Danny Welbeck returned from injury to maintain Arsenal’s recent revival, as the England striker sealed a 1-0 win at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Arsene Wenger’s men had been under pressure after successive Premier League defeats condemned them to their worst start for 30 years, but a mid-week victory over Borussia Dortmund that booked their place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League lifted spirits at the north London club.
Welbeck missed that win due to hamstring and knee problems, but he was back at the Hawthorns to net his sixth goal for Arsenal from Santi Cazorla’s 60th-minute cross, giving the Gunners only their fifth Premier League victory of the season.
Photo: Reuters
Despite the win, some Arsenal fans held up a banner at full time calling for Wenger to quit.
Asked if he was affected by the protest, the Frenchman said: “I don’t want to comment on that. I try to do my best for this club that I love. It’s easier to deal with the upwards than the downwards, but you cannot be a manager and have only one side.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool ended a three-match skid as Glen Johnson’s late goal clinched a hard-fought 1-0 win against Stoke City at Anfield.
Reds captain Steven Gerrard was dropped to the bench on the 16th anniversary of his Liverpool debut and Brendan Rodgers’ side were lackluster without him.
Stoke’s Bojan Krkic hit the woodwork in the second half, but Liverpool improved after Gerrard came on for the final 16 minutes and England rightback Johnson popped up with the winner in the 85th minute after Rickie Lambert’s header hit the bar.
“The players were absolutely incredible. We fully deserved it and to keep a clean sheet against a very good side was pleasing,” Rodgers said.
At Old Trafford, Robin van Persie scored only his fourth goal for Manchester United this season as the hosts cruised to a 3-0 win over Hull City.
United’s injury problems continued early in the first half when Argentina midfielder Angel di Maria was forced to come off, but Louis van Gaal’s side took the lead in the 16th minute as video technology showed that Chris Smalling’s scrambled effort had crossed the line to give the much-maligned defender his first goal since December last year.
United captain Wayne Rooney got the second goal, sweeping home from long range in the 42nd minute, before Van Persie netted in the 66th minute to seal his fourth-placed team’s third successive win.
“It was the best match of our season. What pleased me most was the way we dominated the game from the first minute to the last minute,” Van Gaal said.
“Di Maria is out of Tuesday’s game against Stoke, but we will have to wait and see how bad it is,” the Dutchman added.
Elsewhere on Saturday, West Ham United leapfrogged Newcastle United into fifth place with a 1-0 win at Upton Park.
Newcastle had climbed into the top five on the back of five successive league victories, but fell behind in the 56th minute when Hammers leftback Aaron Cresswell turned in Cheikhou Kouyate’s miscued shot.
The Magpies’ hopes of an equalizer were wrecked when midfielder Moussa Sissoko was sent off for earning two bookings in the space of 46 seconds in the second half.
In the day’s other ties, Queens Park Rangers moved off the bottom of the table at the expense of fellow strugglers Leicester City, who slipped to 20th place after their 3-2 defeat at Loftus Road, while Burnley rescued a 1-1 draw against relegation rivals Aston Villa at Turf Moor and Swansea drew Crystal Palace 1-1 at the Liberty Stadium.
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