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English Premier League week 25 results and analysis

The weekend started off with what was expected to be one of the most hotly contested Manchester United vs. Liverpool derby's of recent memory.

With Luis Suarez having just returned to the Reds line up it was thought that the entire racial abuse issue between him and United's Patrice Evra was over. However, the opening handshakes ended that idea as Suarez refused to shake Evra's hand and immidiately reopened the controversy.

By the time it was all over Liverpool had slimped to a 2-1 defeat despite a late lucky goal scored by Suarez of all people. In what will be considered one of the darker days of the two great clubs' rivalry as Evra joined in the antics as well before it was all over it is sure to once again involved the English Football association.

In other results around the league Blackburn Rovers took themselves back out of the bottom three with a 3-2 victory over Queens Park Rangers where are looking just as close to relegation as they did before the appointment of Mark Hughes.

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Wigan Ahtletic earned some ground despite remaining at the bottom of the table with a 2-1 away victory over Bolton Wanderers are the Reebok stadium.

Everton made another huge splash in the league as their fine form continued with a 2-0 resounting defeat of Chelsea at Goodison Park. The LA Galaxy's on loan winger Landon Donovan ended another great loan spell with the Toffees with his fifth assist in just over a month with the English club as they continue to push into the top half of the table with 13 games remaining in the season.

Fulham returned to wining ways with a 2-1 victory over Stoke City at Craven cottage and their newest loan signing Pavel Pogrebnyak scored the opening goal in only his 15th minute in the first team to set the Cottagers on the right track to victory.

Arsenal continued their winning ways thanks to a late goal from old hero Thierry Henry allowing them to secure a 2-1 victory against an in form Sunderland side that thought they could take a win at home after going up 1-0 with only 20 minutes left.

A second half double from Captain Grant Holt allowed Norwich City to take away one of the few victories this campaign from Swansea City's Liberty Stadium in a cracker of a match that ended 3-2 at the end in favor of the Canaries.

The final match of Saturday afternoon saw Tottenham Hotspur put Champions League hopefuls Newcastle United to the sword. Spurs fullback Benoit Assou-Ekotto scored the opening goal just four minutes in before Louis Saha completed a double with goals at the fifth and 19th minute. Niko Kranjcar added a fourth goal at the 34th minute before Emmanuel Adebayor put in the fifth and final goal of the match in the back of the net during the second half at the 63rd minute.

Sunday saw two more matches the first being played out between Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion. Peter Odemwingie has had a long season for West Brom but he finally sprung to life with a hat trick in his clubs 5-1 victory over bottom feeding Wolves.

Lastly table toping Manchester City managed a 1-0 victory over Aston Villa thanks to the combination of Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott who were the difference makers in a rather unexciting match until the final twenty minutes saw the goal and then a streaker invade the pitch.

The race for fourth place seems to only be getting more conjested as does the relegation battle at the bottom. With only four points between 4th and 7th and only two points between 20th and 16th is looking to be quite an exciting run in.

, Soccer Examiner

Thomas Atzenhoffer,a featured columnist for BleacherReport.com, is a happily engaged freelance sports journalist in Greenville, SC. A regular contributor to multiple English Premier League sites and blogs aside from his BR weekly assignments, Thomas can deliver the prediction, news and analysis...

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