Arsenal and Manchester United picked up victories Saturday to stay one-two in England's Premier League. Under-pressure sides Newcastle, Leeds and Tottenham also collected badly needed wins.
With the match tied 1-1 at Anfield, the French international curled in a perfect right-footed shot in the 68th minute that got behind 'keeper Jerzy Dudek as he leaped high to his left.
PHOTO: AP
Liverpool took a 1-0 lead in the 14th after dominating the early play. Australian Harry Kewell gave the Reds the lead, collecting a loose ball in the area and driving home a sharp-angled shot from 16m.
Arsenal equalized in the 31st, a goal that was initially awarded to Brazilian Edu on a close-in header, but then given as an own-goal to Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia.
Manchester United stayed in second place with 19 points with Chelsea playing Sunday at Middlesbrough. Chelsea has played two fewer games than the leaders and has 16 points. In Sunday's other match, Bolton played at Aston Villa.
Man United took a 1-0 lead on Ruud van Nistelrooy's penalty in the 36th, which came after Birmingham's Maik Taylor was sent off on a red card. Paul Scholes scored in the 57th and Ryan Giggs wrapped it up with a strike in 82nd.
Man United was playing just days after losing 2-1 to German leader Stuttgart in the Champions League.
"The players have overcome a very difficult week," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "It's always an issue coming out of a Euroepan game whether you win, lose or draw."
Fulham moved into fourth place behind Chelsea with 14 points, the same as Birmingham City. Luis Boa Morte scored in the 36th and 73rd in the 2-0 victory over Leicester.
Newcastle won 1-0 at home over Southampton, the Magpies' first league victory of the season. Captain Alan Shearer got the winner, his 250th career league goal.
Newcastle moved up to 18th place with five points. Wolves are on the bottom with five, the same as Leicester.
Slumping Leeds got a needed victory as Seth Johnson scored twice with Dino Baggio scoring in the 86th for Blackburn to make it close.
Tottenham is now unbeaten in three matches under caretaker manager David Pleat as Frederic Kanoute, Gus Poyet and Robbie Keane got the goals in a 3-0 win over Everton.
Last-place Wolves also got their first win of the season -- 1-0 over Man City -- and their first in 19 years in the top flight of English soccer.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger credited his team with coming back after Liverpool scored the first goal.
"They [Liverpool] were early on leading and had two or three chances to may be kill the game, but with our first chance we came back to 1-1," Wenger said.
"I believe Liverpool was very good in the first half. It was difficult for us to get into the game. Slowly it became better and better."
Liverpool and England got bad news when Reds' striker Michael Owen limped off in the second half with what was reported to be a right shin injury. It was unclear if he would be ready to play next Saturday in England's decisive Euro 2004 qualifier in Turkey.
Owen went off early in the second half for treatment after a tackle by Ashley Cole. He returned but was taken off for good in the 71st and replaced by Emile Heskey.
"The x-ray is clear, there doesn't appear to be any fracture," Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier said. "He will have a scan done tomorrow morning. But he felt something, so we'll see tomorrow."
Asked if Owen would be ready to play next week, Houllier replied: "I think it's too early to say. It could be a minor thing or it could be a more serious matter. ... Normally he's a quick healer."
Celtic 1, rangers 0
Celtic won the first Old Firm Derby of the season Saturday to take over first place in Scotland, defeating Rangers 1-0 at Ibrox on an own-goal by Zurab Khizanishvili in the 46th minute.
Celtic striker John Hartson was originally awarded the goal.
The victory moved Celtic into the league lead with 22 points. Rangers, who had won their first seven league games, have 21.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite