Approaching the midpoint of the English Premier League season, Chelsea is already way ahead of last year's record pace.
With its 3-2 win over Fulham on Monday, Chelsea won its 16th game in 18 matches and stayed nine points atop the league. A victory over Manchester City on Wednesday would maintain that advantage, which is nearly twice the five-point lead Chelsea had last season at this point before it went on to earn a record 95 points and finish 12 points atop the league.
Monday's victory gave some hope to the pursuers -- albeit faint -- that Chelsea can be caught. The Blues took a 2-0 lead within 24 minutes, but allowed a pair of goals before winning the match on Hernan Crespo's eye-catching volley in the 74th minute.
"They have a good manager who can motivate players and good players who can come out in the second half and fight. They did that," Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said of Fulham.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham also won to keep pace. While Chelsea has 49 points, Manchester United is closest with 40, followed by Liverpool and Tottenham with 34 each.
Wednesday gives the pursuers hope of closing on the lead. With Chelsea facing eight-placed Manchester City, Manchester United will face 19th-placed Birmingham, Liverpool is at Merseyside rival and 16th-placed Everton and Spurs visit 17th-placed West Bromwich Albion.
On Monday, defender William Gallas and midfielder Frank Lampard had put Chelsea ahead 2-0, but American international Brian McBride drew Fulham within one in the 29th and Heidar Helguson equalized 11 minutes into the second half.
At Old Trafford, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand had Manchester United ahead by halftime before Ruud Van Nistlerooy added another in the 63rd to lead the Reds to a 3-0 victory over West Bromwich and its seventh win in eight league games.
Liverpool ruined former striker Michael Owen's first trip back to Anfield by defeating Newcastle 2-0. Steven Gerrard scored his 12th goal of the season in the 14th minute on an assist from Peter Crouch.
In the 44th minute, 2.01m striker Crouch's header was touched onto the post by Shay Given -- but rebounded in off the Newcastle goalkeeper's head.
At White Hart Lane, Ireland striker Robbie Keane converted a penalty in the 58th after he was held back by Birmingham defender Matthew Upson in Tottenham's 2-0 win. Substitute striker Jermain Defoe netted in injury time.
Arsenal ended a three-game losing run by beating Charlton 1-0 at The Valley and stayed 20 points behind Chelsea in seventh place. Arsenal forward Jose Antonio Reyes scored in the 58th to consign Charlton to an eighth loss from its past nine league games.
"That was a crucial win," Henry said. "I have been here for a long time and we are used to being first or second -- we are not used to being in this position. You have to dig in and try to perform even when you are not having amazing days."
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