Frank Lampard scored twice and Chelsea won at Tottenham 2-0 to increase the Blues' commanding lead in the Premier League to 10 points over Arsenal on Saturday.
Lampard scored on a disputed first-half penalty, and then clinched the victory with a second-half injury-time goal.
PHOTO: AP
"We said from the start our intention is to win the Premier League, and we're looking forward to the next match," Lampard said.
Defending champion Arsenal slumped to a 1-0 loss at Bolton on a first-half goal by Stelios Giannakopoulos. It was Arsenal's third loss in the league this season -- the Gunners also lost to Manchester United and Liverpool -- but this one could be decisive.
"There's a long way to go and, of course, Chelsea's in a fantastic position," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "They can only lose it now."
It was a better day for Manchester United, which closed to within one point of the Gunners with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield. United got at fortunate first-half goal from Wayne Rooney, and survived the last 25 minutes a man short for the win.
Manchester United's victory overshadowed the Liverpool debut of striker Fernando Morientes, who started after moving from Real Madrid on Wednesday on a 9 million euros (US$11.8 million) transfer.
Chelsea leads with 58 points, followed by Arsenal with 48 and Manchester United with 47. They are followed by Everton with 43 points and crosstown neighbor Liverpool with 37. Everton has played one fewer game than the other leaders.
At the bottom, West Bromwich was last with only 13 points, topped by Southampton with 15 and Norwich with 16.
Steven Thompson, Marvin Andrews and Alex Rae scored Saturday in Rangers' 3-0 victory over Dunfermline.
Dunfermline has not won at Rangers since the 1972-73 season.
The victory moved Rangers into first place in the Scottish Premier League with 53 points, ahead of Celtic on goal difference.
Paulo Wanchope scored the only goal in the 66th minute Saturday, and Malaga upset fifth-place Sevilla 1-0 in the Spanish league.
It was the first victory for Malaga coach Antonio Tapia, who took over after Gregorio Manzano was fired on Tuesday.
Earlier, Valentin Sergio Pachon scored a second-half goal to help 10-man Getafe hold Atletico Madrid to a 1-1 draw.
Pachon blasted a shot into the net after Getafe had cut through Atletico's midfield and defense with 11 straight passes in the 64th minute.
Ten-man Reggina held Inter Milan to a 0-0 draw Saturday, but the Milan powerhouse still stretched its unbeaten streak to 19 Serie A matches.
Inter, which had won three straight, still trails league leader Juventus by 12 points ahead of today's matches. Juve visits Cagliari while second-place AC Milan hosts third-place Udinese at San Siro.
Christian Vieri and Adriano both squandered early scoring chances for Inter, which drew for the 13th time this season.
Reggina, playing at home at Granillo stadium, played with 10 men for the last 26 minutes after Giuseppe Colucci received a second yellow card from referee Roberto Rosetti.
In the only other match of the day, Brescia and Fiorentina traded second-half goals and settled with a 1-1 draw.
Brescia, with 19 points, is struggling in the relegation zone while Fiorentina, with 23, is at mid-table, below its preseason expectations.
Lyon got late goals from Brazil midfielder Juninho and Bryan Bergougnoux to beat Metz 2-0 on Saturday and maintain its six-point lead at the top of the first division.
Juninho scored the match-winning goal in the 82nd minute to help the three-time defending champions stretch their unbeaten run to 21 matches and move onto 45 points.
Bergougnoux scored for the second straight match moments after entering when he rifled home from 20 meters (yards) in the 86th.
Lille, which beat seventh-placed Bordeaux 3-1, remains in second place with 39 points. Mathieu Debuchy, Philippe Brunel and Johan Audel each scored for Lille, while Marouane Chamakh replied late for Bordeaux.
Apollon Kalamaria got two first-half goal Saturday to beat AEK 2-1, spoiling the Athens club's 14-match unbeaten streak.
Costas Spyropoulos opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Brazilian midfielder Cleyton converted a penalty in the 29th. Vladan Ivic scored AEK's goal in the 82nd.
Halfway through the season, AEK leads the league with 30 points, one more than crosstown Panathinaikos, which plays OFI Crete on today.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier