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| December 17, 2001 | Monday | Shawwal 1, 1422 |
Man Utd clock second victory
LONDON, Dec 16: Champions Manchester United clocked up a second consecutive premier league win by beating Middlesbrough 1-0 on Saturday, without the help of England captain David Beckham.
Second-placed Arsenal missed the chance to close within a point of leaders Liverpool, who play at Chelsea on Sunday, by being held to a 1-1 draw at West Ham United.
Newcastle United moved into third place, level on 30 points with Arsenal, after rallying to a 2-1 home win over Blackburn Rovers, while Tottenham Hotspur hammered Fulham 4-0 in a London derby to go sixth.
Manchester United are ahead of Spurs on goal difference, with 27 points, after grinding out a victory over Boro marked by the absence of Beckham and the presence of Ryan Giggs, back from injury.
A tap-in from Ruud van Nistelrooy was enough to give United another morale-boosting win after their 5-0 midweek demolition of Derby County, and raise hopes among Ferguson’s followers that all is not yet lost for this season’s title campaign.
Ferguson said a week ago that his team would probably need to win almost every remaining game if they were to win an unprecedented fourth successive title.
Beckham, who had been left out of the three previous starting line-ups, did not even make the substitutes’ bench. Ferguson has denied there is a rift with the England captain, pointing to a back problem for the midfielder.
Giggs, who had been sidelined for nearly a month with a hamstring injury, came on as a substitute and fired in a shot which the Boro keeper failed to hold — giving Van Nistelrooy a simple goal.
Arsenal twice hit the bar in the second half at Upton Park but West Ham were left to rue a controversial refereeing decision — not to award them a late penalty after an apparent handball by Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira.
French striker Frederic Kanoute opened the scoring for the Hammers but England defender Ashley Cole levelled almost immediately.
Fourth-placed Leeds United, on 28 points, are also in action on Sunday against Leicester City, needing a win to move up to second place.
Saturday’s results:
Bolton Wanderers 0 Charlton Athletic 0
Everton 1 Derby County 0
Manchester United 1 Middlesbrough 0
Newcastle United 2 Blackburn Rovers 1
Southampton 2 Sunderland 0
Tottenham Hotspur 4 Fulham 0
West Ham United 1 Arsenal 1
Playing on Sunday: Chelsea v Liverpool (1600 GMT kickoff); Leeds United v Leicester City (1400).
Playing on Monday: Aston Villa v Ipswich Town (2000)
SPANISH LEAGUE
MADRID: An opportunist strike from Raul and a Luis Figo spot kick helped Real Madrid to a 3-1 win over Real Sociedad and claim top spot in the Spanish first division on Saturday.
The win gives Real 31 points, one ahead of Alaves and two ahead of Deportivo Coruna who both play on Sunday.
Trailing 2-0 at halftime Valencia made a superb comeback to snatch a 3-2 win against Espanyol that helped them move into fifth place, four points behind Real.
Espanyol took the lead with well-worked goals from Juan Francisco Palencia and Alex Fernandez on 23 and 44 minutes.
But the game was turned on its head when the visitors hit three goals in a magnificent seven minute spell at the start of the second half.
Francisco Rufete struck twice in four minutes before helping to set up Romanian striker Adrian Ilie for Valencia’s third on 66 minutes to give his side their first win in six outings.
Russian international Dmitri Khokhlov had put visitors Sociedad ahead at the Bernabeu when he added the finishing touch to a well-crafted counter attack in the 39th minute.
But Real made the most of three crucial errors by the otherwise impressive Basque side.
Saturday’s results:
Espanyol 2 Valencia 3
Las Palmas 1 Osasuna 1
Real Madrid 3 Real Sociedad 1
—Reuters
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