Newcastle United on Saturday inflicted a sixth English Premier League defeat of the season on Manchester United as Arsenal beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 to extend their lead at the top to four points.
Anthony Gordon scored the only goal at St James’ Park to lift Newcastle up to fifth in the table and within two points of the top four.
By contrast, Manchester slipped to seventh and have yet to beat any side in the top nine of the Premier League this season.
Photo: Reuters
Newcastle deserved to win by a bigger margin despite missing 11 first-team players due to injury or suspension and losing goalkeeper Nick Pope late on to a shoulder problem.
Kieran Trippier’s free-kick came back off the underside of the bar and Alexander Isak’s effort was deflected inches wide before the break.
Gordon finally made the breakthrough 10 minutes into the second period when he was picked out by Trippier to convert at the back post.
“I couldn’t be happier with the players tonight,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said after his under-strength side took seven points from three games in a week against Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester.
“The performances we put in against three top teams were brilliant so that will give confidence, and when we get some players back we can push on even further,” Howe said.
Arsenal were made to survive a late scare despite getting off to a flying start at the Emirates.
Goals from Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard put the Gunners 2-0 up inside 13 minutes.
Yet they failed to put the game to bed and were made to sweat when Wolves forward Matheus Cunha found the top corner in the 86th minute to set up a tense finale.
Despite the wobble, Arsenal, last year’s runners-up, held on to notch their 10th win in 14 league games, which moves them four points clear of champions Manchester City, who host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
“I can only praise the players,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “They were excellent. We played against a really good side and generated so much and conceded almost nothing. The scoreline should have been very different. We were very unlucky because we hit the post three times I think.”
“At the end we made an error close to the goal — in the Premier League you get punished big time for that. Then it’s game on. Overall I’m really happy with how we performed again,” he said.
At the other end of the table, Burnley got their first home win of the season in style with a 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United.
Luton Town, just outside the drop zone, sank to a 3-1 defeat at Brentford & Hove Albion, while Everton boosted their survival hopes, despite being hit by a swingeing 10-point deduction, with a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS