Thierry Henry scored twice and Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1 Sunday, while two goals from Wayne Rooney gave Manchester United a 2-0 win over Newcastle in the English Premier League.
Henry punished a rare blunder from Steven Gerrard to score the winner at Highbury, as Arsene Wenger's team moved up two places to fifth and within two points of fourth-place Tottenham.
Gerrard played a back pass toward goalkeeper Pepe Reina, but Henry intercepted to round the 'keeper and score with seven minutes to go.
One minute earlier, Liverpool was reduced to 10 men after the ejection of midfielder Xabi Alonso for two yellow cards.
Henry gave Arsenal a 21st-minute lead when he collected a well-timed through ball by midfielder Cesc Fabregas to curl an angled shot round Reina inside the far post.
Henry rolled the ball wide of an empty net early in the second half, and then shot straight at Reina.
The misses appeared costly when Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was unable to hold a powerful shot from Gerrard and Luis Garcia reacted first to head in.
After Henry had made it 2-1, he almost set up a third goal for Robert Pires with two minutes to go -- but his countryman's shot hit the post.
Meanwhile, Rooney scored twice in the first 12 minutes and Manchester United beat Newcastle to cut Chelsea's lead to 15 points.
The Red Devils, which have now won four league matches in a row, also missed several chances at Old Trafford.
Chelsea, which beat Tottenham 2-1 on Saturday, has 75 points, while second-place United has 60. Liverpool has 55, Tottenham 49 and Arsenal 47.
It was Newcastle's first loss since Graeme Souness was fired two months ago. Under temporary manager Glenn Roeder, the Magpies went to Old Trafford -- where they have now not won in 35 league visits -- having won five games and drawn one.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was left on the bench for the third game in a row, but it didn't appear to weaken United as it soon went 2-0 ahead.
Rooney intercepted a poor back pass by Newcastle defender Peter Ramage and lobbed stranded goalkeeper Shay Given in the eighth minute.
Four minutes later, Saha and John O'Shea opened Newcastle's defense with a series of passes, leaving Rooney to fend off Ramage and shoot past Given for the second goal.
"We could have scored more -- we should have," Rooney said. "We should have taken a lot more of our chances and won by a bigger margin but I'm happy to get the two goals."
United manager Alex Ferguson said his team had 29 shots on goal.
"The speed and penetration was fantastic from the forwards and every player played his part," he said. "To have 29 shots is amazing. I know we should have scored more goals but the performance was most important, and it was exhilarating at times."
Rooney should have completed his hat trick in the 68th minute when he went through the Newcastle defense and rounded Given -- only to hit the post with his shot.
Ruud van Nistelrooy went on for Cristiano Ronaldo with 15 minutes to go and United continued to create chances.
Given punched away a powerful shot from Park Ji-sung and Saha headed over the bar from close range. Then Van Nistelrooy got clear with only Given to beat, but he pulled his shot wide. Rooney then had a goalbound shot deflected wide by Newcastle defender Celestine Babayaro.
In the other game, Darren Bent scored twice as Charlton edged Middlesbrough 2-1 at The Valley.
In Saturday's games, a last-minute 25-yard goal by defender William Gallas earned Chelsea its 24th victory in 29 games against fourth-place Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
RSS