Sergio Aguero opened the floodgates with a touch of magic as unbeaten Manchester City thrashed promoted Norwich City 5-1 on Saturday to remain five points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Champions Manchester United beat Aston Villa 1-0 to keep in touch with their “noisy neighbors” and regain the second place they lost earlier in the day to in-form Tottenham Hotspur, 3-0 winners at home to 10-man Bolton Wanderers.
Manchester City have 38 points from 14 matches, with United on 33 and Tottenham 31, but with a game in hand.
Arsenal were the day’s other big scorers, thrashing bottom side Wigan Athletic 4-0 to go fifth on goal difference ahead of Newcastle United, 3-0 losers at home to fourth-placed Chelsea.
Argentine striker Aguero opened City’s scoring at the Etihad Stadium in the 32nd minute, conjuring a sublime 11th league goal of the season while tightly marked deep inside the penalty area.
Samir Nasri added a second in the 51st and Yaya Toure then scored in the 68th before Steve Morison pulled one back nine minutes from time.
There was no holding off the leaders, with substitute Mario Balotelli coming on and making it 4-1 nonchalantly off his shoulder moments later in the 88th. Adam Johnson then completed the rout in added time.
England international Phil Jones scored his first goal for Manchester United in the 20th minute.
United’s win was soured by the loss of Mexican Javier Hernandez to a suspected ankle injury in the 12th minute, while Villa had goalkeeper Shay Given carried off on a stretcher in the 38th with what appeared to be a hamstring problem.
Villa, who replaced Given with Brad Guzan, also lost Jermaine Jenas in the 63rd when the midfielder fell to the ground holding his ankle and without previous contact.
Spurs’ sixth straight league win was made easier by Bolton having defender Gary Cahill sent off after 18 minutes — a red card that surprised Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp as much as Owen Coyle in the opposition dugout.
There was also a controversy over the absence of a red card at St James’ Park, with Chelsea’s David Luiz fortunate in the extreme not to be sent off for felling Newcastle’s Demba Ba on the edge of the area.
“I asked him [the referee] at halftime why he didn’t get sent off, because he was the last man and we were in on goal,” Newcastle manager Alan Pardew told Sky Sports television. “He said to me he didn’t have control of the ball. So I’ll have to look at the rule book on that one. I’m not exactly sure what he means by that. It’s a sending off, simple as that, and it changed the game.”
Frank Lampard had a penalty saved, but Chelsea still celebrated a morale-boosting win after scoring twice in the dying minutes on an emotional afternoon for home fans paying tribute to their late former captain Gary Speed.
Arsenal scored twice in the space of two minutes in the first half and added two more in the second with league top scorer Robin van Persie celebrating his 14th of the campaign so far.
The defeat left Wigan rooted to the bottom of the league, and to add to their woes troubled Blackburn Rovers saw off Swansea City 4-2, with Yakubu Aiyegbeni scoring all the Blackburn goals, including one from the penalty spot.
Queens Park Rangers and West Bromwich Albion drew 1-1.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set