Blackburn Rovers were brought down to earth following their away win over Manchester United at the weekend after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Stoke City at Ewood Park, Peter Crouch scoring twice for the visitors.
Blackburn looked to have got off to a dream start, only for Christopher Samba’s early effort to be ruled offside.
Stoke then went ahead with Crouch netting his 100th league goal from close range after Blackburn failed to deal with Dean Whitehead’s chip forward.
Crouch then doubled Stoke’s lead with his second of the match on 45 minutes to leave Rovers staring at their eighth home defeat of the season.
David Goodwillie scrambled one back in the 69th minute to give Rovers hope, but the home side were unable to find an equalizer.
Aston Villa’s feelgood factor from their win at Chelsea was also shattered, with newly promoted Swansea City scoring a 2-0 win at Villa Park.
Swansea went ahead after only four minutes, Nathan Dyer punishing some slack defending from Stephen Warnock to dart forward and finish past Brad Guzan.
Former Villa old boy Wayne Routledge then doubled Swansea’s lead two minutes after the restart, punishing a poor clearance from Guzan after Danny Graham’s shot crashed back off the post.
Queens Park Rangers captain Joey Barton was hero and villain at Loftus Road as Rangers crashed to a 2-1 loss to Norwich City, a defeat that edged Neil Warnock’s side ever closer to the relegation zone.
Barton shot Rangers ahead on 11 minutes, drilling in a low finish from Clint Hill’s cross, but his joy turned to despair on 36 minutes, when the midfielder was sent off for an apparent head butt in a confrontation with Bradley Johnson.
It got worse for Rangers moments later, Anthony Pilkington netting his fifth goal of the season to level it for Norwich. The knockout blow from Norwich came seven minutes from time, substitute Steve Morison grabbing the winner to end a desperate rearguard action from Rangers.
Barton later accused match officials of being “conned” into sending him off.
“Well feel for the officials, they’ve been conned. Admitted to me at HT they never saw it. I was pulled back 1st, then kicked 2nd,” Barton wrote on Twitter shortly after the final whistle.
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