Slender victories for Chelsea and Manchester City, and a potent attacking display by Arsenal, left the top of the Premier League unchanged on Saturday.
Chelsea lead the way after captain John Terry clinched a 1-0 victory over Everton in stoppage time by bundling the ball over.
Arsenal are just a point behind their London rivals as Olivier Giroud scored twice on his return to the starting lineup in a 4-1 victory over struggling Sunderland.
Third-placed City relied on Yaya Toure’s goal to see off former manager Mark Hughes’ Stoke City 1-0 to remain three points from the summit with a game in hand.
Champions Manchester United are still 15 points from the summit, but moved up to sixth after ending a three-game winless run with a 2-0 victory at Crystal Palace.
The bottom three remains unchanged, with Sunderland, Cardiff City and Fulham in the relegation zone separated by three points.
It is tight at the top too, but at Stamford Bridge, it seemed like Jose Mourinho’s side would endure a second successive draw as Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard repeatedly thwarted them.
That was until the third minute of stoppage time, when Phil Jagielka fouled Ramires to concede a free-kick. Frank Lampard whipped the ball into the penalty area, and it seemed to brush off Branislav Ivanovic’s head before Terry appeared to nudge it into the net with the help of Howard’s body.
“When you score minute 90-something you can speak about being lucky,” Mourinho said. “The reality is that the boys chased that. We were the team that was really trying to win, which is our responsibility. We deserved it. I never thought we would score so late. I had hope that we could score a goal before that. Destiny wanted last minute.”
Fulham was the only team in the bottom three to get anything out of Saturday’s games, with a 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion, but the London club remains at the foot of the standings.
It was nearly the perfect start for Felix Magath as Fulham manager after Ashkan Dejagah put the London club in front at West Brom. However, goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg gifted West Brom an equalizer in the 86th when Matej Vydra’s shot slipped through his hands.
Cardiff are now just a point above Fulham after being crushed 4-0 at Hull, who climbed clear of danger as Nikica Jelavic scored twice between strikes from Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore.
At Upton Park, West Ham United’s remarkable revival continued as they beat Southampton 3-1 to make it four successive victories.
After Maya Yoshida headed Southampton in front in the eighth, Matt Jarvis leveled in the 20th before Carlton Cole, West Ham in front within three minutes and Kevin Nolan added the third in the second half.
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