Damien Duff kept Chelsea five points clear at the top of the Premier League with a goal against Aston Villa on Sunday only for the three chasing teams to also win.
Second-place defending champion Arsenal scored a routine 2-0 victory over Fulham, Everton edged Manchester City 2-1 and Manchester United beat neighbor Bolton 2-0 to make sure that Chelsea didn't go further ahead.
PHOTO: EPA
Even Liverpool stayed just behind the chasing pack with a 5-0 victory at last place West Bromwich Albion.
Jose Mourinho' Blues did enough to beat defense-minded Villa at Stamford Bridge to post their 14th victory in 19 games and 12th winning shutout.
Duff scored the only goal of the game in the 30th minute when he cut inside a defender on the right and fired past Villa 'keeper Thomas Sorensen.
"We are enjoying it at the top," said Chelsea defender John Terry. "The lads are confident, the team spirit is fantastic and if we can keep that it will be a good year for us."
With English soccer ignoring the European midwinter break favored by most other big leagues, this was the first of four rounds of games between now and Jan. 3 and Mourinho reshaped his team in the second half to preserve the strength and fitness of some of his players.
"When you are fighting to be champions you need to fight with your sleeves up to get points," Mourinho said. "We did that so I am really happy with the players."
Thierry Henry gave the Gunners a 12th-minute lead with a low right foot into the far corner for his 20th goal of the season and Robert Pires added the second 19 minutes from the end when he turned home a low cross from Freddie Ljungberg to make sure of the three points for Arsene Wenger's men.
"What is important for us is to focus on ourselves and our quality and we don't have to worry about anybody else," Wenger said. "It is too far away from the end of the season to speculate on a slip by Chelsea.
At the halfway stage of the campaign, Chelsea has 46 points from 19 games and Arsenal has 41. Everton had 40 points and Manchester United 37 as they maintained the chase.
Australian forward Tim Cahill gave third-place Everton a 22nd-minute lead against Man City at Goodison Park only for Robbie Fowler to level three minutes before half time.
But Marcus Bent headed home a cross from Thomas Gravesen for the winner and City suffered a further blow when substitute Christian Negouai was sent off within two minutes of going on his Premier League debut for an over-the-ball challenge.
Ryan Giggs scored the first and set up the second for substitute Paul Scholes as fourth-place Manchester United downed Bolton at Old Trafford. It was Scholes' seventh goal in seven games as the Reds won at home for the seventh time in a row.
"Our performances have certainly been very good and the players in the past few weeks have been coming to the form that we expect of them," said United manager Alex Ferguson. "What we need is consistent results and today goes a long way towards that."
Two years after winning 6-0 on its last visit to the Hawthorns, Liverpool almost matched that performance with a 5-0 victory over West Brom to add to the woes of new Baggies manager Bryan Robson. Rafa Benitez side would have scored six again but Milan Baros also had a penalty saved by Russell Hoult.
John Arne Riise scored two of Liverpool's goals against a West Brom side that had Romanian international Cosmin Contra sent off six minutes before halftime for deliberate handball and has now lost its last five home games.
Tottenham made it five successive league wins with a 2-0 victory at lowly Norwich thanks to second-half strikes by Robbie Keane and Michael Brown.
But erratic Newcastle twice threw away the lead at struggling Blackburn and came away from Ewood Park with just a point from a 2-2 tie.
Fifth-place Middlesbrough slipped further out of contention after losing 2-0 at rejuvenated Birmingham, with Clinton Morrison and Emile Heskey scoring for Steve Bruce's men at St. Andrews.
Stilian Petrov scored one goal and set up the other on Sunday as Celtic regained its four-point lead over traditional rival Rangers in the Scottish title race after a 2-0 victory at Hearts.
The game at Tynecastle was played a day ahead of the rest of the Premier League program and Rangers will cut the lead to one point by beating Motherwell at Ibrox Park on Monday. Teenage forward Aiden McGeady fired the Hoops ahead in the ninth minute when Petrov raced down the left wing and found him with a low cross.
Petrov netted the second goal in the 68th when Chris Sutton headed down a long-range free kick and the Bulgarian hammered the ball home with a rising shot.
"We couldn't finish the game off until Stilian Petrov scored a wonder goal but, by that time, we should probably have been out of sight," Celtic manager Martin O'Neill said.
The result gives O'Neill's men 50 points from 20 games and Alex McLeish's Rangers have 46 from 19. Third-place Aberdeen, which hosts Inverness on Monday, is 16 points behind Celtic.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care