United outshines City with 5-0 bashing of Fulham

LONDON (AP) ― Manchester United managed the rare feat this season of outshining Manchester City’s goal-scoring prowess on Wednesday to keep the heat on its neighbor in the Premier League title race.

While City maintained its two-point lead over United with a 3-0 victory over Stoke, its second-place rivals routed Fulham 5-0 at Craven Cottage.

Such emphatic victories have been the norm for big-spending City this season, but for United it was the biggest in three months.

“It was very impressive, we’ve not scored as many as we’d like to but we’d been playing well,” Giggs said. “The second part of the season we always kick on and put in performances and that’s pleasing.

“We don’t want to rely on the forwards for goals, we need to share them around.”

It was a tighter encounter at Aston Villa, with Arsenal relying on Yossi Benayoun’s late goal to secure a 2-1 victory for his fifth-place side.

Liverpool is two points behind Arsenal after Charlie Adam missed a penalty kick in a 0-0 draw at Wigan. Luis Suarez featured for Liverpool a day after receiving an eight-match ban ― on hold pending any appeal ― for racially abusing United defender Patrice Evra.

Spain

Villarreal fired coach Juan Carlos Garrido following the struggling Spanish club’s embarrassing Copa del Rey loss to a third-tier team on Wednesday.

Villarreal exited the fourth round of the domestic cup competition after Wednesday’s 2-0 home defeat to Mirandes, the final straw for Garrido after Villarreal was also eliminated from the Champions League after losing all six of its group games.

France

Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain will take a three-point lead into the winter break after grinding out a scrappy 1-0 win at Saint-Etienne and taking advantage of its three main rivals dropping points.

PSG’s cash-rich Qatar owners have spent $107 million on players this season and coach Antoine Kombouare’s team is under intense pressure to win the title for the first time since 1994.