Chelsea endured more Stamford Bridge frustration as Southampton held the Premier League leaders to a 1-1 draw, while Wayne Rooney delivered the knockout blow in Manchester United’s 3-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho’s side would have moved eight points clear of second-placed Manchester City if they had beaten Southampton, but instead they had to settle for a share of the spoils in west London.
Diego Costa’s 11th minute header ended the Spain striker’s seven-match goal drought.
Photo: Reuters
Yet Chelsea failed to press home their advantage and Southampton equalized eight minutes later when Dusan Tadic converted a penalty awarded for a Nemanja Matic foul on Sadio Mane.
The Blues laid siege to the Southampton goal in the closing stages, but Oscar, Juan Cuadrado and John Terry all wasted chances to seal a victory that would have left them well on course to win the English title for the first time since 2010.
Chelsea have now drawn their last three home matches in all competitions, but Mourinho was still relatively happy to see his side move six points clear of City.
Photo: Reuters
“I agree Chelsea not winning at home is not a good result, but yesterday we had five points more than City, now we have six points more and one fewer match to play,” he said.
“It makes our situation better than before the game. It’s positive rather than negative,” he added.
At Old Trafford, Rooney was firmly in the spotlight as fourth-placed United produced a rare heavyweight display in a spluttering campaign to move within one point of third-placed Arsenal.
Louis van Gaal’s side made the perfect start as they took the lead in the ninth minute when Marouane Fellaini, played in by Michael Carrick’s fine pass, kept his composure to beat Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris with a low left-footed shot.
Carrick went from provider to scorer 10 minutes later when United’s former Tottenham midfielder looped a header past Lloris after Fellaini’s initial effort had only been half cleared.
It was Carrick’s first goal since February last year, but Rooney ensured the match would be remembered mostly for his contribution in the 34th minute.
Earlier on Sunday, video footage emerged of Rooney being knocked out by Stoke City defender Phil Bardsley during a supposedly friendly sparring session, with both men wearing boxing gloves, in the England striker’s kitchen last month.
Rooney seized the opportunity to poke fun at himself after he rampaged through the Tottenham defense to fire home following Nabil Bentaleb’s mistake.
With all eyes on him, Rooney celebrated by miming a series of punches and then falling onto his back as if having been knocked out.
Asked about Rooney’s boxing antics, a less than amused Van Gaal launched a scathing attack on the media coverage.
“In what a world we live that we are talking about such a thing — that a newspaper paid a lot for a video and I am answering questions about that,” he said. “What is this world, twisted? I don’t want to answer questions about such things.”
Elsewhere, Everton eased their relegation fears with a 3-0 stroll against Newcastle United at Goodison Park.
Roberto Martinez’s team started the day only three points above the bottom three, but they went in front after 20 minutes when Republic of Ireland midfielder James McCarthy scored his first goal of the season with a long-range drive that deceived Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul.
Everton were on course to end a run of five league games without a win by the 56th minute when Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku drove home a penalty after Newcastle’s Yoan Gouffran brought down Aaron Lennon.
Newcastle’s forgettable afternoon got even worse moments later when defender Fabricio Coloccini was shown a straight red card for fouling Lennon, and Ross Barkley netted the third goal in stoppage-time.
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