Manchester City and Manchester United ground out a tepid 0-0 draw as Michael Essien’s goal earned Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Fulham and a four-point cushion at the top of the Premier League on Wednesday.
Derided by United manager Alex Ferguson as “noisy neighbors,” mega-rich City failed to rattle the 18-times champions but were spared the agony of last season when they lost both league meetings to last-gasp goals.
While City and United huffed and puffed to little effect, champions Chelsea stole a march in the title race as Essien’s first-half goal proved enough to beat Fulham, although the Ghanaian blotted his copybook when he was sent off late on for a two-footed lunge at Clint Dempsey.
Photo: REUTERS
Essien was unmarked on the half hour to head in Salomon Kalou’s cross but Chelsea, beaten 2-0 at Liverpool on Sunday, were slapdash in front of goal and failed to kill off their west London rivals.
Despite lacking the gloss of early-season when they could not stop scoring goals, Chelsea are flying high with 28 points from 12 games with United on 24 and Arsenal, for whom Marouane Chamakh scored in the first minute and again in the last in a 2-0 win at struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers, third on 23. City complete the top four on 21.
Andy Carroll struck his seventh league goal of the season for fifth-placed Newcastle United but his side slipped to a 2-1 home defeat by Blackburn Rovers.
Revived Fernando Torres made it three goals in two games for Liverpool but his classy first-half strike only earned a 1-1 draw at Wigan Athletic. Blackpool went down 3-2 at Aston Villa and Everton equalized late in a 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers after having Marouane Fellaini sent off.
West Ham United remained bottom after drawing 2-2 at home with West Bromwich Albion and have managed just one win with nearly a third of the season gone.
Manchester United remained the only Premier League side unbeaten this season but Ferguson appeared subdued by the loss of two points.
“Credit to them, they set their stall out to be difficult to break down,” Ferguson told Sky Sports.
“Maybe there was too much tension. We needed to make chances and we needed to win the match but in that sense we only had two openings and that’s a bit disappointing,” he said.
Opportunities were few and far between as much of the action was confined to the overcrowded middle third of the pitch with City unwilling to throw off the defensive shackles that have become a trademark of Roberto Mancini’s side.
The creative talents on view were marginalized with United striker Dimitar Berbatov hardly getting a sight of goal while City’s Carlos Tevez was only a little more effective trying to puncture United’s rearguard.
Tevez did force one flying save from Edwin van der Sar before halftime with a free-kick and United’s Patrice Evra tested Joe Hart with a firm shot after one of the few fluent passing moves of the game.
Berbatov’s only effort on goal came after the break with an overhead kick comfortably dealt with by Hart.
Despite the lack of chances and excitement the closing minutes were tense for both sets of fans and the away contingent breathed a sigh of relief when City’s Pablo Zabaleta wafted one presentable chance over the bar.
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,
The Philippines curling team has been rocking it in Harbin, claiming the tropical nation’s first Asian Winter Games medal yesterday with a victory in the men’s final against South Korea. The team of Marc Pfister, Alan Frei, Christian Haller, Enrico Pfister and alternate Benjo Delarmente took gold with a 5-3 win at Harbin Pingfang Curling Arena. The Philippines Olympic Committee was quick to celebrate with a post on Instagram to mark the historic gold. “This is the first-ever medal for the Philippines at the Asian Winter Games, and the highest achievement for a Southeast Asian athlete in the Games’ history! What an incredible
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui were defeated by their Chinese counterparts 3-0 on Saturday in the men’s doubles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash. Lin and Kao received their silver medals after being defeated by third-seeded duo Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin of China 2-11, 4-11, 11-13. The Taiwan pair were left playing catch-up early in the match after the Chinese duo proved unstoppable in the first and second game. Although Lin and Kao picked up their pace in the third game and at one point took a 10-8 lead, they were crucially unable to take
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Tuesday dumped compatriot and second seed Hsieh Su-wei out of the women’s doubles at the Qatar Open to set up another potential Taiwanese showdown, while world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat in the second round. Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu, who earlier this year won the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Hobart International, defeated Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 29 minutes on Grandstand Court 3 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Wu and Jiang on Sunday advanced to the round-of-16 with a 7-6 (7/7),
RSS