EPL Weekly Round-Up: Man United Thrash Blackburn To Go On Top, Arsenal Prevail At Villa Park & Liverpool Fall To Spurs Fightback

Manchester United reached the top of the league table, crushing fellow Lancashire club Blackburn Rovers 7-1 with unparalleled ruthlessness... Striker Dimitar Berbatov was on fire as he became the only fourth player in Premier League history to score 5 goals in a match apart from Andy Cole, Alan Shearer & Jermaine Defoe... Ji-Sung Park & Luis Nani also found the net for the Red Devils as United put on a magnificent display of aggressive football to brush aside the Sam Allardyce-managed team at Old Trafford... Wayne Rooney, who made his first league start after almost a month, couldn't find the target but put up a stellar performance to earn the assist for Park's goal... Anderson & Carrick were paired in central midfield, and they played their part to perfection as they ripped apart Blackburn with defence-splitting passes... United's unbeaten streak has now extended to 22 games this season, with a trip to Blackpool next weekend...

How The Rivals Fared This Week

Chelsea failed to regain hold of the top spot after they drew 1-1 with Newcastle United away at St. James Park... England striker Andy Carroll took advantage of a miscommunication between Chelsea stopper Cech & defender Alex to put the Geordies ahead but Salomon Kalou instilled some pride in the scoreline on the stroke of half-time... The Blues now lie joint second with Arsenal with 29 points...

Arsenal revived their title challenge with a 4-2 win over Aston Villa at Villa... Park... In-form midfielder Samir Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh & teen prodigy Jack Wilshere all scored to secure 3 points for the Gunners after Clark threatened to ignite a Villa comeback... The Gunners lie currently behind Chelsea on goal difference...

In the biggest game this weekend, Tottenham Hotspur came from behind to grab a late winner to beat Liverpool 2-1 at Whit Hart Lane... Martin Skrtel put the visitors ahead but then later deflected Luka Modric's shot into the goal for Spurs to equalise... And then on the brink of stoppage time, Aaron Lennon broke free to score past Pepe Reina & earn a thrilling victory for the North Londoners...

Big-spending Manchester City were unable to break down Stoke City's resolve at the Britannia Stadium as the two sides wrapped up a stalemate...

And on a final note, Manchester United loanees Danny Welbeck & Tom Cleverley both grabbed goals as their respective sides Sunderland & Wigan slumped to league defeats...

The current top four league standings are as under:

Man United - 31 points

Chelsea - 29 points

Arsenal - 29 points

Man City - 26 points

The Weekly Verdict:

Team Of The Week - Manchester United

Player(s) Of The Week - Dimitar Berbatov & Anderson

[Note: I enjoyed writing this piece to the fullest coz first of all, we reached the top of the table for the first time this season & secondly, this is the first time United have been the 'Team Of The Week'! A weekend of firsts indeed, and I hope many more such weekends will follow this season!!!]

What d'you think of this weekend's results??? Feel free to leave your comments or drop me a line on Twitter @AbhinavCJ... You can subscribe via email or even sign up on Google Friend Connect with your Google/Twitter/Yahoo ID...

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Red Devils Reign, United Again!!!

That's all Folks!

Yours,
CJ