Arsenal and Manchester City showed no sign of slowing up in the race for the Premier League title by grabbing routine home wins on Saturday to stay 1-2 in the standings respectively.
Spain playmaker Santi Cazorla scored second-half goals in a five-minute span for Arsenal in a 2-0 victory over lowly Fulham that keeps the Gunners in the lead by a point.
“We have played 22 games and have 51 points. If you compare that to any other season, you will see that it is one of the best, if not the best ever,” Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said after his side’s fifth straight league win.
Photo: AFP
City put on another attacking clinic to breeze past Cardiff City 4-2 and pass the 100-goal mark this season in all competitions after just 34 matches. Edin Dzeko, Jesus Navas, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero netted for City, who have has scored four or more goals in a game on 12 occasions this campaign.
“It’s not easy to score 103 goals by the middle of the season,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini said.
Last season’s Chelsea were the previous fastest to reach a century of goals in the Premier era, achieving the feat after 42 games, but Pellegrini’s side have set a high bar.
The defeat dumped Cardiff into last place and ensured a miserable return to Manchester for coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who spent 11 successful years at United.
Third-place Chelsea were looking to stay a point behind City by beating United at home yesterday.
Liverpool lost ground in fourth by drawing 2-2 at home to Aston Villa, who raced into a two-goal lead after 36 minutes thanks to strikes by Andreas Weimann and Christian Benteke.
Daniel Sturridge and Steven Gerrard salvaged a draw for Liverpool, who are now eight points behind Arsenal after spending Christmas Day on top of the table.
The scrap for survival is even tighter than the battle for first place, with three teams now locked on 18 points in the relegation zone.
Crystal Palace started the day in last, but Jason Puncheon made up for his awful penalty miss against Tottenham Hotspur last week by converting from the spot against Stoke City to seal a 1-0 win.
Sunderland remain second-from-bottom after coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Southampton, while West Ham United make up the bottom three after a 3-1 loss to Newcastle United and Norwich City climbed five points clear of the drop zone thanks to a 1-0 victory against Hull City.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite