Premier League Round up: Dec 25 – 27

English Premier League continued with all but two matches on Boxing day. Blackpool vs Liverpool and Everton vs Birmingham matches were postponed due to frozen surface at the stadiums.

Despite being a man short, Tottenham came on the top beating Aston Villa. A harsh red card for Jermain Defoe in the 27th minute weakened Totenham but didn’t prevent them from winning. Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart secured the win by scoring both goals for Tottenham.

Dimitar Barbetov did exactly the same thing in the match against Sunderland at Old Trafford. Manchester United totally overpowered Sunderland and only two goals against them seemed like a late Christmas present. Wayne Rooney had several good chances and Barbetov could have score a hat-trick.

The “other Manchester team” the City won at St James Park on goals from Carlos Tevez and Gareth Bale. Tevez who became sort of a renegade in last few weeks, not only scored two of the goals but also set up the first one scored by Bale. The win put Manchester City in second place but third place Arsenal has two matches in hand.

Bolton’s climb in the standings continues after they overcame West Bromwich with two goals to none. West Brom were for most of the match the better team but couldn’t capitalize on their chances. Matt Taylor and Johan Elmander were the goal scorers.

The Monday night soccer match between the two top teams saw Arsenal outplay and outscore poorly defending Chelsea. But it took 44 minutes before Arsenal managed to open the score. Two more goals followed only nine minutes apart.

Chelsea’s only goal came in the 57th minute after Ivanovic scored on Drogba’s free kick. The decline of Chelsea continues with this loss after the team from Stamford Bridge had a superb start to the season, but they have been struggling since November.

Unbeaten Manchester United is heading to Birmingham on Tuesday.

ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes is showing this match live Tuesday at 2:55 PM EST.