolid 1 goal to none. Levante and Granada shared the spoils with a two - all draw . The same happened to Elche against Villarreal. Sevilla, on the other hand, mauled ten man Getafe 3 nil thanks to R. Yanez Djene's 54th minute red-card and subsequent send-off. 

In a more than entertaining fixture, Real Madrid bounced back to their winning ways in a 2 -1 comeback. Raphael Varane from Los Blancos was in record books when he scored an own goal and later on again scored the winning goal deep into stoppage time.