Runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City on Saturday took a step closer to a fourth title in five seasons with a 1-0 win over second-placed Chelsea, opening up a 13-point lead over the London club at the top.
Manchester City’s 12th consecutive win, thanks to a 70th minute solo strike from Kevin De Bruyne, continues their charge toward a successful defense of their title, but manager Pep Guardiola was quick to dismiss such talk.
Third-placed Liverpool are 14 points behind City, but have two games in hand, including Brentford’s visit on Sunday last week.
Photo: AFP
“[The players] are going to listen to me that it is not true when people say it is over. In January it is impossible it is over,” Guardiola said.
“If Liverpool win the games in hand, it’s eight points. Now my job is to put in the brains of my players to not believe what the people say. But 12 wins — 36 points from 36 — hats off to them,” the Spaniard said.
After a first half that saw few clear scoring opportunities, other than Jack Grealish being foiled by Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, Chelsea had a chance to take the lead after the break, although Romelu Lukaku’s shot was well saved by Ederson.
City were well in control of the game for large spells and took the points after De Bruyne burst away from N’golo Kante and beat Kepa with a superb shot into the far corner.
“He had many ball losses without any pressure, many ball losses in very promising circumstances,” Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said. “He had a huge chance. We want to serve him, but he is part of the team — and the performance up front, particularly in the first half, we can do much, much better.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB