Manchester United took another big step toward a third straight English title after coming from behind to beat Newcastle 2-1 to reclaim a seven-point lead at the top of the table.
Wins for Liverpool and Chelsea 24 hours earlier had encouraged thoughts of the title battle being opened up once more, which were further encouraged by Peter Lovenkrands ninth-minute opener for Newcastle.
But the stumble United’s rivals had hoped for failed to materialize as United hit back through Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.
PHOTO: EPA
Elsewhere, Manchester City dented Aston Villa’s hopes of securing Champions League football next season with a 2-0 win at Eastlands while Stoke escaped from the relegation zone by beating Bolton.
Newcastle ended Edwin van der Sar’s record-breaking run without conceding a goal in a league match at 1,311 minutes but the Magpies proved incapable of defending their early lead.
Elano celebrated his return to Manchester City’s starting line-up by netting a first-half penalty as City ended Villa’s run of 10 consecutive away victories in the league with a 2-0 win at Eastlands.
The Brazilian playmaker slotted the spot-kick home after James Milner had tripped Shaun Wright-Phillips and it was Wright-Phillips who sealed City’s win two minutes from time.
The defeat left Villa with just a three-point cushion over Arsenal in the battle for fourth place and the final Champions League qualifying spot.
Stoke’s 2-0 win over Bolton came courtesy of a well-taken early strike by James Beattie and a late effort from Ricardo Fuller.
Tottenham bounced back from Sunday’s penalty shoot-out defeat by Manchester United in the League Cup final with a 4-0 win over Middlesbrough that significantly eases their survival concerns.
Robbie Keane opened the scoring for Spurs and Roman Pavlyuchenko doubled the lead. A brace for Aaron Lennon saw Harry Redknapp’s side home.
West Ham’s push for European soccer next season received another boost with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Wigan.
Blackburn earned a valuable point by holding Everton to a goalless draw while stoppage time winner by substitute Manucho earned Hull a 1-0 win at Fulham.
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
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