• Premier League reaction

What They Said

Robin van Persie celebrates scoring his 100th Arsenal goal © Getty Images

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Manchester City beat Everton 2-0 without Carlos Tevez and manager Roberto Mancini claims the decision was made with Europe in mind. He said: "Mario [Balotelli] can play next Tuesday in Munich so it was for this reason and also because Mario trained very well in the last four to five weeks. He deserved to play.''

Reflecting on the win, Mancini said: "I think when we were 2-0 up at Fulham we finished playing for 15 minutes. We thought it was finished. We were also unlucky. Everton is a good team. It was really difficult. It was hard to win this game. We had a lot of shots and we were unlucky in the first half. The second half we got better.''

Everton boss David Moyes said: "We've seen other teams getting beat heavily by Manchester City - we wanted to make sure that wasn't the case and I thought for long spells we did a good job.''

Robin van Persie scored his 100th goal for Arsenal in the win over Bolton and manager Arsene Wenger was full of praise for his captain. He said: "Robin is a man who speaks his mind. I think he is one of these guys who develops with responsibilities. You would think he is not a natural captain at the start but he really has grown well into the role. I have observed him and he does well there.''

Bolton's defeat was their fifth on the spin and manager Owen Coyle felt the dismissal of David Wheater hurt his side. He said: "Whether there was real contact, I don't know. I will need to see it back with David I think it certainly made it more difficult. At half time we felt we had the platform to achieve a positive result but if you are going to shoot yourself in the foot as we did with 43 seconds gone in the second half it's obviously going to be difficult.''

Fernando Torres set Chelsea on their way to victory with the opening goal against Swansea, but was later shown a red card for a wild foul. The Spaniard is unlikely to incur the wrath of his manager, as Andre Villas-Boas said: "There's nothing to apologise for It's the referee's decision. [It was a] good decision. It's part of the nature of the game, and the referee has decided on that. It's a pity because the spectacle was promising.'

"It was an important win for us based on the last defeat at Old Trafford and showing resilience in the end again after Wednesday. It really shows the nature and commitment of these players towards their objectives.''

Frank Lampard was an unused substiture but Villas-Boas feels there is no cause for alarm. He said: "I don't know but this is nothing to speculate about. The players just want the team to perform and Frank is like that. He's a magnificent player and soon he'll be back into the team, sooner than you expect.''

Peter Crouch scored his first goal for Stoke as Manchester United were held 1-1 and Sir Alex Ferguson feels the striker is getting away with too much. He said: "He fouls all the time. He gets off with it because of his height but he jumps on top of defenders all the time. He has been doing that for a long time. Referees know that. Even with the goal he has maybe caught Phil Jones, but he is right above him. He is a handful in the air, there is no doubt about that.

"They have so many big lads in their team and they do keep you under pressure that way. In terms of the attacking part, we showed some good play and maybe should have scored more than the goal we did. A draw is probably a fair result. It is a difficult place to come to."

Liverpool returned to winning ways and manager Kenny Dalglish felt they were deserving of the 2-1 win over Wolves. He said: "I think it deserved three points, although it was difficult at times. They put us under a bit of pressure in the first half and then scored early in the second half which gave them a bit of momentum. We had a few headers and blocks to make but at the other end we broke away and hit the bar twice and their goalkeeper made an unbelievable save from Luis [Suarez].

Demba Ba scores his first goal for Newcastle © Getty Images

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"We maybe got a bit of good fortune with the first goal with it coming off Johnson but I think we deserve a bit of luck because we haven't had much recently. We will continue to plod on and with a bit of luck in the second half, with the two that hit the post, we could have had another couple. We have got three points, we may get the luck some other day when we need it.''

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy said: "We had a difficult first half and an excellent second half. I thought first 10 minutes we started okay but then we conceded a goal, for which I thought Roger Johnson was fouled by Carroll and I was annoyed about that. The second one we tried to play offside and did it badly and it cost us."

Demba Ba scored a hat-trick as Newcastle maintained their unbeaten record with a win over Blackburn and manager Alan Pardew feels his strikers are rising to the challenge of replacing Andy Carroll. He said: "Let me just say, the investment we have had in the team, which has been significant in terms of the squad, is there for all to see - and we have still got Davide Santon to threaten this team and we have still got [Hatem] Ben Arfa, who had a little cameo today, so we are a strong side.

"My look at the strikers is, 'Okay, prove to me that I don't need to get one', and I think they have taken that challenge on. Especially the two who played today played at a very high standard. They are not the most glamorous of names yet, but they did very, very well today. Demba has had a slow start here, mainly because of Ramadan in my view. But strikers thrive on goals and that confidence that Demba is going to get from those three goals here in front of the Toon Army will have done him a power of good.''

Rovers boss Steve Kean was convinced Best had fouled Scott Dann in the process, and Martin Olsson was booked for his protests, paving the way for his dismissal 20 minutes from time for a trip on the former Coventry striker.

Kean said: "It was a good back-post header and Scott was backing off and just about to head it off the line, and we felt that Leon - I know him very well and he's aggressive - came over the top of Scott Dann. Scott was then pushed into Paul Robinson and it was not only a foul, but we also picked up a yellow card for Martin Olsson protesting against that goal. You can always tell by the reaction of the players, and not only our own players, but the Newcastle players. They all looked at the linesman and expected to see a flag go up, and it never came.''

Tottenham beat Wigan 2-1 and manager Harry Redknapp felt his side made life hard for themselves. He said: " was complete domination in the first half and we could have come in three or four ahead. I said the only way they'd get in the game is if we did something stupid. We gave a sloppy goal away trying to play it in the box, got punished and it changed everything. Our keeper didn't have much to do, but it was still too close for comfort in the end.'

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez said: "It doesn't matter how well Spurs played in the first half, the frustration was that the two goals were soft - but I couldn't be prouder of the second-half performance with 10 men.

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