Manchester United piled the pressure on Chelsea with a 2-0 win over nine-man Wigan Athletic, while the Premier League leaders crashed to a 1-0 defeat at Birmingham City on Saturday.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s second-placed side are now level on points with Chelsea and only goal difference is keeping United behind the champions, who suffered their third defeat in four matches.
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur staged a stunning fightback from two goals down to clinch a 3-2 win over bitter rivals Arsenal in the north London derby.
PHOTO: AFP
At St Andrew’s, Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea, without injured England stars John Terry and Frank Lampard, fell behind in the 17th minute when Lee Bowyer produced a fine finish from Cameron Jerome’s header to notch his first goal in nearly a year.
The Blues laid siege to Birmingham’s goal after that, but could not find a way past England goalkeeper Ben Foster as their poor run continued.
“We played good football with good spirit and good attitude, and made a lot of chances, but it is not enough as sometimes you need to be lucky,” Ancelotti said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At Old Trafford, United took the lead on the stroke of halftime when leftback Patrice Evra headed in Park Ji-sung’s cross for his first Premier League goal in four years.
Wigan self-destructed after halftime when Antolin Alcaraz and Hugo Rodallega were sent off in quick succession for needless challenges.
Alcaraz got his marching orders for a second yellow card after a foul on Darren Fletcher, then Rodallega saw red after a two-footed lunge on Rafael da Silva.
Mexico striker Javier Hernandez ensured United pushed home their numerical advantage when he headed home Rafael’s cross in the 77th minute, while Wayne Rooney came on to make his long-awaited return from an ankle injury after his contract row.
“Wayne got a great reception and that has taken a lot of pressure off the boy,” Ferguson said.
At the Emirates Stadium, Harry Redknapp’s Spurs trailed to goals from Arsenal’s Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh at halftime, but Gareth Bale reduced the deficit for the visitors, who equalized through Rafael van der Vaart’s penalty, before Younes Kaboul headed the winner with five minutes left to give Tottenham their first victory at Arsenal since May 1993.
“It’s a fantastic achievement. To come back showed great character,” Redknapp said. “We were either going to get beat 5-0 or have a go. That’s what we did because that’s my nature. I’ve said to my players that we can beat anybody.”
Liverpool demolished bottom of the table West Ham United before halftime in a 3-0 victory at Anfield.
Former Hammers star Glen Johnson scored against his old club in the 18th minute and Dirk Kuyt added a second for Roy Hodgson’s team with a 27th-minute penalty following Danny Gabbidon’s handball.
Maxi Rodriguez scored Liverpool’s third goal in the 28th minute as the Reds bounced back from last week’s defeat at Stoke City, despite the absence of injured captain Steven Gerrard.
Bolton Wanderers maintained their fine form with a 5-1 rout of 10-man Newcastle United at the Reebok Stadium.
Kevin Davies fired fourth-placed Bolton in front from the penalty-spot in the 18th minute.
Owen Coyle’s team scored again when South Korea midfielder Lee Chung-yong drove home in the 39th minute. Johan Elmander netted five minutes after halftime and the in-form Bolton striker struck again in the 72nd minute after Andy Carroll’s consolation for Newcastle.
Fabricio Coloccini was sent off for elbowing Elmander late on and Davies added another penalty in stoppage-time.
Blackpool climbed further away from the relegation zone with a 2-1 win over second-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers at Bloomfield Road.
Ian Holloway’s side went ahead in the third minute when Luke Varney smashed in a dipping volley and Marlon Harewood poked in their second after a mistake by goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann just before halftime.
Kevin Doyle’s 86th-minute strike for Wolves came too late to spark a fightback.
Stoke City’s Jon Walters scored twice to inspire a 3-0 win at West Bromwich Albion.
Tony Pulis’ side snatched the lead in the 55th minute through Matthew Etherington’s spot-kick and Walters converted their second penalty in the 85th minute, before netting again in the 90th minute.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
RSS