The Hindu : Sport / Football : Manchester City moves to fourth place

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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Manchester City moves to fourth place

LONDON: Manchester City added to the pressure on the shoulders of Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce with a 2-0 Premier League away win at St. James’ Park on Wednesday that saw it leapfrog Liverpool into fourth place in the table.

Defeat meant Newcastle has taken just one point from a possible 12 as high-flyers City, managed by former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson, went fourth after its first away league win since the opening day of the season.

Liverpool, which had been fourth, was held to a 1-1 draw by relegation threatened Sunderland.

The draw was a huge blow to Liverpool’s title hopes as it left it 12 points behind leader Arsenal but saw Wigan move out of the relegation zone.

In the day’s other Premier League matches, basement club Derby appeared close to a precious away point only to concede a last minute goal in a 1-0 defeat against Bolton Wanderers. Elsewhere South Africa international Benni McCarthy scored the only goal of the game as Blackburn Rovers beat Sunderland, a result that saw the visitors, who finished the match with 10 men, return to the bottom three.

Victory saw Rovers boss Mark Hughes put one over his old Manchester United teammate Roy Keane, now in charge of Sunderland. Elano gave City the lead shortly before half-time when he shot low past Shay Given after the ball was played into his path by Darius Vassell. Allardyce, who recently received backing from United chairman Chris Mort amidst reports he was about to be replaced by former Newcastle and England forward Alan Shearer, brought on injury-prone striker Michael Owen at half-time.

The results: Blackburn Rovers 1 (McCarthy 57-pen) bt Sunderland 0; Bolton 1 (Giannakopoulos 90) bt Derby 0; Liverpool 1 (Torres 49) drew with Wigan 1 (Bramble 80); Newcastle 0 lost to Manchester City 2 (Elano 38, Gelson 76). — Agencies

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