Arsenal kept their noses in front of Everton in the race for the fourth and final UEFA Champions League qualifying berth with a comfortable 3-0 win at future FA Cup final opponents Hull City in the English Premier League on Sunday.
The Gunners welcomed Mesut Ozil back from a hamstring injury and he played a part in the 31st-minute move that led to Aaron Ramsey drilling the visitors in front.
In response, Hull midfielder Jake Livermore drove a low shot against the post, only for Lukas Podolski to emphatically volley home Arsenal’s second goal just before halftime from Ramsey’s chested layoff.
Photo: AFP
Podolski claimed his second goal in the 54th minute, tucking away the rebound after Hull goalkeeper Allan McGregor had blocked from the irrepressible Ramsey.
“We kept a clean sheet and we scored three goals, and overall I believe the performance was good,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
“It’s in our hands. Do we win our games? So let’s just focus to win the games. We have a great desire to do it and I think we can, but it’s down to the quality of the performance in every game,” Wenger said.
The victory provisionally put Arsenal four points clear of fifth-placed Everton, but Roberto Martinez’s side trimmed their lead back to a point with a clinical 2-0 defeat of Manchester United.
It was United manager David Moyes’ first visit to Goodison Park since he left to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson last year and it was to prove a chastening one, as his side fell to their 11th defeat of a dismal campaign.
Leighton Baines, a one-time United transfer target, put Everton ahead from the penalty spot in the 28th minute after Phil Jones had blocked a shot with his hand and Kevin Mirallas added a second goal shortly before halftime.
“What I was pleased with was that the team showed a real focus in wanting to win the game,” Martinez said.
“We were very fresh. The squad is ready and that’s pleasing,” the Spaniard said.
Defeat for United means that last season’s champions can no longer qualify for the Champions League, after 18 successive seasons in the competition.
Asked if it hurt, Moyes told a TV reporter: “It does, because it’s part of this club and we want to be in it. We’ll do everything we can to get ourselves back in it as quickly as we can.”
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
RSS