Thierry Henry scored twice in Arsenal's 3-1 victory over last-place Sunderland on Saturday, while Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso struck in the last five minutes in Liverpool's 2-0 win at Aston Villa in the English Premier League.
With runaway leader Chelsea at Manchester United today, the two powerhouses' victories may mean the title race is not over yet. But Wigan remains the leading chaser after a 2-0 win at Portsmouth -- its sixth league triumph in a row -- cut Chelsea's lead to six points.
Defender Pascal Chimbonda scored the first and set up a breakaway second for Jason Roberts as Wigan, playing top-flight soccer for the first time in its history, remained second and moved five points ahead of four clubs tied on 20.
PHOTO: AP
The Gunners moved up to third place on goal difference.
Liverpool, which has a game in hand on most of its rivals, moved up one place to 12th, but still has 15 points to make up on Chelsea.
In other results on Saturday, Blackburn outplayed Charlton 4-1; Steed Malbranque scored both goals as Fulham edged Manchester City 2-1; Newcastle won 1-0 over next-to-last Birmingham after Emre Belozoglu's deflected shot; and 39-year-old striker Teddy Sheringham scored in West Ham's 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.
After Robin van Persie had given Arsenal a 12th-minute lead at Highbury, Henry put the Gunners 2-0 ahead before halftime against Mick McCarthy's Sunderland. Alan Stubbs netted his first goal for the Black Cats, before Henry added another to take his tally to 15 goals from his last 10 games.
European champion Liverpool had to wait until the 85th to break the deadlock at Villa Park, when Gerrard scored his 10th goal of the season.
Substitute Peter Crouch, playing against his former club, was felled by Villa defender Liam Ridgewell six yards out and Gerrard scored from the spot.
Four minutes later, it was 2-0 when Alonso netted through a crowded Villa area from the edge of the box to confirm Liverpool's third straight win from as many matches, two of them in the league.
Brett Emerton, Paul Dickov, Morten Pedersen and Craig Bellamy scored Blackburn's goals at Ewood Park, with Bryan Hughes netting for Charlton to make it 2-1.
Sheffield United remained three points clear at the top of the League Championship after goals by Phil Jagielka, Paul Ifill and Neil Shipperley gave the Blades a 3-2 victory at Crystal Palace.
The top three teams all won on the road with Reading gaining a 2-1 victory at Queens Park Rangers and Watford winning 2-1 at Hull. Fourth-place Luton lost 3-2 at home to Burnley and is 16 points behind the leader.
In the first round of the FA Cup, Paul Gascoigne's Kettering was beaten 3-1 at home by another non-league club, Stevenage.
But Tamworth won 2-1 at Bournemouth and Burscough, playing in the first round for the first time in 25 years, scored two late goals to oust another League One club, Gillingham, 3-2.
Non-league club Weymouth rallied for a 1-1 draw and a replay with Nottingham Forest.
Hearts went back atop the Scottish Premier League with a 3-0 win over Dundee United as its Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov prepared to increase his stake. Paul Hartley, Rudi Skacel and Michal Pospisil scored at Tynecastle, while Hearts shareholders Leslie Deans and Robert McGrail agreed to sell to Romanov, who already has the biggest individual stake.
Defending champion Rangers fell further behind in the title race after being held 0-0 at home by Aberdeen. Alex McLeish's team is now 12 points behind Hearts and eight behind third-place Hibernian.
Hibs scored two goals in the last seven minutes to win 2-1 at last-place Livingston.
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