 |
Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung (left) and Everton’s Johnny Heitinga vie for the ball on Saturday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
LONDON (AP) ― Manchester City beat Wolverhampton 3-1 and stayed five points ahead of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League on Saturday. Chelsea lost ground on the leaders with a 5-3 defeat against visiting Arsenal in which Robin van Persie had a hat trick.
City overcame a second-half red card for Vincent Kompany in its victory, and defending champion United won 1-0 at Everton. Everton, which lost a League Cup game against Chelsea that went to extra time less than 72 hours earlier, looked sluggish. United dominated without testing U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard.
In addition to Van Persie, Arsenal had goals from Andre Santos and Theo Walcott. This was Arsenal’s best win at Chelsea since 1934. Frank Lampard and John Terry scored for Chelsea.
“You could see how happy we are at the end because we fought hard and every one of us showed character,” Van Persie said. “It’s a big, big win for us today.”
Arsenal has 16 points, three fewer than third-place Chelsea.
Liverpool won 2-0 at West Bromwich Albion; Blackburn drew 3-3 with Norwich; Aston Villa drew 2-2 at Sunderland; and Swansea beat Bolton 3-1. Fulham won 2-0 at Wigan with U.S. star Clint Dempsey scoring one of the goals.
Italy
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice to lead AC Milan to a 3-2 win at Roma, giving the Serie A champion a hold on first place for now.
Milan had won only twice at the Stadio Olimpico in the past 14 years, but Ibrahimovic secured a third triumph in the 78th minute.
Milan took the lead in the 17th minute when Ibrahimovic leapt high in the penalty area to head in Alberto Aquilani’s cross. Alessandro Nesta scored Milan’s second goal shortly after Nicolas Burdisso evened the score.
Roma got back into the game with three minutes left when Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati parried a fierce shot from Erik Lamela and Bojan Krkic lashed into the back of the net.
Napoli, which was even on points with Milan before kickoff, missed its chance to go to the top when it lost 2-1 at Catania.
Germany
Mario Gomez scored twice and Bayern Munich beat Nuremberg 4-0 to open a four-point lead in the Bundesliga. Defending champion Borussia Dortmund was held to a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart.
Gomez, the league’s top scorer, struck in the second minute and again in the 68th. Bastian Schweinsteiger scored in the 19th minute and Franck Ribery in the 39th.
Serdar Tasci scored in the 22nd for Stuttgart, but Lukasz Piszczek tied it during first-half injury time.
Schalke beat Hoffenheim 3-1 to climb to second place, one point ahead of Dortmund. Hertha Berlin won 3-2 at Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach downed Hannover 2-1.
Moenchengladbach climbed to fourth place after its first win in four games thanks to two goals from Marco Reus.
Bayern hosts Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Scotland
Rangers won 2-1 at Aberdeen to keep its nine-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League, while Celtic slipped further off the pace with a 0-0 draw against Hibernian.
Kyle Lafferty and Nikica Jelavic scored in the second half to maintain Rangers’ advantage over second-place Motherwell, which won 3-2 at last-place Inverness.
But Celtic slipped 12 points behind the defending champions with its disappointing home draw against a team it beat 4-1 in midweek League Cup play. Hibernian is just four points above last place.
Dundee United won 4-1 at Dunfermline and Kilmarnock won 1-0 at Hearts.
