Chelsea bounced back from the disappointment of their European exit to record a morale-boosting 3-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Peter Odemwingie fired the Baggies ahead on 17 minutes but Chelsea, who had left record signing Fernando Torres on the bench, responded swiftly, scoring three times through Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard to lead 3-1 at halftime.
Blackpool sunk into the relegation zone after crashing 3-1 at home to Wigan Athletic, who moved out of the bottom three for the first time since early February.
Hugo Rodallega fired Wigan ahead after only three minutes, taking advantage of a slip by Blackpool defender Craig Cathcart before beating Matt Gilks with a low shot.
Wigan striker Charles N’Zogbia made it 2-0 on the stroke of halftime to ensure there was no way back for Blackpool. Neal Eardley’s 67th-minute own-goal compounded the Seasiders’ misery before DJ Campbell grabbed a late consolation effort.
West Ham’s relegation fears mounted after Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor pounced in injury time at Upton Park to give the visitors a 2-1 victory.
Robbie Keane had put the Londoners 1-0 up after only 105 seconds, sweeping into the roof of the net from 10m after Villa failed to deal with a corner.
However, the visitors leveled through Darren Bent on 36 minutes, the England striker heading in from a Luke Young cross. The game seemed destined for a draw until Agbonlahor popped up in the first minute of injury time to sink the Hammers.
The defeat left West Ham second from bottom, two points adrift of safety with five games remaining.
Sunderland’s miserable run of form continued after they crashed 2-0 against Birmingham at St Andrews.
Birmingham went ahead shortly before halftime, Sebastian Larsson capitalizing after Simon Mignolet and Phil Bardsley failed to deal with a Cameron Jerome flick-on.
The Blues made sure of the points on 66 minutes, Craig Gardner lashing in a powerful 20m effort to make it 2-0.
Sunderland have now lost eight of their last nine league games to leave themselves only five points clear of the drop zone.
In-form Everton stretched their unbeaten run to six matches with a 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers that nudged the Indian-owned Lancashire club ever closer to the relegation zone.
Leon Osman put the Toffees ahead on 54 minutes after a well-worked short corner routine before a Leighton Baines penalty on 75 minutes sealed a win that leaves Rovers just two points clear of the drop in 16th place.
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