Manchester City on Saturday opened up a three-point lead at the top of the English Premier League with a game in hand as manager Pep Guardiola’s men beat Sheffield United 1-0, while Manchester United played out a goalless draw at Arsenal.
Gabriel Jesus scored the only goal inside the first 10 minutes at the Etihad Staduim as City extended their winning run to 12 games in all competitions.
Ferran Torres and Jesus were two of five changes made by Guardiola and they combined to make the breakthrough as the Brazilian tapped home for his first Premier League goal since November last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
City failed to build on the lead, but comfortably held out for a 15th clean sheet in their last 19 games.
“People think if we won the last one 5-0, we will win this one 5-0. This is the real world, not a fairytale,” Pep Guardiola said. “Today when I see Sheffield is bottom of the league. You see this team and realize how tough is the Premier League.”
Second-placed United could have moved back within one point of their local rivals, but for the second time in four days, after suffering a shock defeat by Sheffield United on Wednesday, their title challenge faltered.
Edinson Cavani wasted a golden opportunity for United when the striker volleyed wide in the closing moments, while Alexandre Lacazette’s free-kick for Arsenal came back off the bar.
“The Sheffield United result of course was disappointing when you’re at home. If you feel, away at Arsenal, you deserve a win that’s a step forward,” Solskjaer said.
Arsenal are undefeated in their past seven league matches and edged to within six points adrift of the top four despite missing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney.
Aston Villa moved above the Gunners into eighth spot after Ross Barkley’s header earned a 1-0 win at Southampton.
Villa manager Dean Smith’s men had goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to thank for brilliant saves to deny Che Adams and Jan Bednarek, while Danny Ings had a goal ruled out for offside deep into stoppage time as Southampton slumped to a third straight league defeat.
At the other end of the table, Newcastle United pulled clear of the drop zone with a first win in 12 games, beating Everton 2-0, while relegation rivals West Bromwich Albion and Fulham played out a 2-2 draw.
Magpies manager Steve Bruce’s future was under the spotlight after a wretched run that plunged his side into the relegation dogfight, but Callum Wilson scored twice in the final 17 minutes to earn a deserved victory.
Everton were punished for a poor performance when Wilson sent a header home from a corner and then sealed the win on the counter-ttack in stoppage time.
“There’s no disputing it — it’s been very difficult,” Bruce said. “We’re trying to be more on the front foot and push up the pitch. We were a lot better.”
Bruce’s men are now eight points clear of the relegation zone after a point each did little for West Brom or Fulham’s battle to beat the drop.
The visitors were dominant in the first half at the Hawthorns and were made to regret not building on Bobby Decordova-Reid’s opener.
Kyle Bartley levelled for the Baggies two minutes into the second half ,before new signing Mbaye Diagne teed up Matheus Pereira to turn the game around.
Ivan Cavaleiro’s equalizer ensured Fulham remain above West Brom in 18th and edged to within four points of safety.
Crystal Palace eased fears that they could be dragged into a scrap for survival as Eberechi Eze’s winner earned the Eagles a 1-0 win over the Wolverhampton Wanderers to move up to 13th.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier