April 2, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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LONDON, April 1: Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy hit a second-half winner for Manchester United at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday to cut Chelsea’s lead to seven points after the champions were held 0-0 at Birmingham.

Van Nistelrooy, starting from the bench again despite netting the winner against West Ham in midweek, converted Louis Saha’s cross on 79 minutes to seal a 2-1 win at the Reebok Stadium and breathe new life into the title race.

Saha had cancelled out Kevin Davies’s opener for Bolton.

Chelsea were frustrated by relegation-threatened Birmingham City, the below-par Londoners held at St Andrews in a lunchtime kickoff.

With six games to play, Chelsea have 79 points from 32 games with United on 72. Third-placed Liverpool (64) play away at West Bromwich Albion in a late kickoff (1615).

In other games, fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur had Michael Dawson sent off in a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United while Thierry Henry scored twice in Arsenal’s 5-0 demolition of Aston Villa, who are being dragged into the relegation dogfight.

At the bottom, Portsmouth’s third successive win, 3-1 over Fulham at Craven Cottage, gave the south coast side hope of escaping the drop. Bottom side Sunderland drew 2-2 at Everton and will be relegated if West Brom defeat Liverpool.

Birmingham, third from bottom and reeling from shipping 10 goals in their last two games in league and Cup, defended competently and produced the game’s best moment when Olivier Tebily forced Petr Cech into a fingertip save from long range.

Chelsea almost stole the points at the death but Argentine Hernan Crespo wasted two good chances while defender Ricardo Carvalho headed over.

Results

Arsenal 5 Aston Villa 0

Birmingham City 0 Chelsea 0

Bolton Wanderers 1 Manchester United 2

Everton 2 Sunderland 2

Fulham 1 Portsmouth 3

Newcastle United 3 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Meanwhile, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho admitted his club could yet throw away the Premiership title after watching his side labour to a goalless draw with relegation-threatened Birmingham on Saturday.

The Chelsea manager conceded that Birmingham had fully deserved their point, despite his claim that a second-half ‘goal’ by Asier del Horno should not have been chalked off because team-mate Ricardo Carvalho had been in an offside position.

“I’m disappointed but I think two seperate things and don’t change my words,” a clearly disgruntled Mourinho said after the match.

“We don’t deserve to win the game, Birmingham deserved a point. That is one part of the story. The other is that we scored a goal and the goal is not offside.”

The draw handed second-placed Manchester United the opportunity to reduce Chelsea’s lead at the top to seven points with a win over Bolton later in the day.

Chelsea have still to face United in one of their remaining six matches and also face tricky clashes with Blackburn and Bolton.

Mourinho admitted he was concerned about his side’s mixed recent form.—Agencies