Manchester United gave Sir Alex Ferguson the perfect anniversary president on Saturday as they moved three points clear of Chelsea at the top of the English Premiership with a convincing 3-0 win over Portsmouth.
Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nemanja Vidic scored United's goals to move them on to 28 points, three better than Chelsea, who were to play at Tottenham Hotspur yesterday.
Ferguson celebrates his 20th anniversary as United manager today and the Scot said he was delighted with the first three months of the season.
PHOTO: AP
"We have had a fantastic start," he said. "Historically, we don't always have good starts. We have made one this year and we need to take advantage of it."
"I have to be honest and say there is a confidence about the place that suggests we are now in a position to pull out all the stops and go for it," he said.
Saha put United ahead on four minutes with a penalty after Dejan Stefanovic had tripped Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo then rifled in a free kick to make it 2-0 after just 10 minutes.
Defender Vidic completed the scoring with the third on 66 minutes, heading past David James, who prevented a heavier defeat with a good display.
Third-placed Bolton Wanderers suffered a shock defeat when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Wigan Athletic, while Dirk Kuyt scored twice as Liverpool beat Reading 2-0.
Fulham edged out Everton 1-0 at Craven Cottage, while Charlton heaped more pressure on Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce after a 1-0 win over his side.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
After pushing for months to get a shot at Colby Covington, Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry is getting to headline the UFC’s final card for this year. However, it will not be against Covington. The promotion on Friday announced that Machado Garry, the No. 7-ranked welterweight, would face ninth-ranked Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night in Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 14. Machado Garry, 26, is undefeated through 15 matches, the most recent coming on June 29 when he beat Michael Page via unanimous decision. Last month, Machado Garry said in an Instagram post that in September he was offered a fight with Covington — the