Chelsea stormed to the summit of the English Premiership on Sunday when a controversial penalty gave them a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. Previous leaders Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw by Fulham.
Frank Lampard’s 30th-minute spot-kick was enough to secure a crucial victory that sent Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea a point clear of the Gunners, who dominated their match at Highbury but were foiled by a goalkeeping masterclass from Dutch veteran Edwin van der Sar.
It was United’s most experienced campaigner, skipper Roy Keane, who handed Chelsea a huge psychological edge in the championship battle by upending Joe Cole in the area after half an hour.
Lampard made the most of his former West Ham teammate’s endeavour by stepping up to send Tim Howard the wrong way from the spot and leave United coach Alex Ferguson questioning the decision.
”First of all the player was not in control of the ball and he was going away from goal a bit,” said Ferguson.
”It is an amazing decision to make in a game of that nature. It’s disappointing but, you know, you’ve not got a top referee today so these things can happen.”
Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri acknowledged that the title race was far from over.
”I continue to think about my job day to day but of course I want to be the first horse in the race.
”So far so good, but the league is very long. Now we are top. I hope we will still be top in May but I think all three teams could change position.”
Arsenal had a hatful of chances to beat Fulham but were unable to find a way past Van der Sar.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger refused to be too downcast at his side’s loss of two crucial points.
”I am not frustrated. I am very happy with our performance — it was just a matter of scoring goals, which we know we can do. We played well and they defended and just refused to play,” the Frenchman said.
Liverpool shrugged off the absence of injured superstar Michael Owen as they came from a goal down to beat Birmingham 3-1 and leapfrog over their opponents to sixth in the table.
Finnish star Mikael Forssell gave Birmingham a 33rd-minute lead but that was cancelled out when Matthew Upson fouled Florent Sinama-Pongolle.
Steven Gerrard converted the penalty and Liverpool went on to claim all three points with second-half goals from Harry Kewell and Emile Heskey.
A relieved Gerard Houllier saw his Liverpool side move into their highest Premiership position for almost three months.
”The table looks a lot healthier now, but to be fair we should have been in this position before. We have lost about six points we should have got,” said Houllier.
In Sunday’s other match, Chinese international defender Sun Jihai scored an own goal, which gave Middlesbrough a 1-0 win at Manchester City.
On Saturday, Leeds celebrated the prospect of being rescued from their financial misery by a consortium of Gulf sheikhs by ending a run of five straight defeats.
A ninth-minute strike by James Milner was enough to secure a 1-0 win over Charlton and give Eddie Gray his first victory since taking over as caretaker manager following the sacking of Peter Reid.
It was only Leeds’s third victory of the season but they remain bottom of the table because their goal difference is worse than fellow strugglers Wolves.
But a battling display will nevertheless have given the Elland Road faithful reason to hope on a day that brought good news off the pitch with confirmation that a takeover of the club is imminent.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s royal family and a Leeds fan of 25 years standing, confirmed to AFP that he is coordinating a group of Gulf investors who are planning to take over the cash-strapped club.
”I’m delighted for the players and the supporters of the club because they are the people that really matter,” said Gray.
Leeds’s victory was enough to drag them level on points with Wolves, who drew 1-1 at home to Newcastle.
Alan Shearer rescued a point for the visiting Magpies after an embarrassing blunder by goalkeeper Shay Given had gifted Wolves the lead.
Given was left red-faced after rushing from his box in the 27th minute only to fluff his clearance and leave Nathan Blake with a clear run for his first goal of the season.
But four minutes later Shearer swept home his 12th Premiership goal of the season from Lomana LuaLua’s pass.
Aston Villa moved out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Southampton thanks to a goal from veteran striker Dion Dublin and Les Ferdinand and Marcus Bent scored for Leicester as they came away from Fratton Park with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth.
Vratislav Gresko’s first goal in English football earned Blackburn a 1-0 win over Spurs.
Everton went down 2-0 at Bolton to slip into the bottom three. — Sapa-AFP