LONDON (AP) ― Arsenal extended its Premier League lead to four points with a 2-0 win over Southampton on Saturday while Liverpool was held to a 3-3 draw at Everton.
Arsenal bounced back from a defeat to defending champion Manchester United with a dominant display, capped by two goals from Olivier Giroud. The first came after Southampton goalkeeper Artur Boruc bizarrely lost the ball to the France striker in the box.
Substitute Daniel Sturridge salvaged a draw for Liverpool. Chelsea reasserted its title credentials with a 3-0 win at West Ham.
Arsenal leads Liverpool and Chelsea by four points after 12 games. Liverpool is second on goals scored.
Spain
Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas made penalty kicks to help injury-battered Barcelona to a 4-0 win at home over 10-man Granada in the Spanish league. Carlos Vela scored four times to rally Real Sociedad from a two-goal deficit for a 4-3 victory against 10-man Celta Vigo.
Injured Lionel Messi watched from the sidelines at Camp Nou as Iniesta and Fabregas took turns drawing fouls from Granada’s overly aggressive defenders.
Iniesta scored Barcelona’s first goal in the 20th minute and Fabregas made it 2-0 in the 40th. Granada played a man down from the 66th after Manuel Iturra received his second booking. Alexis Sanchez scored five minutes later, and Pedro Rodriguez capped Barcelona’s victory in the 90th.
The win, for now, moved Barcelona six points ahead of second-place Atletico Madrid and nine points ahead of Real Madrid.
Germany
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Leverkusen’s Son Heung-min controls the ball against Hertha Berlin on Saturday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
Bayern Munich defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-0 in the Bundesliga, with Mario Goetze coming off the bench to score against his childhood club and Arjen Robben and Thomas Mueller adding late goals.
Bayern kept its four-point lead but Dortmund dropped to third with its second straight loss dropped. It trails Bayer Leverkusen, which won 1-0 at Hertha Berlin.
“It looks like a clear-cut victory but it was only 1-0 until the 85th minute. They had to try to force things at the end and we used the space,” Robben said.
In other matches, Eintracht Frankfurt overcame a two-goal deficit before yielding a late equalizer in a 3-3 draw at home against Schalke.
Nuremberg remained without a win this season by playing to a 1-1 draw at home with Wolfsburg. Freiburg won 1-0 at Eintracht Braunschweig, and Augsburg beat Hoffenheim 2-0.
Italy
Last-place Chievo Verona beat Hellas Verona 1-0 with a final-minute goal in the Italian league.
Left unmarked inside the area, Dejan Lazarevic scored with a powerful shot in the second minute of added time for his first Serie A goal.
It was Chievo’s first match since Eugenio Corini was rehired as coach. The victory, for now, moved Chievo even with Sampdoria and Catania at the bottom of the standings. Hellas remained sixth.
France
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lucas Moura and Jeremy Menez scored as Paris Saint-Germain beat Reims 3-0 to temporarily go seven points in front in the French league.
Lucas fired into the top corner in the 24th minute before Menez added a second from a tight angle in the 60th.
Ibrahimovic scored his ninth league goal this season to seal the win from 25 yards in stoppage time.
Grzegorz Krychowiak of Reims missed a penalty kick in the 68th.
