Premier League Results 17th April Part 2

Manchester City 0-1 Manchester United
This game looked set to end exactly as I wanted to (I hadn’t then quite given up on Arsenal winning the League) but then Paul Scholes sneaked in with a goal.
Robbie Savage said this week that Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs were getting on a bit. I would have loved to agree (except about Ryan Giggs) but I didn’t then and I can’t now. It was Scholes who scored the goal but it could easily have been Ryan, while Gary Neville was a big part of the reason why Craig Bellamy didn’t score for City. It was an ineffective attack from Craig that indirectly led to United’s goal. Roberto Mancini isn’t very happy with him. Maybe he’ll sell him to Arsenal, that would be great
The rumour is that John Toshack has no plans to call up Ryan to play for Wales again. Everyone thinks he’s mad except Neville Southall who says Ryan has nothing to gain by returning to play for Wales. What about the honour if representing your country?

Stoke City 1-2 Bolton Wanderers
It hasn’t been a good weekend for home sides. Blackburn thought they’d got a point, Arsenal thought they’d won… and Stoke probably thought they’d got all three points too. Then Matthew Taylor scored twice in the last five minutes – including one from a rather dubious free kick - and Bolton ended up with the points instead.
Ryan Shawcross wasn’t fit enough to return from an ankle injury but Danny Collins had another great performance in Bolton’s defence and could have scored. Sam Ricketts started for Bolton but was taken off at half-time. Sam wasn’t at his best but he was playing in midfield. Not every defender can play there.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Chelsea
Tottenham re-opened the title race with a win over leaders Chelsea. It should have been a lot more than 2-1 to Tottenham.
I said after Gareth Bale’s midweek goal against Arsenal that he should make it up to me by scoring the winner against Chelsea too. Gareth must be reading my blogs because that’s exactly what he did. It was his first-ever goal with his right foot. It was a great solo run, followed by some clever trickery, before a firmly-struck shot ended up exactly where Gareth and I wanted it. If only Arsenal hadn’t fucked it up 24 hours later.
Cliff Jones thinks Gareth will be the first Welsh player to get 100 caps.