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| January 15, 2006 | Sunday | Zilhaj 14, 1426 |
Premier League: Arsenal hit seven, Liverpool defeat Spurs
LONDON, Jan 14: Arsenal thrashed Middlesbrough 7-0 to gain ground in the race for Champions League places on Saturday while fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur were beaten 1-0 at Liverpool and Manchester United lost 3-1 at Manchester City.
At Highbury, Thierry Henry scored a hat trick and there were also goals for Philippe Senderos, Robert Pires, Gilberto Silva and Alexander Hleb while Liverpool’s victory came courtesy of Harry Kewell’s first goal for more than a year.
Arsenal remain fifth, on 37 points from 21 games. Spurs are fourth on 40 from 22, Liverpool have 44 from 20 with United on 45 from 22.
Chelsea, 13 points clear at the top on 58, visit bottom club Sunderland on Sunday.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Everton won 1-0 at Portsmouth, West Ham United triumphed 2-1 at Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic beat Birmingham City 2-0 and Fulham defeated Newcastle United 1-0.
United’s defeat allowed Liverpool to gain ground as they edged Tottenham in a heavyweight encounter at Anfield.
The game was short on chances and settled by a superb volley from Australian midfielder Kewell after an hour.
Tottenham, who last finished in the top four 16 years ago, had defender Paul Stalteri sent off three minutes from time.
The visitors could have lost by more but for a good display by goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
Arsenal totally outclassed a Middlesbrough team being sucked towards the relegation zone as the Londoners matched their 7-0 demolition of Everton last May.
Playing classic, high-speed football they were 4-0 up at halftime and Henry’s third, after 68 minutes, took him level with 1930s winger Cliff Bastin as the club’s leading league scorer with 150 goals.
Middlesbrough, without a league win since November, had Doriva sent off for a second booking 18 minutes from time.
Manchester United suffered a dispiriting defeat at neighbours Manchester City in their 145th derby to complete a painful week.
First-half goals by Trevor Sinclair and Darius Vassell and and injury-time strike from Robbie Fowler were fair reward for a City side who had taken only one point from their previous four games.
United briefly made it 2-1 with a 76th-minute Ruud van Nistelrooy goal but, down to 10 men after a 66th-minute red card for Cristiano Ronaldo, they were generally toothless in attack.
United’s third league defeat of the season leaves them on 45 points, 13 behind champions Chelsea.
Saturday’s result completes a miserable week for United, who were held to a goalless FA Cup draw by minor league Burton Albion and managed only a 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers in the first leg of their League Cup semifinal.
After a quiet opening half-hour the game caught fire with two City goals in eight minutes.
The first came when Stephen Ireland retrieved a headed Gary Neville clearance and poked the ball back into the box where Sinclair swivelled to drive it first time past Edwin van der Sar.
United looked close to an equaliser three minutes later when Ronaldo set Wayne Rooney clear but City keeper David James raced out quickly to block his England colleague’s shot.
City stretched the lead with a route one goal. United failed to deal with a James clearance and when Sinclair’s flick on eventually got through to the feet of Vassell the striker kept his cool to sidefoot into the corner.
City continued to comfortably deal with their neighbours’ best efforts in the second half and things went their way further in the 66th minute.
Ronaldo, frustrated after being felled by a heavy challenge, launched a studs-up lunge at former United favourite Andy Cole and though he failed to make contact the referee deemed it worthy of a straight red card.
United responded well and cut the deficit in the 76th minute when Ryan Giggs picked out Van Nistelrooy and the Dutchman showed excellent control to chest the ball down, take a touch and swivel to shoot low past James.
They were unable to create much more, however, and were caught on the break in injury time when Vassell set up Fowler crash home the third.
Saturday’s results:
Arsenal 7 Middlesbrough 0
Aston Villa 1 West Ham United 2
Charlton Athletic 2 Birmingham City 0
Fulham 1 Newcastle United 0
Liverpool 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Manchester City 3 Manchester United 1
Portsmouth 0 Everton 1
Playing on Sunday:
Wigan Athletic v West Bromwich Albion (1330)
Sunderland v Chelsea (1600) —Reuters
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