Michael Essien scored twice on Saturday as Chelsea romped to a 4-0 win over Wolves to lead the Premier League by five points, while Arsenal tumbled 1-0 at Sunderland.
Liverpool and Manchester City fell further out of contention after a 2-2 draw.
Goals by Florent Malouda and Essien put injury-hit Chelsea 3-0 up against Wolverhampton Wanderers inside the first 22 minutes, before Joe Cole scored his first goal in 13 months in the second half.
The result meant that Chelsea have won all seven of their home games and haven’t conceded a goal at Stamford Bridge since the opening match of the season against Hull City.
Darren Bent scored a 71st-minute winner for Sunderland in a surprise victory over Arsenal, who had won six of their previous seven league games, but were left on 25 points from 12 games.
While Liverpool and Manchester City shared a point each at Anfield, the result did not help either team’s chances of catching Chelsea in the title race.
Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, who had a header acrobatically saved by goalkeeper Shay Given in the first half, turned home a free-kick by Steven Gerrard in the 50th minute for his first goal for the club.
Beaten to the ball by Skrtel for the Liverpool goal, Adebayor was left unmarked by the Slovakia defender and was allowed a free header from a 69th-minute corner to score the equalizer.
Stephen Ireland was also left unmarked to prod home Shaun Wright-Phillips’ pass and put City ahead in the 76th minute, but Yossi Benayoun made it 2-2 seconds later from close range after good work by David Ngog.
Aston Villa came from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Burnley where they have not won in 24 visits dating back to 1936.
Steven Caldwell gave Burnley a ninth-minute lead at Turf Moor, only for Emile Heskey to equalize in the 86th minute.
Lee Bowyer scored Birmingham City’s 16th-minute winner in a 1-0 victory over Fulham at St Andrews and there was a six-goal thriller between Hull City and West Ham United.
Visitors West Ham went two goals up in the first 11 minutes through Guillermo Franco and Jack Collison, only for Hull to hit back three times to lead at halftime. Jimmy Bullard’s free-kick was deflected in, Kamil Zayatte made it 2-2 and Bullard scored his first goal for Hull from the penalty spot after Julien Faubert had fouled Craig Fagan.
Hull’s Brendan Mendy was sent off in the 54th minute and Manuel Da Costa scored the Irons’ equalizer in the 69th minute.
Taiwan last night defeated Cuba 2-0 in their World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 Group B game at the Taipei Dome and finished the group second. At the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium, South Korea yesterday defeated Australia 5-2, while Japan last night won 11-3 against the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome to advance to the Super Round. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champions and Group B winners Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the
OFFENSE SHINES: First baseman Pan Chie-kai hit a solo homer in the fifth inning as all 10 batters Taiwan used contributed at least one hit toward their team total of 14 One day after their first shutout loss at the WBSC Premier12, Taiwan yesterday bounced back with a commanding 8-2 victory over the US, keeping their hopes for a spot in tomorrow’s final alive. The win in the Super Round marked Taiwan’s first triumph over the US at a top-tier international baseball tournament since 2003. Their previous win over the US was at the 2003 Baseball World Cup, with only one win in the previous 10 matchups since 1999. Yesterday’s game was tightly contested through the first six innings, with the margin never exceeding two runs. However, the tide turned in the top of
Taiwan scored two three-run homers in an 11-3 blowout win over Australia at the Taipei Dome last night to advance to the Super Round of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 tournament. Fresh off a defeat at the hands of defending Premier12 champion and Group B winner Japan the previous day, Taiwan’s offense came out slugging against Australia from the off. After taking a walk to first base, Taiwan’s Chen Chieh- hsien (陳傑憲) then stole second before Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) drew a walk to first in the top of the first inning. Chen then
TWO-NIL LOSS: Taiwan’s best chance to score came at the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Venezuela’s Liarvis Breto got out of the jam Taiwan yesterday suffered a shutout 2-0 loss to Venezuela in the opening game of the WBSC Premier12 Super Round at the Tokyo Dome. Taiwan had seven hits, one more than Venezuela’s six, but catcher Carlos Perez’s two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning delivered the only runs scored by both teams and secured victory for Venezuela. Taiwan’s best chance came at the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and only one out. However, Venezuela reliever Liarvis Breto struck out Chen Chen-wei before reliever Pedro Garcia finished the inning by allowing an infield flyball by Lin
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