Sport - Football

Arsenal remains on top

— PHOTO: AP

BANG ON TARGET: Dirk Kuyt beats Tim Howard for the second time from the penalty spot to seal Liverpool’s win over Everton.

LONDON: Dirk Kuyt scored his second penalty kick in injury-time on Saturday to give Liverpool a 2-1 win over nine-man Everton, while Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea also won in the English Premier League.

Both of Kuyt’s spot kicks were the result of Everton players being sent off — defender Tony Hibbert for a foul on Steven Gerrard in the 54th minute, and Phil Neville for handling the ball on the goalline to block a shot from substitute Lucas Leiva in injury-time.

Arsenal remained on top with a 2-0 win over Bolton — its 11th consecutive victory in all competitions.

Manchester United beat nine-man Aston Villa 4-1 to stay second. Wayne Rooney scored two goals but missed a hat-trick when Villa’s backup goalkeeper Stuart Taylor saved his penalty kick.

Manchester City is third after a 1-0 win over Birmingham, while Didier Drogba scored for Chelsea in its 2-0 win over Middesbrough.

Arsenal has 25 points, followed by Man United with 23, Manchester City with 22 and Liverpool with 19. Portsmouth, Blackburn and Chelsea are next, all on 18.

Everton too should have been awarded a penalty after defender Joleon Lescott and Liverpool centre-back Jamie Carragher fell to the ground in the fourth minute of injury time. Everton manager David Moyes was furious at referee Mark Clattenburg.

Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia had put Everton ahead with an own goal in the 38th minute. He kicked the ball into the net off a post while trying to clear it after an Everton corner.

Gerrard was taken off in the 72nd for Leiva, a defensive midfielder making his Premier League debut.

Villa went ahead with a 13th-minute header from Gabriel Agbonlahor, but it was downhill from there.

Wayne Rooney scored in his fifth successive game in the 36th minute. He added his second goal in the 44th after taking a pass from Carlos Tevez.

United went ahead 3-1 when Rio Ferdinand scored in the 45th.

It got worse for Villa in the second half — Nigel Reo Coker was sent off in the 60th for two yellow cards and goalkeeper Scott Carson was shown the red card in the 66th minute for bringing down Tevez. Rooney had his subsequent penalty kick saved by Stuart Taylor, who had come on as Villa’s goalkeeper. Ryan Giggs scored United’s fourth in the 74th.

Chelsea won three straight games for the first time this season at Middlesbrough. Drogba put Chelsea ahead in the eighth minute after taking a pass from Frank Lampard.

The goal came two days after Drogba was quoted as saying that “something is broken” at Chelsea, and that he wanted to leave following last month’s departure of coach Jose Mourinho. He later said he was committed to Chelsea — at least until the end of the season.

Defender Alex scored Chelsea’s second goal, turning in a free-kick by Lampard in the 57th.

Manchester City won its fourth consecutive game with a 1-0 win off a 37th-minute goal from Elano.

Bolton had parted company with manager Sammy Lee on Wednesday and coaching coordinator Archie Knox began his time as temporary coach.

He fielded a strong defensive line-up that wasn’t breached until the 68th minute when Arsenal defender Kolo Toure scored with a long-range strike into the corner of the net.

Tomas Rosicky made it 2-0 in the 80th by turning in a cross from Theo Walcott.

Albert Riera and Raul Tamudo scored on Saturday to give Espanyol a 2-1 win over Real Madrid, inflicting the Spanish league leader’s first defeat of the season.

Earlier, FC Barcelona also lost for the first time — 3-1 at Villarreal — a result which dropped it to fourth place and ended its six-game winning streak in all competitions.

In other matches, Valencia beat Deportivo La Coruna 4-2, while Sevilla won 2-0 at Levante to end a run of four straight defeats.

Defending champion Madrid leads the league with 19 points. Villarreal and Valencia have 18, with Villarreal ahead on goal difference. Barcelona has 17. Espanyol comes next with 16.

The results:

EPL: Saturday’s matches: Arsenal 2 (Toure 68, Rosicky 80) bt Bolton 0; Aston Villa 1 (Agbonlahor 13) lost to Manchester United 4 (Rooney 36, 44, Ferdinand 45, Giggs 74); Blackburn 4 (McCarthy 18, 82-pen, Santa Cruz 22, Tugay 32) bt Reading 2 (Doyle 80, 90); Everton 1 (Hyypia 38-og) lost to Liverpool 2 (Kuyt 54-pen, 90-pen); Fulham 0 drew with Derby 0; Manchester City 1 (Elano 37) bt Birmingham 0; Middlesbrough 0 lost to Chelsea 2 (Drogba 8, Alex 57); Wigan 0 lost to Portsmouth 2 (Benjani Mwaruwari 81, Johnson 86).

Spanish league: Saturday’s matches: Levante 0 lost to Sevilla 2 (Luis Fabiano 6, 13); Villarreal 3 (Cazorla 2, Senna 13-pen, 34-pen) bt Barcelona 1 (Bojan 24); Deportivo La Coruna 2 (Xisco 28, Bodipo 87) lost to Valencia 4 (Joaquin 9, Baraja 15, Morientes 37, 73); Espanyol 2 (Riera 1, Tamudo 53) bt Real Madrid 1 (Ramos 90). — Agencies

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu