Chelsea beat Southampton 3-1 on Saturday and now needs just three victories in its last seven games to win the English title for the first time in 50 years.
Iceland striker Eidur Gudjohnsen scored twice at St. Mary's as the Blues posted their 25th victory in 31 games. They now have a 13-point lead and could win the title by April 23 when they host Fulham.
Also, Thierry Henry scored a hat trick to lead Arsenal over last-place Norwich 4-1 and jump ahead of Manchester United into second place.
Manchester United was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Blackburn, with former US goalkeeper Brad Friedel defying the Reds with some standout saves.
The Gunners lead Manchester United on goal difference, although both are 13 points behind Chelsea.
Henry made it 10 goals in seven games after his second straight hat trick took his season tally to 25 league goals. Fredrik Ljungberg got his 14th of the campaign.
"Today was an interesting day for us," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. "Man United dropped points and we are back again to second position and it's down to us now [to chase Chelsea]."
Darren Huckerby had given the Canaries some hope at 2-1, but Norwich, four points adrift at the bottom, is likely to be relegated after a single season in the Premier League.
Friedel, playing against countryman Tim Howard in the other net, made two early blocks to deny Wayne Rooney and Mikael Silvestre at Old Trafford before Rovers' defense kept out the Manchester United strikeforce, which twice hit the post.
"Brad made two fantastic saves," United manager Alex Ferguson said. "He made incredible saves in the first game we played. We could have gone into halftime four or five up."
United took another blow when Ryan Giggs limped off with a hamstring injury, making him doubtful for the FA Cup semifinal against Newcastle on April 17.
The biggest drama of the day happened in Newcastle's 3-0 loss to Aston Villa at St. James Park, where three home players were sent off -- two of them for fighting each other.
The match began with fans cheering veteran striker Alan Shearer for postponing his retirement by signing a new contract.
They then watched their team give up two goals before Steven Taylor got sent off for conceding a penalty kick, which Gareth Barry scored for his second goal of the game.
At 3-0, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer began punching each other in the center of the field, with the ball nowhere near them. Referee Barry Knight, who had not sent off anyone before this match all season, ejected both players.
Within an hour of the game finishing, Newcastle called a news conference at which both players, who are likely to miss the FA Cup semifinal against Manchester United, apologized.
"I should like to apologize to the fans, the chairman, the managing staff, all the players and everybody that's connected to Newcastle and everybody that witnesses what happened today on the football pitch," Bowyer said. ``I'm sincerely sorry.''
Dyer made a similar apology.
"We're teammates, we have disagreements, we shouldn't be fighting in front of 50,000 people," he said. "I'm deeply sorry for that especially as it's a crucial stage of the season."
A goal four minutes from the end by Igor Biscan gave Liverpool a 1-0 victory over Bolton at Anfield.
Mark Burchill scored against his former club, and Hearts upset league leader Celtic 2-0 at Parkhead to hand Rangers an unexpected chance of going ahead in the title race.
Defending champion Celtic went into the game two points ahead of Rangers, which plays at Motherwell on Sunday. The loss means that Alex McLeish's team will go top by winning at Fir Park and still has Celtic to play at home.
Celtic fans were given an eighth-minute shock when Lee Miller gave Hearts the lead. When former Hoops star Burchill netted against his former club in the 19th minute Martin O'Neill's men had a big task to get back.
The Hearts defense held out for the rest of the game and will have renewed confidence when the two teams meet again next week in the Scottish Cup semifinals at Hampden Park.
Despite the victory, fifth-place Hearts stayed well behind Hibernian and Aberdeen, who both won.
A last minute goal by Gary Smith gave Hibs a 3-2 victory over Dundee United, which had twice hit back to level. Noel Whelan scored Aberdeen's winner in a 1-0 victory at Inverness.
Elsewhere, Dundee edged Kilmarnock 1-0 and Livingston and Dunfermline drew 1-1.
Late goals by substitute Bernardo Corradi and defender Marco Caneira earned a depleted Valencia a 2-2 draw with Zaragoza.
The defending champion, missing seven players because of injuries, rallied after falling behind 2-0 on a strike by David Generelo in the 45th minute and an own goal by David Albelda five minutes later.
Valencia's draw at Zaragoza's La Romareda Stadium kept it in fifth place, spoiling its hopes of moving into third and left it with only one win in five games.
Serie A matches suspended this weekend as a sign of respect for the seriously ill Pope John Paul II have been rescheduled for next week.
The Italian soccer league also added a mid-week round on April 20 in order to end by the original May 29 date.
AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan will play next Saturday because of their Champions League commitments the next week, while seven other Serie A matches of the 30th round will be played next Sunday.
The 31st round will be played on April 16-17 and the 32nd round will be on April 20.
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