Arsenal extend lead as Man Utd find winning touch

Manchester United rediscovered what winning felt like as Arsenal edged Newcastle 1-0 to move two points clear atop the English Premier League yesterday.

Manchester City came from a goal down to beat Watford 2-1 to stay a point behind Leicester, and West Ham rose to sixth in beating Liverpool 2-0, leaving the latter's coach, Juergen Klopp, furious.

At Old Trafford, there were only smiles for United's first win since November 21, ending a winless run of eight games, their longest in 26 years.

Anthony Martial put United ahead after halftime, and set up Wayne Rooney to flick in the winner with his heel.

The goal made Rooney second on the club's all-time scoring list on 238 — 11 behind Bobby Charlton — and second all-time in the Premier League on 188, behind Alan Shearer's total of 260.

"It was his left foot behind his right foot, you cannot imagine what a goal that is," manager Louis van Gaal said of his captain's strike.

United stayed in fifth place, provisionally two points behind Tottenham, which will be at Everton today.

At Emirates Stadium, Laurent Koscielny scored the decisive goal for Arsenal but goalkeeper Petr Cech was the one celebrated after the victory over Newcastle strengthened their position at the summit of the standings.

Koscielny scored from close range in mid second half after Cech made two outstanding saves to deny Georginio Wijnaldum.

"He is calm and never panics. We needed that," manager Arsene Wenger said of Cech.

Second-place Leicester failed to keep pace with Arsenal after being held to 0-0 at home by 10man Bournemouth.

Riyad Mahrez missed a penalty to frustrate Leicester, which was only a point above City after its comeback at Vicarage Road.

Watford went ahead when Aleksandar Kolarov diverted Ben Watson's corner into his own net in the second half.

But City overturned the deficit with two late goals in as many minutes.

Yaya Toure scored with superb control from Kolarov's corner, then Sergio Aguero's header followed swiftly after to secure City's first away win since September.

"We have to build on this - we hadn't won in six on the road," City goalkeeper Joe Hart. "It's not championship-winning form but we're somehow still in it."

Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll scored to take their tally to two goals each in as many games as West Ham achieved a first league double over Liverpool in 52 years.

Klopp was not impressed by the performance of his side, which dropped to eighth.

"Today is not a day to be disappointed, it is a day to be angry," Klopp said.

Meanwhile Norwich beat Southampton 1-0, West Bromwich Albion overcame Stoke 2-1, and Sunderland beat Aston Villa 3-1. Sessegnon (W) 61, Walters (S) 81, Evans (W) 90 Watford-Man City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Kolarov (W) 55 og, Toure (MC) 82, Aguero (MC) 85 Today Crystal P.-Chelsea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Everton-Tottenham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PW Arsenal 20 13 Leicester 20 11 Man City 20 12 Tottenham 19 9 Man United 20 9 West Ham 20 8 Crystal Palace 19 9 Liverpool 20 8 Watford 20 8 Stoke City 20 8 Everton 19 6 West Brom 20 7 Southampton 20 6 Norwich 20 6 Bournemouth 20 5 Chelsea 19 5 Swansea 20 4 Newcastle U 20 4 Sunderland 20 4 Aston Villa 20 1

Next fixtures

Tuesday 12 January

Aston Villa v Crystal Palace Bournemouth v West Ham Newcastle U v Manchester U

Wednesday 13 January

Chelsea v West Brom Manchester City v Everton Southampton v Watford Stoke City v Norwich City Swansea v Sunderland Liverpool v Arsenal Tottenham v Leicester City

Premier League D L F A Pts 3 4 34 18 42 7 2 37 25 40 3 5 39 21 39 8 2 33 15 35 6 5 24 17 33 8 4 30 23 32 4 6 23 16 31 6 6 22 24 30 5 7 25 22 29 5 7 21 21 29 8 5 35 28 26 5 8 20 25 26 6 8 26 24 24 5 9 23 32 23 6 9 22 34 21 5 9 23 29 20 7 9 17 26 19 511193517 313223915 5 14 16 37 8

Yesterday Dundee-Dundee Utd. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Celtic-Partick Thistle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Inverness CT-Ross County. . . . . . . . . 2-0 Kilmarnock-Hearts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Motherwell-Hamilton . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 Today St.Johnstone-Aberdeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . Celtic Aberdeen Hearts St Johnstone Ross County Inverness Dundee FC Motherwell Partick Hamilton Kilmarnock Dundee Utd PW 20 14 21 13 21 10 20 9 22 9 21 7 21 6 20 7 20 6 21 6 22 5 21 2 D L F A Pts 4 2 48 16 46 4 4 34 20 43 7 4 36 24 37 4 7 35 31 31 310363330 7 7 29 30 28 8 7 31 36 26 4 9 23 28 25 6 8 19 24 24 510283723 611244121 415184110

PW D L F A Pts M’brough 24 16 4 4 36 12 52 Derby 25 13 9 3 37 17 48 Hull City 25 14 5 6 36 18 47 Brighton 25 11 11 3 31 25 44 Burnley 25 11 9 5 34 23 42 Ipswich 25 11 8 6 34 30 41 Sheffield Wed 25 10 9 6 36 28 39 Birmingham 25 11 6 8 30 27 39 Cardiff 25 9 10 6 30 26 37 Brentford 25 10 6 9 37 35 36 Wolves 25 9 7 9 32 32 34 Reading 25 9 610302833 Leeds 25 7 11 7 26 28 32 Nottingham 25 7 10 8 25 24 31 Preston 25 7 10 8 21 22 31 QPR 25 7 9 9 30 33 30 Blackburn 24 6 10 8 22 21 28 Huddersfield 25 7 711303628 Fulham 25 6 910404327 MK Dons 25 6 514213323 Rotherham 25 6 316304421 Bristol City 25 4 912224421 Charlton 25 4 813214220 Bolton 25 2 11 12 19 39 17

Standings

League One

Yesterday Barnsley-Millwall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1 Burton-Blackpool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Chesterfield-Shrewsbury . . . . . . . . . 7-1 Crewe-Coventry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-5 Fleetwood-Bury. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0 Gillingham-Bradford . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0 Oldham-Colchester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Port Vale-Swindon. . . . . . . . . . . . . postp Scunthorpe-Wigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1 Sheffield Utd-Peterborough . . . . . . . 2-3 Southend-Doncaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-3 Walsall-Rochdale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-3

League Two Yesterday Bristol Rovers-Luton . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0 Cambridge-Wimbledon . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Carlisle-Plymouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Exeter-Dag & Red . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Mansfield-Accrington . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3 Newport-Hartlepool . . . . . . . . . . . postp Northampton-Barnet . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0 Notts County-Oxford Utd . . . . . . . . . 2-4 Portsmouth-Crawley . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0 Stevenage-Leyton Orient . . . . . . . . . 2-2 Wycombe-Morecambe . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Yeovil-York . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0

Standings

SCOTLAND

Yesterday Dumbarton-Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-6 Hibernian-Raith Rovers. . . . . . . . . . . 1-0 Livingston-Queen of Sth . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 Morton-St Mirren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 Alloa-Falkirk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1

League 1 Yesterday Albion-Airdrieonians . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 Brechin-Forfar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . postp Dunfermline-Cowdenbeath . . . . . . . 2-1 Peterhead-Stenhousemuir . . . . . . . . 4-1 Stranraer-Ayr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-0

League 2 Yesterday Berwick-Annan Athletic . . . . . . . . postp Clyde-Queen’s Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-1 East Fife-Elgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2 East Stirling-Stirling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Montrose-Arbroath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-2