Revived under Moyes, West Ham keeps on winning
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND » West Ham has an unusual situation on its hands. It can’t stop winning.
Top of its Europa League group with three wins in three games, West Ham won its third straight Premier League game on Sunday, beating Aston Villa 4-1 to move level on points with third-place Manchester City.
The victory at Villa Park came only four days after the Hammers ended City’s four-year reign as English League Cup titleholder, knocking Pep Guardiola’s team out to reach the quarterfinals.
West Ham is level on 20 points with third-place Manchester City in the Premier League but it won’t be relaxing any time soon.
“It’s been a great week. But you know what happens in football, it can quickly turn around and bite you,” West Ham manager David Moyes said. “But I think we’ve got to the stage where we’re really confident in a lot of the things we do. The players are understanding their roles and what’s expected of them.
“We can’t let up, though, I’ve told them that if we think we’re doing great and it’s all easy it’ll fail, so we’ve got to keep at it.”
West Ham has experienced a revival under Moyes, finishing sixth last season, but hasn’t secured a major trophy since winning the 1980 FA Cup. NORWICH’S NIGHTMARE » Norwich’s nightmare return to the Premier League continued as it came off worst from a frenetic fourminute spell against Leeds.
Raphinha and Rodrigo grabbed second-half goals to earn Leeds a 2-1 win at Carrow Road as Marcelo Bielsa’s team picked up a second top-flight victory of the season.
Raphinha opened the scoring in the 56th before Andrew Omobamidele leveled in the 58th. Just two minutes later, the Canaries succumbed to Rodrigo’s long-range effort that slipped through Tim Krul’s grasp as Norwich’s winless run in the Premier League extended to 20 matches, 10 of them this season.
Norwich, which lost 7-0 at Chelsea in its previous league game, is bottom with only two points. Leeds has 10 points from 10 games.
Motor sports TORRENCE RACES TO 50TH TUP FUEL WIN »
Steve Torrence raced to his 10th Top Fuel victory of the season and 50th overall at the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals to move closer to his fourth straight championship. Torrence beat Mike Silinas in the final with a 3.717-second run at 329.50 mph at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He opened a 105-point lead with one race left at Pomona, California, in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
Golf
HERBERT WINS IN BERMUDA » Lucas Herbert had two birdies during the toughest, wind-blown stretch of Port Royal and held steady to the end for a 2-under 69 to win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Herbert closed with four pars to hold off Danny Lee (71) and Patrick Reed, who finished with four birdies over his last six holes for a 65 and then waited to see if it would be enough.
Herbert, the 25-yearold Australian who won the Irish Open earlier this year, stayed in front by closing with two good par saves and missing a pair of 7-foot birdie attempts he didn’t need.
His first PGA Tour victory, and third worldwide, sends him to the Masters for the first time.
College football
MICHIGAN STATE CLIMBS TO NO. 5 » Michigan State moved up to No. 5 in The Associated Press college football poll and Wake Forest became a top-10 team for the first time in school history.
Georgia is a unanimous No. 1 for the fourth straight week in the AP Top 25. The rest of the top four was unchanged from last week, with Cincinnati at No. 2, Alabama at No. 3 and Oklahoma at No. 4.
Star running back Kenneth Walker and the Spartans jumped three spots by beating Michigan in the weekend’s biggest game. The last time Michigan State broke into the top five was 2015 when the Spartans made the College Football Playoff.
PATTERSON, TCU PART WAYS » TCU and football coach Gary Patterson mutually agreed to immediately part ways before the completion of his 21st season.
The announcement came a day after the Horned Frogs (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) lost 31-12 at Kansas State, Patterson’s alma mater. It was their fifth loss in six games, and they are 21-22 overall since the start of 2018.
Patterson leaves TCU with a 181-79 record, including an undefeated 13-0 season in 2010 that was capped by a Rose Bowl victory. He was the second-longest tenured FBS coach, trailing only Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who is in his 23rd season.