Liverpool breathed new life into the Premier League title race with a stunning 4-1 win against 10-man Manchester United on Saturday as the champions suffered their biggest home defeat in 17 years.
Rafael Benitez’s side came from behind in an explosive clash at Old Trafford to move within four points of leaders United, who still have a game in hand on their bitter rivals.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 23rd minute penalty gave United the lead, but Fernando Torres capitalized on a mistake by Nemanja Vidic to equalize five minutes later.
PHOTO: AP
Steven Gerrard scored from the spot to put Liverpool in front in the 44th minute after the England midfielder was fouled by Patrice Evra.
In the 77th minute, Vidic was sent off for hauling down Gerrard and Fabio Aurelio scored from the resulting free-kick.
Andrea Dossena completed a memorable day for the Reds when he lobbed in the fourth in the 90th minute, handing United their biggest home defeat since QPR ran riot at Old Trafford in 1992.
PHOTO: AP
“We knew we had to win,” Benitez said. “We have played better, but not against teams at the level of United so I am really pleased for the players.”
“The league is very difficult but at least we now have more options and we are more confident that we can beat anyone and stay closer,” he said.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: “It is a hard one to take because I thought we were the better team and the score does not reflect that.”
PHOTO: AFP
“If the league was starting today, you would take a four-point start. Now the thing is to respond,” he said.
Arsenal moved back into fourth place with a 4-0 win over Blackburn at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners climbed above Aston Villa thanks to Andrey Arshavin, who scored his first goals for the Gunners since his January move from Zenit St Petersburg.
Arshavin deflected in Theo Walcott’s second minute cross and struck again in the 62nd minute with a superb solo effort.
Emmanuel Eboue scored with three minutes to go and the Ivorian also drove home a penalty in the final seconds.
Everton remain in the hunt for a top-four finish after beating Stoke 3-1 at Goodison Park.
Brazil striker Jo, on loan from Manchester City, opened the scoring in the 18th minute with a neat finish from Marouane Fellaini’s pass.
Relegation threatened Stoke fell further behind when Joleon Lescott tapped in after 24 minutes.
Stoke got a goal back through Ryan Shawcross in the 52nd minute but Fellaini sealed the points in the 90th minute.
Struggling Newcastle remain in trouble after drawing 1-1 at Hull.
Hull made a dream start when Geovanni headed home Craig Fagan’s cross in the ninth minute but Newcastle equalized through Steven Taylor’s 38th-minute volley.
Middlesbrough striker Marlon King rescued a 1-1 draw against relegation rivals Portsmouth at the Riverside Stadium.
The visitors took the lead when Peter Crouch volleyed home in the 30th minute.
Middlesbrough, who sit second bottom of the table, were reduced to 10 men late in the second half when Matthew Bates was sent off.
But King struck in stoppage time to salvage a point.
Fulham defeated Bolton 3-1 at the Reebok Stadium to record a first away league win this season.
Andrew Johnson took advantage of a mix-up between Andy O’Brien and Jussi Jaaskelainen to score Fulham’s opener in the 42nd minute.
Bolton equalized three minutes later when Kevin Davies scored.
Simon Davies restored Fulham’s lead in the 56th minute with a close-range effort and Diomansy Kamara added a third in the 88th minute.
Wigan snatched a controversial 2-1 victory at Sunderland.
Ben Watson opened the scoring in the 12th minute, driving home a low drive from 20m.
Sunderland levelled thanks to Grant Leadbitter’s 41st minute strike but Wigan got the winner on the stroke of half-time.
With Sunderland appealing for play to be stopped after Kenwyne Jones went down with a head injury, Charles N’Zogbia ran through to score.
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