EPL Round-up: Gunners stun Chelsea in London Derby goal-fest

Robin van Persie stole the show in the latest round of English Premier League matches as he smashed in a sensational hat-trick to hand Arsenal a welcome victory against Chelsea. This particular London derby also took place at Stamford Bridge, making the Gunner's win even more impressive. In total, 8 goals were shared between the two sides as neither showed much quality in defence, but bags of it in attack. Arsene Wenger's men eventually triumphed 5-3 in what was arguably the game of the weekend.

It was the home side who opened the scoring, however, when Frank Lampard stooped to head in an inviting cross from Juan Mata. The match was end to end though, and it didn't take long before van Persie grabbed his first goal, and Arsenal's equaliser, as he tapped in following some unselfish set up play by Gervinho. But Chelsea once again gained the advantage, when skipper John Terry converted a Lampard corner, giving Andre Villas-Boas' men the lead at half time.

It didn't take long for Arsenal to restore parity in the second period, and Brazilian full back Andre Santos drilled in a low effort for his first Premier League goal, although Cech really should have done better with the shot. Just 6 minutes later and Arsenal went ahead for the first time, as the Chelsea defence crumbled far too easily, allowing Theo Walcott to wriggle through and fire a powerful effort past Petr Cech.


It seemed that Arsenal might just hold onto this lead, but the final 10 minutes of the match were to offer yet more twists and turns. First of all Juan Mata brilliantly fired Chelsea back on level terms, before a dreadful pass by Florent Malouda, and a slip by Terry, allowed van Persie through one on one with Cech. He calmly took the ball round the goalkeeper and slotted in his second, and Arsenal's fourth. The scoring wasn't finished yet though, as van Persie hammered in his hat-trick goal in injury time to seal the points, and a fantastic performance by the Dutchman.

Elsewhere, both Manchester clubs recorded victories to keep themselves first and second in the table respectively. United bounced back from their derby humiliation at the hands of City last week with a narrow 1-0 victory over Everton. Javier Hernandez grabbed the only goal of the match in a tough encounter at Goodison Park. City won 3-1 at home to Wolves, and although there was a brief scare for the hosts when Kompany was sent off and Wolves pulled the scoreline back to 2-1 through a Doyle penalty, eventually it was a straightforward victory. City didn't even perform nearly as well as they can, but goals from Dzeko, Kolarov and Johnson were enough to sustain their unbeaten start to the season.

On Monday night another unbeaten side, Newcastle United, also continued their impressive start to the season as they defeated Stoke City 3-1 at the Brittania Stadium. On form striker Djemba Ba scored a hat-trick, his second already this season, with Stoke's reply coming from Walters penalty. The win pushes Alan Pardew's men up to third place, and makes them the only other unbeaten side in the Premier League other than Manchester City.

Results in Full:

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal

Everton 0-1 Man Utd

Man City 3-1 Wolverhampton

Norwich 3-3 Blackburn

Sunderland 2-2 Aston Villa

Swansea 3-1 Bolton

West Brom 0-2 Liverpool

Wigan 0-2 Fulham

 

Sunday, 30 October 2011

Tottenham 3-1 QPR

Monday, 31 October 2011

Stoke 1-3 Newcastle

Premier League Table:

1	Man City	10	28	28
2	Man Utd	10	15	23
3	Newcastle	10	8	22
4	Chelsea	10	8	19
5	Tottenham	9	4	19
6	Liverpool	10	4	18
7	Arsenal	10	-1	16
8	Norwich	10	-1	13
9	Aston Villa	10	0	12
10	Swansea	10	-3	12
11	Stoke	10	-6	12
12	QPR	10	-9	12
13	West Brom	10	-4	11
14	Sunderland	10	2	10
15	Fulham	10	1	10
16	Everton	9	-3	10
17	Wolves	10	-8	8
18	Blackburn	10	-10	6
19	Bolton	10	-14	6
20	Wigan	10	-11	5

By Laurie Dunsire