Soccer - Premier League Review: Aston Villa's hopes of Champions League football next season are over after defeat by Manchester City today and victory for Tottenham against Bolton. With Villa having played a game more than their rivals for fourth place in the Premier League, they knew only victory at the City of Manchester Stadium would keep their chances alive.
Things began well for Martin O’Neill’s side when John Carew put them ahead in the 16th minute, forcing the ball under emergency loan goalkeeper Marton Fulop, and it stayed that way until four minutes from half-time.
Then a rash tackle from Stephen Warnock on Adam Johnson allowed Carlos Tevez to equalise from the penalty spot.
Carew immediately smashed a shot against the bar but City went down the other end and grabbed their second goal in three minutes when Johnson calmly set up Emmanuel Adebayor.
Villa pushed in the second half but could not break City’s resistance and Craig Bellamy wrapped up a 3-1 win late on.
Tom Huddlestone’s superb 38th-minute strike proved enough for Spurs to beat Bolton and stay one point ahead of City, setting up a blockbuster clash against Roberto Mancini’s side on Wednesday.
Birmingham kept their unbeaten home run going with a 2-1 victory over Burnley in today’s early game.
The ninth-placed Blues have not lost at home since September and were two up at half-time today thanks to an own goal from goalkeeper Brian Jensen and Christian Benitez’s first strike at St Andrew’s.
Steven Thompson pulled one back but it was too little, too late for the relegated Clarets.
The FA Cup final is certain to be on Portsmouth’s minds but they showed they are not prepared to bow out of the Premier League with a whimper by defeating Wolves 3-1.
Aruna Dindane put them ahead in the 20th minute with a header from Michael Brown’s cross. Kevin Doyle finally beat David James to level but John Utaka restored Pompey’s lead just before half-time.
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake missed a good chance to equalise before Brown made the points safe in the 67th minute.
After conceding seven against Chelsea last weekend, it was a much less eventful afternoon for Stoke as they drew 0-0 with Everton, who had a Phil Jagielka header ruled out for offside.
Premier League Results
Birmingham 2 Burnley 1
Man City 3 Aston Villa 1
Portsmouth 3 Wolverhampton 1
Stoke 0 Everton 0
Tottenham 1 Bolton 0
Scottish Premier League Results
Aberdeen 1 Hamilton 3
Celtic 4 Motherwell 0
Dundee Utd 1 Rangers 2
Falkirk 1 St Mirren 1
Hibernian 1 Hearts 2
Kilmarnock 1 St Johnstone 2