Crystal Palace 1-0 Aston Villa
A vital three points for Palace, especially in concert with other results at the bottom, which have dragged Villa to within four points of the drop zone. Perhaps sensing their visitors' vulnerability, Tony Pulis's team stepped up the shot count considerably after half-time: of their 14 attempts came after the break, 10 came after the break, and half of those were from outside the penalty area.
Pulis may have also used his half-time team talk to urge his men to get stuck in: having made 8 tackles before the break, Palace attempted 19 (winning 15) after the oranges. As the game got more frantic, passes got rarer: Palace dropped from 141 completed out of 173 in the first half to 116 of 155, while Villa, unused to having majority possession (57.1% overall), plunged from 204 of 243 to 153 of 204.
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Fulham 1-0 Norwich
After 736 games as a manager, Felix Magath can tell Neil Adams a thing or two about fine margins. The Canaries edged the possession (54.6%) and passing stats (340 completed of 435 (78%) compared to 253 of 361 (70%)), but Fulham had 14 goal attempts to their 13, and Hugo Rodallega's goal leaves Norwich just two points clear with that awful quartet of fixtures to face.
Norwich were far from awful, and probed patiently in the attacking third, racking up 114 completed passes to Fulham's 76 – but since Alex Tettey's scorcher against Sunderland, they haven't scored for five and a half hours. Their only comparable barren run this season, of one goal in four games in late January and early February, saw them fall four places down the table – as has this one.
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Southampton 0-1 Cardiff
As ever, April brings surprising results between teams with nothing to gain and those with everything to lose, but Cardiff's relegation rivals can't complain about Southampton's application in this game. Saints had 19 shots to City's 6, with 7 on target to Cardiff's 4.
The home side also used their 68.1% possession to pile up 596 completed passes to the Bluebirds' 226, and this was no idle sideways tip-tapping in midfield: Saints attempted 252 passes in the final third (completing 192) compared to Cardiff's meagre 62 (26 completed). But Juan Cala's cracker of a winner gave Cardiff their first away win in 14 attempts since September – and a barrowload of hope, with 17th place just three points away and a further two points roping in three more teams, including hated rivals Swansea.
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Stoke 1-0 Newcastle
On paper the least interesting of Saturday's games, although Stoke will be delighted that their fourth successive home win – and their ninth overall, a total surpassed only by the top five – takes them to within five points of eighth-placed Southampton. With a six-point cushion to West Ham in 11th, Stoke look set fair for their highest finish since Harold Wilson was Prime Minister.
For the 78th successive time, Newcastle failed to come back from a half-time deficit. They stepped it up – 8 of their 13 shots and 215 of their 389 completed passes came after the break – but without really threatening: only 36 of those completed passes were in Stoke's defensive third, and all 8 of the Toon's second-half attempts were inaccurate.
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Sunderland 0-1 Everton
Two teams moving in opposite directions: Everton's seventh straight victory moved them into the Champions League places, while the Championship beckons for Sunderland after a fifth successive loss leaves them seven points from safety.
The fact that the Black Cats held their own – Sunderland had 24 shots to Everton's 20 and twice as many on target (6 to 3) – only makes Wes Brown's inadvertent 75th-minute winner harder for home fans who have now only witnessed one win in 10 attempts since the annual home win over Manchester City (this season's coming on November 10).
Adam Johnson created 6 unconverted chances, but Everton's quiet determination was typified by Gareth Barry. Nobody attempted or completed more passes (57 of 67), attacking-third passes (16 of 19), or made more ball recoveries (10) or tackles (10).
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West Brom 3-3 Tottenham
Can you go 3-0 up too early? It took a shade over half an hour for the Baggies to cruise to 3-0 with their first 5 shots, all of which were on target. However, they only had one more effort thereafter – none at all after the break – while Spurs piled in 16 of their 20 shots after going 3-0 down.
The visitors also completed 80% of their passes (407 of 506) compared to West Brom's 61% (137 of 226), with a dominant 69% of possession. At the heart of it was Christian Eriksen, creating an unmatched 4 chances, attempting 25 final-third passes (topped only by Kyle Naughton) and scoring with his 4th shot.
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