Defending champion Arsenal moved five points clear in the Premier League title race with a 3-1 beating of Aston Villa on Saturday as second place Chelsea tumbled 1-0 at Manchester City
The Gunners now have eight victories from nine Premier League games this season. It also stretched the Gunners' record unbeaten league streak to 49 games and next up is Manchester United.
PHOTO: AP
By contrast, Chelsea lost its unbeaten record and the culprit was former Arsenal star Nicolas Anelka, who stroked home an 11th minute penalty at the City of Manchester Stadium. It was only the second league goal conceded by Jose Mourinho's Blues but it cost them.
"The game is over. They got the three points and we go home with zero, but we have to accept it. But we deserved more," Mourinho said after his first loss in English soccer.
The former PC Porto coach said he did not think the foul by Paulo Ferreira on Anelka was a penalty because it happened outside the area.
"I think the penalty's not a penalty, because I think [Ferreira's] not at fault and, if he's at fault, he's outside the box," Mourinho said.
"I think the referee's too far away to see. The referee is not magic so he stays 50m away from the spot, but he points to the penalty spot very easily."
A serious knee injury to Chinese defender Sun Jihai took much of the gloss of City's victory which moved Kevin Keegan's team up two places to 10th.
Lee Hendrie stunned the Gunners fans at Highbury with an early strike for a Villa side coached by former Arsenal hero David O'Leary. But Pires leveled from the penalty spot before Thierry Henry put the Gunners ahead and then set up the third for his countryman.
In the best fightback of the day, Liverpool rallied from two goals down to win 4-2 at Fulham even down to 10-men after the ejection of defender Josemi for two yellow cards.
After Luis Boa Morte had given Fulham a two-goal lead at Craven Cottage, Rafael Benitez' team hit back with goals by Milan Baros, Xabi Alonso, Igor Biscan after an own goal by Cottagers' defender Zat Knight.
What Alex Ferguson would have given for one.
Manchester United slipped two places to sixth and surrendered two more points in its title challenge after a 0-0 tie with a Birmingham City side coached by former United defensive star Steve Bruce.
United failed to take any of its chances at St. Andrews despite playing for the last half hour with four strikers on the field.
Although United made it eight league games without a loss, five of those matches have been tied and Ferguson's team, with 14 points from nine games, remains 11 behind leader Arsenal.
Ferguson decided to take 18-year-old Wayne Rooney off the starting lineup after the teenager's busy recent schedule since a four-month injury layoff. When he went on as a second half substitute, United had four strikers on the field -- Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha, Alan Smith and Rooney.
Bolton edged last place Crystal Palace 1-0 thanks to a header by Kevin Davies to return to fourth place while a hat-trick by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink helped Middlesbrough win 4-0 at Blackburn and move up to fifth.
Scottish League
Brazilian World Cup star Juninho scored his first goal in Celtic colors on Saturday as Martin O'Neill's men beat Hearts 3-0 to move eight points clear of Rangers in the Scottish title race.
Henri Camara volleyed Celtic ahead four minutes before half time before Juninho, signed from Middlesbrough in July, swapped passes with John Hartson to score the second in the 57th. After teenage Celtic 'keeper David Marshall had saved a Steven Pressley penalty, Welsh international Hartson added the third eight minutes from the end and O'Neill's defending champion team now has eight victories and a tie from nine outings for a total of 25 points out of a possible 27.
Spanish League
Portugal midfielder Deco scored an early goal Saturday to help leader FC Barcelona edge crosstown rival Espanyol 1-0 and maintain its spectacular start in the Spanish league.
Unbeaten Barcelona, which has won six of its last seven matches at Espanyol's Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, is five points head of second-place Valencia, which was hosting third-place Sevilla today.
Also, struggling Real Madrid needed Ronaldo's 66th-minute equalizer to earn a 1-1 draw against Real Betis.
Ronaldo, who scored two goals for Brazil last weekend in a World Cup qualifying match at Venezuela, got his first goal for Madrid since the season opener against Mallorca. Ricardo Oliveira netted Betis' goal in the 31st.
The draw at Betis' Manuel Ruiz de Lopera Stadium extended Madrid's winless streak to three games and left it in 10th place in the standings with 10 points.
Barcelona is in first place with 19 points, followed by Valencia with 14. Sevilla and Deportivo La Coruna, which beat Getafe 2-1, have 11. It was Deportivo's first win at home in the league this season.
Bundesliga
VfB Stuttgart moved into top spot in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, while Bayern Munich suffered a shock 1-0 home defeat to Schalke.
Defending champion Werder Bremen also lost, going down 2-1 to newcomer Mainz, which jumped into third place. Wolfsburg could regain the lead today with a win at Hannover.
Andreas Hinkel won the ball from Florian Kringe and charged forward to put Stuttgart ahead after 52 minutes. Cacau connected with a pass from fellow striker Kevin Kuranyi to notch his sixth goal of the season and seal Stuttgart's victory in the 68th. Kuranyi made a comeback after missing one month with an ankle injury.
Matthias Sammer's team is unbeaten this season with six wins and two draws and has collected 20 points, two more than surprising Wolfsburg.
Mainz is third with 15 points, one ahead of Bayern.
Italian League
Juventus increased its lead in the Serie A on Saturday by beating newcomer Messina 2-1, ending the hopes of the unheralded Sicilian team to earn a historic first place in Italy's top league. The fifth win in six league matches lifted La Juve to 16 points, five clear of Messina.
Dutch League
PSV Eindhoven was leading host ADO The Hague 2-0 Saturday when the Dutch league match was suspended in the 80th minute because of racist chants from the home fans.
Referee Rene Timmink halted the match after unruly fans began to insult him and sing anti-Semitic chants. Many fans continued to chant after the match was stopped, but soon left the stadium.
French League
Mathieu Bodmer and Geoffrey Denis scored a goal each Saturday to help Lille beat Bastia 2-1 in the French first division, but it wasn't enough to take over the top spot from three-time defending champion Lyon.
Lyon beat Caen 4-0 on Friday.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB