Manchester City’s stuttering form continued against in their 3-3 with Sunderland on Saturday, allowing Manchester United the opportunity to open up a five-point gap at the top of the league if they beat Blackburn this evening.
Sebastian Larsson scored either side of half-time for Sunderland to help his side to a 3-1 lead but City rescued a point with two goals in the final five minutes of the match.
Arsenal’s excellent run came to an end at QPR. Theo Walcott cancelled out Adel Taarabt opening goal before half time but Samba Diakite won it for Rangers midway through the second half to leave them only in the relegation zone behind Blackburn on goals scored.
Wigan were impressive in their 2-0 win at home to Stoke, and the only side in the bottom four not to win on Saturday was Wolves who lost their relegation six-pointer against Bolton 3-2 at Molineux.
Martin Petrov scored from the penalty spot to reveal a t-shirt in support of countryman and friend, Aston Villa captain Stilyan Petrov who was announced to be suffering from acute leukaemia. Petrov’s team lost 4-2 at home to Chelsea, with Fernando Torres scoring his first league goal in six months in the final seconds.
On Sunday, Liverpool’s dreadful league form continued as they went down 2-0 away at Newcastle thanks to a goal in each half from Papiss Demba Cisse. An exaggerated reaction from James Perch saw Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina shown a red card in the final minutes for an apparent headbutt.
Tottenham beat Swansea 3-1 at White Hart Lane to stop the rot and win their first league game in seven weeks. Rafael can der Vaart opened the scoring in the first half and Emmanuel Adebayor added two more in the final twenty minutes.
Andy Murray lost in the final of the Miami Masters, going down 6-1q 7-6 (7-4) to world number one Novak Djokovic in a repeat of the 2009 final. Djokovic bossed the match from beginning to end and deserved the win, not even allowing Murray a single break point chance all match.
Harlequins beat Saracens 24-19 in what was billed as the biggest game of the Aviva Premiership season so far. Jordan Turner-Hall, George Lowe and Danny Care all scored for Harlequins and the league leaders resisted a late charge from their opponents.
Third, fourth and fifth-placed Leicester, Northampton and Exeter all won to move ahead of Gloucester who lost at Wasps.
Huddersfield beat Leeds 22-12 to return to the top of the Super League ahead of Hull who have a game in hand. On Friday evening Warrington slipped up at home to St. Helens, losing 28-16, while Wigan beat Salford 40-20. Catalan Dragons thrashed bottom side Widnes 76-6 to keep pace in fifth.
Interim England head coach Stuart Lancaster was given the job on a permanent basis after guiding the national team through what was a successful Six Nations campaign in which England finished second with four wins from five matches.
