English Premier League: Stiliyan Petrov watches Chelsea beat Villa in six-goal thriller

Published on 01/04/2012 00:00

FERNANDO Torres scored his first Barclays Premier League goal for six months as Chelsea revitalised their hopes of securing a Champions League spot with victory at Aston Villa.

The Blues looked to be cruising as Daniel Sturridge and Branislav Ivanovic earned them a 2-0 lead, only for Villa to rally through goals from James Collins and Eric Lichaj.

But Ivanovic’s second and then Torres’ injury-time finish sealed the win for Chelsea. It was an emotional atmosphere after skipper Stiliyan Petrov was diagnosed on Friday with acute leukaemia. Petrov attended the game before starting treatment on Monday and was applauded by both sets of fans.

QPR breathed new life into their relegation battle with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Arsenal at Loftus Road.

Adel Taarabt had fired the hosts into the lead on 22 minutes, but Arsenal levelled through Theo Walcott.

Rangers, though, snatched what could prove a priceless victory when Samba Diakite crashed in midway through the second half, but they remain in the bottom three.

Leon Osman’s deflected shot and Victor Anichebe’s second-half strike gave Everton a 2-0 win at home to West Brom.

Fulham enjoyed a 2-1 win against Norwich, with goals from Clint Dempsey and Damien Duff inside 13 minutes.

Norwich pulled one back through Aaron Wilbraham in the 77th minute.

Bolton came from behind to claim a vital victory at Molineux and leave Wolves staring relegation in the face.

The hosts broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute through Michael Kightly, but they subsequently imploded.

Martin Petrov’s penalty (63) and goals from Marcos Alonso (80) and Kevin Davies (84) saw them fall 3-1 behind, with Matt Jarvis’ 88th-minute response proving a mere consolation.

Fellow strugglers Wigan beat Stoke 2-0.

Wigan went ahead 10 minutes into the second half through Antolin Alcaraz, and Victor Moses sealed victory in injury time after a fine run.