The fireworks came early in the premier league on New Year’s Eve as the fixtures gave some real shocks to the watching world.

In the early kick off Steve Keane’s Blackburn stunned Manchester United at Old Trafford beating Alex Ferguson’s team 3-2. Fergie would have been less than pleased with his players relinquishing their chance to top the league for the first time since October. Many will question Ferguson himself though as he had named a fairly weak bench and had little to turn to when United found themselves trailing.

Other shock results saw Aston Villa taking a deserve 3 points at Stamford Bridge and Swansea holding Spurs to a draw. The pressure now piling on Andre Villas-Boas as he blurts out the word ‘project’ to anyone that will listen. Incidentally, if his project is to turn Chelsea into a mediocre team then it’s all going swimmingly well.

Elsewhere, Arsenal beat QPR 1-0 at home clawing back some much needed points for the gunners. The rest of the days matches ending up in draws with Bolton v Wolves, Norwich v Fulham and Stoke v Wigan all ending in stalemates.

Meanwhile on the other side of Manchester, Roberto Mancini’s men will be bracing themselves for their match against Sunderland tomorrow knowing that Fergie didn’t achieve his target of topping the league by the 1st Jan.