Chelsea’s week to forget ended with a day to forget on Saturday as their advantage at the English Premier League summit was trimmed to five points by resurgent champions Manchester City.
Tarnished by the incident on Tuesday last week that saw a group of the club’s fans prevent a black man from boarding a Paris Metro train while chanting racist songs, Chelsea were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw by lowly Burnley.
Ben Mee claimed an 81st-minute equalizer for Burnley after Nemanja Matic had been sent off for lashing out at Ashley Barnes and City took full advantage by cruising to a 5-0 home win over Newcastle United.
Chelsea took a 14th-minute lead when Branislav Ivanovic scored after a weaving run from Eden Hazard.
It was the Serbian defender’s second goal in two matches following his equalizing header in the 1-1 draw at Paris Saint-Germain and seemed destined to restore a sense of normality to Stamford Bridge.
However, after his countryman Matic was shown a 70th-minute red card for retaliating when Barnes caught him on the shin with an ugly challenge, Mee headed home Kieran Trippier’s left-wing corner to equalize.
City set about dismantling Newcastle 5-0 in a sparkling performance that set them up perfectly for tomorrow’s Champions League visit of Barcelona.
Edin Dzeko won a penalty inside 30 seconds after being clipped by Vurnon Anita and Sergio Aguero scored from the spot to put City ahead.
Samir Nasri increased City’s advantage before Dzeko added a glorious third in the 21st minute, chesting down a raking pass from David Silva and steering a left-foot shot past Tim Krul.
Silva got in on the act with a brilliant quick-fire brace early in the second half and Wilfried Bony gave City’s fans further reason to cheer when he came on to make his debut.
Manchester United lost momentum in the battle for Champions League places after seeing a 19-game unbeaten run come to an end in a 2-1 defeat at Swansea City.
Ander Herrera put United ahead in the 28th minute, but Ki Sung-yueng swiftly equalized and Swansea completed a first league double over their opponents when Jonjo Shelvey’s shot flicked in off Bafetimbi Gomis in the 73rd minute.
Arsenal capitalized on United’s slip-up with a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace that saw Arsene Wenger’s side climb to third place in the table.
Santi Cazorla opened the scoring with an eighth-minute penalty after Pape Souare was adjudged to have fouled Danny Welbeck.
Olivier Giroud added a second on the stroke of half-time, following up after Julian Speroni had saved from Welbeck, before Glenn Murray tapped in a stoppage-time consolation for Palace.
Aston Villa slipped to second-bottom after losing 2-1 at home to Stoke City.
Queens Park Rangers lost 2-1 at relegation rivals Hull City, as perennial troublemaker Joey Barton was sent off for flinging a hand toward Tom Huddlestone’s nether regions
Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion played out a drab 0-0 draw at the Stadium of Light.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but