Arsenal lost ground in the race to secure a top-four finish as the Gunners slumped to a surprise 3-2 defeat against Swansea City, while Mark Hughes’ debut as Queens Park Rangers boss ended in a 1-0 loss at Newcastle United on Sunday.
Arsene Wenger’s side needed a win at the Liberty Stadium to keep pace with fourth-placed Chelsea, but Danny Graham’s second-half winner condemned the north Londoners to their second successive league defeat.
Fifth-placed Arsenal, beaten by Fulham in their last league outing, are now four points behind Chelsea and 10 behind Tottenham Hotspur in third.
Photo: Reuters
Wenger left Thierry Henry on the bench despite his match-winning cameo role against Leeds United at the start of his brief return on loan from New York Red Bulls.
It did not look like Henry would be missed as Robin van Persie put Arsenal in front in the fifth minute.
After a magnificent scoring run last year, it was van Persie’s first goal of the year and the Dutch forward took it in style, running onto Andrey Arshavin’s pass, before clipping a cool strike past Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm at his near post.
However, Swansea have lost only once at home since winning promotion from the Championship and the Welsh club drew level in the 16th minute when Scott Sinclair converted a penalty after Aaron Ramsey was harshly ruled to have tripped Nathan Dyer.
Swansea took the lead in the 57th minute when Ramsey allowed Joe Allen to steal possession and slip a pass to Dyer, who punished Arsenal’s poor marking with a ferocious strike past Wojciech Szczesny.
Henry made his return to the Premier League after a five-year absence in the the 63rd minute and the Gunners drew level thanks to Theo Walcott’s composed finish six minutes later.
However, Arsenal’s defensive frailties were exposed less than 60 seconds later when Swansea striker Graham found space to drill a superb shot into the far corner of Szczesny’s goal and secure the hosts’ first win over their visitors since 1982.
“I still don’t understand where the referee found the penalty for Swansea, but then defensively we made some mistakes that we should not have done,” Wenger said. “When it was back at 2-2 we knew we could score a third, but in the last games we have made mistakes that are difficult to explain. It is unbelievable, it happened at Fulham and again here.”
In the day’s early game, new QPR boss Hughes saw Leon Best give Newcastle victory at St James’ Park.
Hughes was appointed on Tuesday following Neil Warnock’s sacking, but the arrival of the former Fulham, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and Wales boss failed to galvanize his new team, who remain third-bottom of the table.
Best is deputizing for Demba Ba, currently away on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Senegal, and he ensured the in-form striker would not be missed with a fine winner in the 37th minute to lift Newcastle into sixth place — four points off the Champions League spots.
“I was pleased with the players’ application — they gave me everything they had,” Hughes said. “Obviously, we’ve been done with a little bit of individual skill in our own box. We created a number of reasonable chances and on another day those will go in for us. It would have been ideal, obviously, if we could have got something out of the game because overall I felt we deserved something. It’s a hard place to come, we understand that. It was never going to be easy, so that’s why I’m encouraged by what I saw.”
Hughes — who made six changes to QPR’s starting lineup — must have been encouraged when Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jay Bothroyd hit the woodwork early on, while Newcastle lost influential midfielder Yohan Cabaye to an injury in the 25th minute.
However, Alan Pardew’s team took the points thanks to a clinical effort from Best, who cleverly tricked his way past Luke Young, before slotting home his first goal since September.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two