Arsenal surged to the top of the Premier League with Samir Nasri scoring twice in their 2-1 win over Fulham as Chelsea’s dire run continued with a 1-1 home draw against Everton on Saturday.
Arsenal have 32 points, while Chelsea, who have taken just five points from their last six league games, stand third on 30, one behind Manchester United whose game at Blackpool was frozen out.
Manchester City are fourth on 29 after they ended Bolton Wanderers’ good run with a 1-0 Eastlands victory courtesy of an early Carlos Tevez goal.
Fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur lost ground when they could only draw 1-1 at Birmingham City, while Blackburn Rovers, thrashed 7-1 by Manchester United last week, bounced back impressively by beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0. Wigan drew with seventh-place Stoke, 2-2.
Arsenal, whose players and staff all donated their day’s wages to charity, were all over Fulham in the first half-hour, but had only a cool finish by Nasri to show for it.
Perhaps the easy ride their defenders were enjoying contributed to the comedy of errors that opened the way for Fulham’s equalizer as Laurent Koscielny and Sebastian Squillaci clashed heads and stopped playing, allowing Clint Dempsey to set up Diomansy Kamara for a nicely curled finish.
It took a while for Arsenal to regain control and they still managed to waste several good opportunities before Nasri won it with a superb goal after 75 minutes when he neatly rounded a defender and the goalkeeper before scoring his 11th of the season from a tight angle.
“We had to work very hard because Fulham had a great game as well, but my players showed fantastic spirit and quality,” Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger told reporters. “We went for it in the second half. Overall, we deserved it. Credit to Nasri, his goals were outstanding. He showed skill, intelligence and calm. He’s just been voted French player of the year and it underlines how important confidence is.”
STUTTERING CHAMPIONS
Chelsea had John Terry and Michael Essien back from their injury absences to stiffen both their spine and their resolve, but, as so often in recent weeks, they looked anything but champions and ended up hanging on desperately.
Chelsea, who hit the bar early through Terry, were on top, but struggling with their final pass until Everton captain Phil Neville provided one for them with a badly under-hit backpass three minutes before halftime.
Striker Nicolas Anelka was onto it in a flash only to be brought down by goalkeeper Tim Howard, with Didier Drogba scoring the penalty.
Everton, who have been suffering their own poor run in recent weeks culminating in a 4-1 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion last week, refused to buckle and took the game to the hosts in the second half.
Jack Rodwell hit the post with a header from a Leighton Baines cross, but another surging run past three defenders by the fullback set up the equalizer three minutes from time when his cross led to Jermaine Beckford heading past Petr Cech.
Chelsea were booed off by their own fans and now face a potentially decisive month as they play Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Arsenal.
Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti is starting to worry.
“I am disappointed. I am angry ... the first half I think it was good, there was good spirit. The second half was totally different ... we lost the idea of playing our own -football,” Ancelotti told reporters.
“I don’t understand why we changed, it was just long ball. We have a particular kind of football and we should stay with that,” the Italian said. “We didn’t and it’s difficult to understand why. Obviously I’m worried, we have to do better.”
“I saw the players looking -worried, afraid and that’s not our kind of football,” he said.
Although nobody at Chelsea is willing to say it, the unexpected departure of popular assistant coach Ray Wilkins at the start of the poor run and other subsequent staffing reshuffles appear to have undermined morale.
With midfield talisman Frank Lampard out of action since August, Terry struggling for fitness and Drogba going through illness, injury and then apparent disinterest, there seems a real lack of cohesion and the next month could make or break Chelsea’s title defense.
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