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| April 27, 2003 | Sunday | Safar 24, 1424 |
Bolton dent Arsenal’s title hopes
LONDON, April 26: Arsenal’s title hopes suffered a potentially fatal blow on Saturday when they squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at relegation strugglers Bolton Wanderers.
Goals from Sylvain Wiltord and Robert Pires had the champions on course for top place in the table — only for Youri Djorkaeff to pull one back for Bolton and Arsenal’s substitute defender Martin Keown to score an own goal in the 84th minute.
The draw left Arsenal in second place on 72 points from 35 games, trailing leaders Manchester United, who have 74 points from 35 games and who play at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
Bolton, whose French defender Florent Laville was sent off in the closing minutes, earned a valuable point in their battle against the drop — giving them 40 points, five more than third-from-bottom West Ham United, who play at Manchester City on Sunday.
But the result is a hammer blow to Arsenal’s hopes of retaining their title, which now rest on Manchester United slipping up in their final games against Spurs, Charlton Athletic and Everton.
Results
Birmingham City 3 Middlesbrough 0
Bolton Wanderers 2 Arsenal 2
Charlton Athletic 2 Southampton 1
Chelsea 1 Fulham 1
Everton 2 Aston Villa 1
Leeds United 2 Blackburn Rovers 3
Sunderland 0 Newcastle United 1
West Bromwich Albion 0 Liverpool 6
Playing on Sunday: Manchester City v West Ham United (1300 GMT) Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United (1505)
Results of German first division soccer matches played on Saturday:
Hamburg SV 4 Nuremberg 0
VfL Wolfsburg 0 Bayern Munich 2
Hertha Berlin 2 Hanover 96 0
VfB Stuttgart 1 Hansa Rostock 1
Schalke 04 1 VfL Bochum 2
B. Moenchengladbach 2 B. Leverkusen 2
TSV 1860 Munich 0 Borussia Dortmund 0
—Reuters
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