The Hindu : Sport : Man U thrashes Sunderland

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Man U thrashes Sunderland

Aston Villa rallies to hold Chelsea in a thriller

— Photo: AP

MARKSMAN: Manchester United’s Louis Saha set to score the first of his two goals against Sunderland on Wednesday.

LONDON: Manchester United beat old boy Roy Keane’s Sunderland for the second time this season to turn up the heat on title rival Arsenal as Chelsea lost ground on the Premier League’s top two.

A double from Louis Saha and one apiece for Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo allowed United to stroll to a 4-0 win at the Stadium of Light.

The champion now has an eight-point advantage over Chelsea, which was held to a 4-4 draw at home by Aston Villa in a Boxing Day thriller that had three red cards, two penalties and an injury-time equaliser.

Gerrard nets winner

Liverpool needed a last-minute winner from captain Steven Gerrard to claim a 2-1 win over bottom side Derby that lifts it back into fourth place, a point behind Chelsea but having played a game less.

Derby had looked set to claim at least a point after Jay McEveley had cancelled out Fernando Torres’s first-half goal.

Everton returned to winning ways following Sunday’s defeat at Old Trafford with a 2-0 win at home to Bolton, Phil Neville and Tim Cahill getting the goals.

The match of the day came at Stamford Bridge, where Shaun Maloney’s double gave Villa a two-goal lead with barely quarter of an hour gone.

The visitors had defender Zat Knight sent off in first-half stoppage time and two goals from Andriy Shevchenko, the first from the spot, had Chelsea level within five minutes of the restart.

Brazilian centre-half Alex then put Chelsa ahead only for Denmark centre-half Martin Laursen to volley in an equaliser.

Chelsea’s Ricardo Carvalho was sent off for a two-footed tackle on Gabriel Agbonlahor before a Michael Ballack free-kick in the 88th-minute appeared to have secured the three points.

Last-gasp equaliser

But there was still time for another twist. In stoppage time, Ashley Cole was sent off for a handball on the line and Villa captain Gareth Barry equalised from the resulting penalty.

Elsewhere, the Tottenham revival under Juande Ramos gathered pace with a 5-1 thrashing of Fulham at White Hart Lane, in which Robbie Keane claimed his 99th and 100th Premiership goals.

The results: Birmingham 3 (Downing 22-og, Forssell 45, McSheffrey 90-pen) bt Middlesbrough 0; Chelsea 4 (Shevchenko 45-pen, 50, Alex 66, Ballack 88) drew with Aston Villa 4 (Maloney 14, 44, Laursen 72, Barry 90-pen); Derby 1 (McEveley 67) lost to Liverpool 2 (Torres 12, Gerrard 90).

Everton 2 (Neville 51, Cahill 70) bt Bolton 0; Sunderland 0 lost to Manchester United 4 (Rooney 20, Saha 30, 86-pen, Ronaldo 45); Tottenham 5 (Keane 27, 62, Huddlestone 45, 71, Defoe 90) bt Fulham 1 (Dempsey 60); West Ham 1 (Solano 42) drew with Reading 1 (Kitson 60); Wigan 1 (Taylor 65) bt Newcastle 0. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport