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Golf star McIlroy Suarez puts and tennis star Liverpool Wozniacki ‘engaged’ back on track THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 201416 19 Chelsea report £49.4million losses Page 19 LONDON: Arsenal’s English midfielder Theo Walcott (left) shoots over the bar during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Cardiff City yesterday. — AFP Arsenal kick off New Year with a bang that suggests that this could yet be the year current struggles at the wrong end of the to suffer a similar fate. post with an angled drive. It was the start of a that Arsene Wenger’s side end their nine-year table. Arsenal, on the other hand, would have Cardiff were defending resolutely, but they concerted spell of pressure and Arsenal were Arsenal 2 trophy drought with the biggest prize in considered this a home banker. Sitting at the were fortunate to escape in the 25th minute coming ever closer to the breakthrough as English football. top of the tree heading into 2014, this was a when Wilshere fell under Gary Medel’s clumsy they laid siege with wave after wave of attacks. The late goals enabled Arsenal to return to game they were expected to canter through. challenge in the penalty area. There were few Per Mertesacker headed wide before wasting first place, after Manchester City had taken However, an unremarkable opening 45 min- complaints from Arsenal when a penalty was another chance when he escaped his marker Cardiff 0 provisional control of the title race with a 3-2 utes saw Arsenal fail to bring a save out of not given, but replays suggested that the but could only nod against the post. success at Swansea City earlier in the day. Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall. England midfielder, celebrating his 22nd birth- Arsenal were becoming increasingly des- Missing so many key players, it looked as Walcott came the closest when he volleyed day, had a strong case despite referee Jon perate, but with two minutes remaining they though Cardiff would come away with a pre- Jack Wilshere’s cross into the side-netting after Moss waving away his appeals. Cardiff’s ploy finally scored through Bendtner. Bacary LONDON: Arsenal kicked off the New Year with cious point before their crushing late heart- 13 minutes. That besides, Arsenal looked a pale was to frustrate, but a rare venture forward saw Sagna’s header from Nacho Monreal’s cross a last-ditch 2-0 win at home to struggling break. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in the stands imitation of the side that had previously dis- Jordon Mutch produce a jinking run and shot finally brought a save out of Marshall, but the Cardiff City yesterday that confirmed their cre- as he edges closer to taking charge of Cardiff mantled so many teams at the Emirates. The that was blocked by the legs of Arsenal’s large- ball fell kindly for the Denmark striker to rifle dentials as Premier League title contenders. following Malky Mackay’s sacking. home side dominated territory and possession, ly redundant goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. into the roof of the net. It proved to be his final Arsenal looked to have run out of ideas as they The former Manchester United striker, now but everything was done at such a slow tempo Wenger would have spoken of the need to contribution as he limped off after turning his were frustrated by Cardiff’s blue wall of resist- managing in his native Norway with Molde, that Cardiff were able to pile bodies behind the quicken his side’s passing during the half-time ankle in scoring, but the game was up for ance before substitute Nicklas Bendtner struck would have been impressed with his potential ball. Santi Cazorla and Walcott lost their radars interval, although Cardiff had visibly grown in Cardiff and Arsenal were able to rest easy after in the 88th minute. Theo Walcott sealed the new side in spells at the Emirates Stadium. Few by shooting wide when well-placed and the confidence. Wilshere did finally threaten in the Walcott skipped through to clip home in win in injury time to complete a gritty victory would have given Cardiff a chance, given their midfielders were not the only Arsenal players 65th minute when he struck the outside of the added time. — AFP Chelsea cruise to 3-0 English Premier League table LONDON: English Premier League table after yes- terday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, win at Southampton goals against, points): Arsenal 20 14 3 3 39 18 45 Man City 20 14 2 4 57 23 44 lively and cut inside from the left to beat two Chelsea 20 13 4 3 38 19 43 challenges before firing just over. Liverpool 20 12 3 5 46 23 39 Southampton 0 Southampton had a strong wind behind Everton 20 10 8 2 32 19 38 Tottenham 20 11 4 5 24 25 37 them, however, and that allowed Jay Man Utd 20 10 4 6 33 24 34 Rodriguez to get behind the Chelsea back- Newcastle 20 10 3 7 29 25 33 line, only for Cole to dispossess him at the Southampton 20 7 6 7 26 23 27 Chelsea 3 last moment. Hull 20 6 5 9 22 25 23 Lallana saw another good chance Aston Villa 20 6 5 9 19 25 23 Stoke 20 5 7 8 19 30 22 blocked by a defender, but Chelsea Swansea 20 5 6 9 26 28 21 remained dangerous on the counter-attack West Brom 20 4 9 7 23 27 21 SOUTHAMPTON: Chelsea recorded a third and Davis did well to tip over a fierce drive Norwich 20 5 5 10 17 33 20 straight Premier League victory as second-half from Ramires before Lovren headed away a Fulham 20 6 1 13 21 42 19 goals from Fernando Torres and substitutes Schuerrle effort. Southampton began the Cardiff 20 4 6 10 15 32 18 Willian and Oscar earned a 3-0 New Year’s Day Crystal Palace 20 5 2 13 13 29 17 MANCHESTER: Tottenham Hotspur’s Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen (left) beats Manchester second period strongly, with Fonte, Lovren West Ham 20 3 6 11 19 30 15 win at Southampton. Jose Mourinho’s side and Rodriguez all seeing shots blocked in Sunderland 20 3 5 12 15 33 14 United’s Ecuadorian midfielder Antonio Valencia to head their second goal during the English Premier remain in third place in the table after the the space of a few frantic seconds and the League football match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur yesterday. — AFP game at St Mary’s Stadium, a point behind half was just eight minutes old when Mata Manchester City and two adrift of leaders and Schuerrle were replaced by Brazilian duo Arsenal. Chelsea made six changes from the Oscar and Willian. United lose again at home, to Spurs side that beat Liverpool 2-1 on Sunday, with Within seconds, Eden Hazard had sent United to sixth, two points behind fourth-place keeper David De Gea and Roberto Soldado just Torres replacing Samuel Eto’o as the lone strik- Oscar clear and the Brazilian took the ball Liverpool. Both teams had experienced a turbu- failed to apply a back-post finish from Lennon’s er and Juan Mata and Andre Schuerrle includ- round Davis before going down as the goal- Man United 1 lent first half of the season, and were lying in cross. ed in an attacking midfield three. keeper challenged. Referee Martin Atkinson sixth and seventh place in the standings. United’s frustrations were building. Rooney Southampton, who won this fixture 2-1 was quick to make a decision, and booked However, impressive sets of results over was booked for a blatant tug on Eriksen and last season and were beaten 3-1 at Stamford the Chelsea man for diving. A goal was com- Christmas had left confidence high at both Welbeck also should have been yellow-carded Bridge exactly a month ago, made two ing, however, and Torres was the man who Spurs 2 clubs of bridging the gap on their title rivals. for a dive in the penalty area just before the changes by bringing back Morgan netted it in the 60th minute. Oscar’s cross While Tottenham’s revival under Sherwood hour. Moyes removed Smalling and holding Schneiderlin and Gaston Ramirez. Ramirez was deflected onto the far post off Calum had seen the team pick up seven points out of midfielder Michael Carrick to go all-out attack gave the ball away cheaply early on to give Chambers and the Spain striker headed a possible nine, United was seeking a fourth for the final 30 minutes but United was caught Torres a sight of goal, but Jose Fonte did well home the rebound from close range. MANCHESTER: Tottenham claimed a second straight win over the festive period and was on the counter-attack for Eriksen’s goal. to slide in and deflect the resulting shot Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech had to be straight Premier League win at Old Trafford by further buoyed by the return to the starting Adebayor launched the move and Soldado fed behind. Schuerrle then sent a low drive just alert to get behind a close-range header beating Manchester United 2-1 yesterday to team of Wayne Rooney after a groin strain. Yet Lennon, who burst into the box and sent in a wide from the corner, which saw Dejan from substitute Rickie Lambert, but the visi- drop the champions further out of title con- David Moyes’ side lacked its sharpness of late, cross that deflected up off Nemanja Vidic.