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Blues, Devils, Gunners win their league games

Manchester United's Wes Brown, left, and teammate Wayne Rooney, right, challenge Fulham's Carlos Bocanegra during their English Premier League match at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, Saturday. The Red Devils won the match 1-0. PHOTO: AP

Chelsea edged closer to its first title in 50 years with a 4-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, and Manchester United and Arsenal also won in the fight for second place.

Frank Lampard and Joe Cole scored a goal each for Chelsea, and substitute Mateja Kezman added two more at Stamford Bridge. Aki Riihilahti briefly leveled for Palace in the first half.

Robin van Persie scored for Arsenal in a 1-0 win at Blackburn, while Manchester United beat Fulham by the same score off a Cristiano Ronaldo strike.

Chelsea leads the league with 77 points, followed by United with 66 and Arsenal with 64.

"The league is looking beyond us," Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said. "But you have to keep going."

Newcastle couldn't continue its European form, drawing 1-1 with Portsmouth. Newcastle beat Olympiakos 4-0 on Thursday to advance to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals -- its eighth consecutive win.

Also, Manchester City lost 2-1 at Tottenham in the first match under caretaker manager Stuart Pearce, West Bromwich Albion won its first away match this season 4-1 at 10-man Charlton, and Bolton beat Norwich 1-0.

Robert Earnshaw scored a hat trick for West Brom, while Charlton played with 10 men for 61 minutes after Talal El Karkouri was sent off.

Bolton got a 42nd-minute goal from Greece international Stelios Giannakopoulos to jump into fifth place ahead of Liverpool.

Chelsea needs only 14 points from its eight remaining matches to win its first title since 1955. The Blues are also in the running for the Champions League.

"I'm just so excited," Cole said. "I can't stop looking at the fixture list and thinking if we win this game, this game and this game. But it's important to check yourself and just think about winning the next game."

Celtic went top of the Scottish Premier League with a 3-2 win over Dundee United off a Craig Bellamy hat trick.

Bellamy, who moved to Celtic in January on loan from Newcastle, twice put Celtic ahead in the first half, but Dundee United leveled through Jim McIntyre and Barry Robson.

Bellamy scored the winner with 10 minutes remaining.

"If Craig Bellamy wants to stay, then we will have to find the money to keep him," Celtic manager Martin O'Neill said. "I thought Bellamy's goals were really outstanding -- from an outstanding player."

In other matches, Hibernian took third place with a 4-1 win over Dunfermline, with Derek Riordan and Steven Fletcher both scoring twice.

Hearts beat Livingstone 3-1 off goals from Lee Miller, Mark Burchill and Robbie Neilson. Aberdeen and Dundee drew 1-1.

Celtic has 77 points, followed by Rangers with 75, Hibernian with 50 and Aberdeen with 49.

Rangers play Motherwell today for the Scottish League Cup.

Ludovic Giuly scored in the 10th minute, and FC Barcelona edged Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 to move closer to its first league title since 1999.

The 29th-round win at Deportivo's Riazor Stadium came despite the 52nd-minute ejection of defensive midfielder Rafael Marquez and stretched Barcelona's advantage over second-place Real Madrid to 14 points.

Madrid, which hosts Malaga on Sunday, has 10 matches remaining to bridge what looks like an unassailable gap.

"We shouldn't be talking about the title. We should be talking about how well we played. We gained three very important points," Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o told Cadena SER radio. "We shouldn't be doing calculations on our title chances out of respect for the other teams. We have to stay humble and keep working."

In other matches, Real Betis beat Albacete 2-1 to climb into third place with 48 points, and Espanyol striker Raul Tamudo converted two penalties in a 2-2 draw with Real Sociedad, a result which left Espanyol in fifth place with 46 points.

Brazilian defender Lucio made amends for a costly blunder by scoring a goal to help lead Bayern Munich past Hansa Rostock 3-1 and back to the top of the standings.

Lucio scored the first goal in the 41st minute, and Caludio Pizzaro added another in the 65th. Michael Ballack got the final goal with an 89th-minute penalty. Uwe Moehrle had given the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute after outjumping the taller Lucio.

Schalke, which trails on goal difference, can reclaim the lead if it beats Mainz 05 today.

"We know this situation, we've been here before," Ballack said. "We were calm when we fell behind and didn't panic -- now it's up to Schalke."

Third-place Werder Bremen, which trails Bayern and Schalke by six points, beat Nuremberg 2-1 with a pair of goals by Ivan Klasnic. The goals ended a 217-minute scoring drought for the defending champions.

Hertha Berlin moved into fifth place -- only two points behind Bremen for the hotly contested third Champions League berth -- rolling past Bielefeld 3-0.

Berlin has lost only one of its last 16 matches and management has now demanded a berth in Europe from the players.

Hamburg tumbled from fourth to seventh with a 3-2 loss to Dortmund, while VfL Bochum blasted Wolfsburg 5-1, Leverkusen beat Kaiserslautern 2-0 and Hannover edged Moenchengladbach 2-1.

At the top of the Bundesliga, two battles have emerged.

Schalke and Bayern are fighting for the title with 53 points, while five teams are gunning for the final Champions League berth and three UEFA Cup places.

Bremen has 47 points, followed by Stuttgart with 45 and a game in hand, Berlin with 44, and Leverkusen and Hamburg with 43 each.
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